Job Details

Legal Secretary

Performs a variety of secretarial duties for attorney(s) to whom assigned according to established policies and procedures. Maintains positive contact with clients, attorneys and staff and observes confidentiality of client matters.

Key Responsibilities:

• Operates standard office equipment and technology necessary to perform duties of assigned desk (laptop, phone, Microsoft Suite, etc.)
• Prepares correspondence, memoranda and other legal documents from written and oral drafts; drafts standard correspondence, and other documents.
• Screens telephone calls and records messages.
• Reads, sorts and dates incoming mail. Ensures that outgoing mail is timely delivered. If necessary, routes mail to specific delivery service and follows up on timely delivery.
• Establishes and maintains calendar and deadline reminder systems; utilizes master calendar system.
• Opens new files, requests conflict of interest checks with file room records, and maintains all client and general files. Conducts periodic review for possible storage of older files; prepares files to be closed.
• Receives clients and visitors; maintains good public relations with clients; observes confidentiality of attorney-client relationship.
• Makes appointments for attorney(s).
• Processes bills; proofs billing sheets; reviews and edits bills.
• Works closely with administrative support staff; proofs documents returned from word processing; ensures that attorney time sheets are provided to appropriate person in a timely manner.
• Performs legal assistant duties as requested.
• Performs overload typing, filing, photocopying, or reception relief as time permits and as request.
• Other duties as assigned.

The employee must be able to perform all essential job duties and responsibilities of this position satisfactorily and as outlined, with or without reasonable accommodations. Reasonable accommodation requests may be accommodated, absent undue firm hardship.

Qualifications:

• Ability to read and write in order to proof and perform minor editing (e.g., punctuation, grammar, spelling) of routine law office correspondence and legal case matters.
• Perform non-complex arithmetic calculations when verifying calculations on forms and documents; maintain records and filing systems at a level normally acquired through completion of high school or equivalent.
• Approximately one to two years on the job experience necessary in order to gain an understanding of law office policies and procedures and produce accurate legal documents with minimal supervision.
• Ability to transcribe legal documents, correspondence and reports from rough draft or dictation.
• Ability to organize and prioritize numerous tasks and complete them under time constraints.
• Ability to proofread typed material for grammatical, typographical or spelling errors.
• Interpersonal skills necessary in order to communicate and follow instructions effectively from a diverse group of clients, attorneys and staff to provide information with ordinary courtesy and tact.
• Interpersonal skills necessary in order to communicate in person, by e-mail and telephone to provide information with ordinary courtesy and tact.
• Work occasionally requires a high level of mental effort while producing a high volume of information performing other essential duties.
• Work occasionally requires more than 40 hours per week to perform the essential duties of the position; may require irregular hours.

Working Conditions:

• Normal law office environment with little exposure to excessive noise, dust, temperature and the like.
• On-site presence required.

Equal Employment and Opportunity Statement:

Barnes & Thornburg is committed to equal employment opportunity in both principle and as a matter of policy. We will recruit, hire, train, promote, compensate and provide benefits to all applicants and employees without regard to ancestry, sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, gender, age, religion, religious creed, mental and/or physical disability, medical condition, military and/or veteran's status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state and local laws. This policy applies to all recruiting, hiring, promotions, upgrades, layoffs, compensation, benefits, terminations and all other privileges, terms and conditions of employment. The firm complies fully with all federal, state and local equal employment opportunity laws.