Legal Management Assistant III Confidential Clerical- County Counsel

THE POSITION:
Under general supervision of assigned attorney or manager, the Legal Management Assistant III-Confidential Clerical provides specialized administrative, complex clerical and advanced technical support to assigned attorney staff within the Office of the County Counsel and performs related duties as required.

The ideal candidate for the Legal Management Assistant III Confidential Clerical position will be able to demonstrate the following:

• performance of full range of executive legal secretarial and administrative support to assigned attorney or management staff
• extensive knowledge of civil litigation practices and procedures 

• Prepares a variety of legal documents (e.g., summons and complaints, motions, briefs, discovery documents, administrative records), opinion memoranda, staff reports and other legal documents and forms, all of which require application of legal procedures and formatting as well as an understanding of the function of the client department; documents may be prepared from verbal instruction, handwritten or typed drafts, or voice-recorded material/instructions; consults with originator and independently determines format, distribution and preparation priority.
• Proofreads and corrects written work for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and conformance to established legal and/or administrative procedures or other guidelines; develops forms and standardized correspondence language for use in document preparation.
• Assists attorney staff in performing legal research which includes citation search and verification for accuracy, shepardizing citations and related activities which require the application of routine and/or complex legal research methods.
• Processes legal documents, records and reports through the County Counsel's Office as well as through County departments, the courts and/or private counsel and other agencies based on established legal and office procedure or special instruction in case files; ensures the service of legal process; requests, receives, and files information on prior legal actions and professional reports related to current cases as well as documents resulting from or in support/defense of legal action.
• Gives the public, County employees and others general procedural and/or case information which requires distinguishing between and consideration of sensitive or confidential versus public information.
• Coordinates the preparation and then maintains files and record keeping systems; sorts and stores information based on alpha, numeric, content or other classification methods; searches for and retrieves information stored in manual and/or automated systems; purges files in accordance with established procedure.
• Routinely interacts and effectively communicates in a professional manner with department/agency heads, Board of Supervisors, Grand Jury and other high profile individuals.
• Schedules meetings, appointments, depositions, hearings and calendar for assigned attorneys.
• Enters and maintains case information in PerfectLaw case management software program.
• Performs related duties as assigned.

These are entrance requirements to the examination process and assure neither continuance in the process nor placement on an eligible list.

 
EDUCATION, TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE: 
Any combination of education and experience which has led to the acquisition of the required knowledge, skills, and abilities. Examples include the following:

Legal Management Assistant III - Confidential Clerical: Four (4) years of legal clerical experience OR six (6) years of general office clerical/secretarial experience, including at least three (3) years of legal clerical experience.


KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, & ABILITIES:

Thorough knowledge of: General and law office practices and procedures; legal terminology; clerical work methods and techniques; legal and general record keeping systems and file maintenance methods; available office resource reference materials; specialized typing formats and legal documents used in area of assignment; grammar, spelling and punctuation; office equipment operation including computer, fax machine and copiers; advanced knowledge of word processing software; forms/formatting techniques; standard correspondence composition practices; routine and complex legal research methods.

Thorough ability to: understand, interpret and apply laws, court rules, regulations, policies and procedures governing clerical processing operations; prepare final documents from handwritten, typed and voice-recorded draft; format specialized documents; determine proper wording and phrases from garbled, recorded or illegible written draft copy; research regulations, citations, case status, procedures and information from technical resource materials; perform legal research; prepare for attorney staff certain legal documents in specialized areas with little or no instruction; prepare routine procedural documents which outline work methods; perform clerical activities in support of legal processes and/or services; evaluate unusual circumstances and resolve through the application of standard and legal operating procedures; create pleading clips on litigation cases and organize complex voluminous discovery materials; independently organize and prioritize work assignments; effectively work under pressure, often having to meet short time deadlines; create and maintain accurate, well organized case files; establish and maintain knowledge and ability to effectively use word processing software, including advanced features and legal processes, with the ability to train and assist assigned attorneys as well as to troubleshoot routine problems with the computers and software used by the office; appropriately handle highly confidential and sensitive information and materials, communicate effectively with co-workers, clients, high-level officials, and the general public; work with others in case/document processing activity or legal support services; use Internet for legal resources and/or to obtain work-related information to assist in performance of duties; use PerfectLaw case management, time and billing, and court form software, ability and motivation to understand legal issues involved in a litigation case in order to better assist assigned attorney(s); take own initiative in learning new assignments, enhancing computer skills, expanding and updating knowledge of court rules and formatting, purging files, etc. 

FINAL FILING DATE: Applications must be received by County of Ventura Human Resources in Ventura, California, no later than 5:00 PM. on Monday, November 25, 2024.

To apply on-line, please refer to our web site at www.ventura.org/jobs. If you prefer to submit a paper application, please call (805) 654-5129 for application materials and submit them to County of Ventura, Human Resources Division, 800 S. Victoria Ave., Loc. # 1970, Ventura, CA 93009.
 
Note: Applicants must provide sufficient information under the Education/Work experience portion of the application and supplemental questionnaire in order to determine eligibility.  A resume may be attached to supplement your responses in the above-referenced sections; however, it may not be submitted in lieu of the application.
 
SUPPLEMENTAL QUESTIONNAIRE – qualifying:  All applicants are required to complete and submit the questionnaire for this examination at the time of fling.  The supplemental questionnaire may be used throughout the examination process to assist in determining each applicant's qualifications and acceptability for the position. Failure to complete and submit the questionnaire will result in the application being removed from consideration.
 
APPLICATION EVALUATION – qualifying:  All applications will be reviewed to determine whether or not the stated requirements are met. Those individuals meeting the stated requirements will be invited to continue to the next step in the screening and selection process.

WRITTEN EXAMINATION – 100%: A job related written examination will be administered to test candidates' knowledge of grammar/punctuation, spelling, legal knowledge/terminology and legal citations. Candidates must earn a score of seventy percent (70) or higher to qualify for placement on the eligible list.

Candidates successfully completing the examination process may be placed on an eligible list for a period of one (1) year.

The eligible list established from this recruitment may be used to fill existing and future regular, temporary, fixed-term, intermittent, and extra help vacancies. There is currently one (1) regular vacancy. 
 
BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION: A thorough pre-employment, post offer background investigation which may include inquiry into past employment, education, criminal background information, and driving record may be required for this position.

For further information about this recruitment, please contact Lorin Calderon by email at lorin.calderon@ventura.org or by telephone at (805) 654-2959.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
The County of Ventura is an equal opportunity employer to all, regardless of age, ancestry, color, disability (mental and physical), exercising the right to family care and medical leave, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, military or veteran status, national origin, political affiliation, race, religious creed, sex (includes pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and related medical conditions), and sexual orientation.