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Job Description
The Senior Paralegal supports Zoot’s Legal Department through factual and legal research, document analysis, drafting transactional documents, coordinating document production, conducting or assisting in investigations, handling other substantive legal tasks with minimal supervision by an attorney, and communicating with third parties including outside counsel and clients. Additionally, the Senior Paralegal takes ownership of the legal operations function with duties such as administering technology, managing projects, drafting communications, reporting financial data, and tracking training efforts. The Senior Paralegal undertakes learning legal and operational processes, understanding departmental workflows, and supporting senior team members in day-to-day activities. This position is characterized by a learning mindset and taking initiative through project management, communication, and teamwork while building a solid understanding of the organization’s legal and operational landscape.
| Essential Job Functions |
- Attorney Assistance. Assist attorneys in complex legal matters involving legal and factual research, document acquisition, organization, review, analysis, and summary.
- Legal Research and Analysis. Research, learn, interpret, and provide clear and concise written and/or verbal explanations, guidance, and assistance regarding all applicable laws/issues relevant to Zoot’s businesses, including, without limitation, the following: contracts, corporate, tax, information privacy, information security, insurance, intellectual property, and litigation.
- Legal Review and Drafting. Review, draft, and proof legal documents and correspondence, and effectively negotiate a large variety of contracts, licenses, etc.
- Change Management and Communication. Develop, improve, and/or maintain a systematic process to enable the organization to embrace targeted change in the way work is done.
- Contract Management. Develop, improve, and/or maintain the process of managing contract creation, execution, storage, and compliance with contractual obligations.
- eDiscovery. Develop, improve, and/or maintain the process of identifying, collecting and producing electronically stored information in response to a request for production in a lawsuit or investigation.
- External Resources Management. Develop, improve, and/or maintain oversight of vendors and law firms from selection through performance management and payments.
- Financial Management. Develop, improve, and/or maintain the discipline to allocate financial resources, forecast revenues/expenses and create/maintain budgets to ensure compliance with accounting and cash flow requirements.
- Information Governance (Records Management). Develop, improve, and/or maintain the system to manage electronic and physical documents enterprise wide to support an organization’s compliance and operational requirements.
- Innovation Management. Develop, improve, and/or maintain the program and process to collect, analyze, select, pilot and implement innovative systems and processes within the legal department.
- Intellectual Property Management. Develop, improve, and/or maintain operations to optimize the return on investment in the tangible assets of an organization, such as patents and trademarks.
- Internal Resources Management. Develop, improve, and/or maintain the activities to advance the human resources in the legal department, including recruiting, onboarding, training, work allocation, performance management, talent development and employee communications.
- Knowledge Management. Develop, improve, and/or maintain the process of capturing, distributing, and effectively using both structured and tacit knowledge assets, from work products (such as legal memos) to understanding of an issue due to prior experience.
- Metrics & Analytics. Develop, improve, and maintain the system to collect, organize and use data to inform decision making and performance management.
- Project & Process Management. Develop, improve, and/or maintain the disciplines utilized to plan, coordinate and oversee multifaceted initiatives and matters, as well as to continuously improve process efficiency.
- Strategic Planning & Legal Operations Leadership. Work collaboratively with Managing Counsel to create, refine, and implement legal operations that align with enterprise objectives, prioritize initiatives, allocate resources and define metrics to assess progress.
- Technology Management. Develop, improve, and/or maintain the set of activities to optimize utilization of technology, including planning, selection, procurement and/or development, training and promotion of adoption.
- Mission Statement. Strive to achieve all aspects of the Zoot Legal Department Mission Statement, attached as Exhibit A hereto, and be positive forcing function for other members of the Zoot Legal Department to better enable the entire Zoot Legal Department to successfully achieve all aspects of the Zoot Legal Department Mission Statement.
- Compliance. Know and comply with Zoot’s Policies and Procedures, Code of Business Conduct, and Employee Agreement.
- Other duties as assigned. It is understood that this list of major duties and responsibilities is not an all-inclusive list and that other duties and responsibilities, which may include helping others in the same or different departments, may be assigned by supervision.
| Core Competencies Required |
Job Specific:
- Law Department Acumen. Understands the basics of how a legal department is organized, and the specifics of legal practice, its primary functions, operational needs, and the role legal operations plays within the department.
- Business Acumen. Grasps fundamental business principles and understands how their role contributes to objectives. Understands the basics of other departments (Finance, HR, IT, etc.).
- Leadership. Effectively manages personal tasks and demonstrates potential to influence peers.
- Relationship Building. Establishes positive working relationships and demonstrates effective communication.
- Strategic Thinking. Understands organizational goals and priorities, contributing ideas that align with objectives.
- Innovation, Creativity & Problem-Solving. Identifies and suggests improvements to existing processes and resolves routine problems. Engages in industry organizations and networking.
- Communication. Conveys information clearly and effectively.
- Emotional Intelligence. Demonstrates self-awareness and empathy, managing personal emotions effectively.
- Collaboration. Participates actively in team activities, contributing ideas and supporting team goals
- Stakeholder Engagement. Identifies key stakeholders and communicates effectively to meet their basic needs.
- Risk Awareness. Recognizes and identifies potential risks within tasks or projects.
- Management of Confidential Information. Collecting, recording, organizing and sorting through sensitive information and data, ensuring only the appropriate individuals receive access to the information.
Companywide:
- Accountability - Takes responsibility for tasks and projects as assigned; holds self and others accountable for high quality, timely, and cost-effective results; accepts responsibility for mistakes.
- Action Oriented, Initiative – Works hard every day, self-motivated; energized by both tasks expected of the role and new or challenging projects; willing to act even with minimal planning, however, doesn't act carelessly and takes responsibility for actions, whether end result is positive or negative; moves on to the next task or project without being asked or seeks out additional ways to help.
- Communication (General) – Effective with the form(s) of communication that are applicable to a given role (oral, presentation, written); able to be detailed enough to show that the right work was done, yet succinct enough to effectively communicate data, opinions, or findings.
- Critical Thinking - Uses logical, strategic, analytical, reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a given situation and possible solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems; able to think outside the box to generate possible solutions.
- Customer Focused, Service Oriented - Actively works to meet the expectations, requirements, or needs of internal and external customers; understands who their customer is; acts with customers in mind; establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers and gains their trust and respect.
- Development Focused - Knows or is able to recognize personal strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and limits; learns from mistakes; receptive to sharing one's own shortcomings with others; is comfortable with balanced performance reviews (both positives and areas to improve) and honest professional development and career discussions.
- Driving for Results, Solutions Focused - Motivated by success and passionate about working and achieving results that align with the plan; finds ways to complete tasks or projects, even in the face of adversity, and remains optimistic and driven to the end; looks for ways to improve performance all the time.
- Integrity and Trust – Widely trusted across the organization; seen as a direct, truthful individual; maintains confidentiality as required; admits mistakes; doesn't misrepresent themselves or the facts for personal gain.
- Listening - Practices attentive and active listening; has the patience and ability to hear people out; able to accurately restate the opinions of others to validate understanding, even if there is disagreement.
- Mentoring - Able to effectively share knowledge and insight with others so that they can accomplish tasks, achieve goals, and enhance skills.
- Organization and Time Management - Able to manage multiple projects or tasks and adapt to changing priorities; effective and efficient with own time; able to bring resources (e.g. people, materials, processes, budget) together to get things done and uses them effectively; shows up on time and respects the time of others.
- Problem Solving – Willing to solve difficult problems with effective solutions; examines all angles and sources before developing a solution; looks beyond easy solutions and doesn't stop at the first answer; able to uncover or anticipate hidden problems; provides honest analysis, even if the answer isn't what people want to hear.
- Professionalism - Easy to approach and talk to; able to put others at ease, either naturally or due to self-awareness to adjust; warm, pleasant, and gracious; sensitive to and patient with the personalities of others; builds rapport by making people feel comfortable; works well with others; is seen as a team player and is cooperative; easily gains trust and support of peers; encourages collaboration; able to be candid with peers; solves problems in a way that minimizes negative impacts to others.
- Technical Aptitude - Has the functional and technical knowledge and skills to perform a job's duties at a high level of accomplishment.
- Working with Existing Tools - Able to leverage current tools, services, process, and procedures to accomplish tasks; seeks additional understanding of existing processes and procedures; finds ways to improve upon existing options before proposing or exploring new options.
- Time management – Able to work in a fast paced and every changing environment, requiring flexibility, self-initiative, and regular management of changing priorities.
| Education, Training, and Experience Requirements |
This position requires:
☒ High School Diploma
☒ Bachelor Degree Bachelor’s degree in paralegal or related field preferred
☒ Experience 6+ years of legal experience
Or, an equal combination of education and experience.
| Physical Requirements |
- All positions at Zoot require the ability to move about inside an office environment which includes the operation of computers and other office productivity machinery and frequently communicates with other employees, clients, vendors, and visitors.
- This position specifically requires long periods of sitting at a computer workstation.
| Working Conditions |
- In order to optimize team performance, the work space for this position is typically a cubicle setting in an open space environment.
| Work Hours and Location |
- It is expected that exempt employees and specifically this position, regularly and consistently report to work on-site, at Zoot headquarters during normal business hours.
- This position may require travel 5-10% of the time.
