A Legal Assistant is typically a law student or person with substantial paralegal experience who provides basic legal research, drafting, or case management support to the Lawyers and Senior Counsel in a practice group.

A Legal Assistant is supervised by the Senior Counsel of his practice group, who also performs the formal evaluation of the Legal Assistant’s performance.  When a Legal Assistant is assigned to perform significant amounts of work for more than one practice group, each Senior Counsel provides input to the Senior Counsel who is formally designated to do the performance review.

This may be a full-time or part-time position.

Principal responsibilities

•               Provide paralegal and technical support to Lawyers, other fee earners, and the Senior Counsel of practice group or practice groups to which the Legal Assistant is assigned.

•               Conduct legal research as assigned by one’s Senior Counsel.

•               Draft basic correspondence, pleadings, memoranda of law, and opinions, under the supervision of Lawyer or a Senior Counsel.

•               Support Lawyers and one’s Senior Counsel by attending and assisting at hearings

•               Supervise support staff as necessary to perform one’s professional duties.

•               Comply with the firm’s internal administrative and financial management procedures.

•               Perform other professional and administrative functions as may be assigned by the Senior Counsel, Managing Partner, or Senior Partner.

Required education and experience

A fully-qualified occupant of this position possesses these educational and experience credentials:

•               Successful completion of at least one year of the study of law at an accredited law school or university legal studies program; or

•               At least three years successful experience in a law firm, corporate law department, or government legal agency, performing tasks and functions similar to those required in this position.

Required skills and competencies

To perform the responsibilities of this position at a satisfactory level, a Legal Assistant must demonstrate mastery of these business skills and competencies on a regular, frequent basis:

•               A demonstrated understanding of and unreserved commitment to the firm’s expectations for personal integrity, professional ethics, commitment to excellence, diligence, and dedication to the clients

•               Sufficient proficiency with Word™ and other Microsoft Office™ applications to produce documents, create and operate simple spreadsheets, and create simple Powerpoint™ slide shows, based on draft content

•               A demonstrated knowledge of the basic techniques and tools of legal research

•               A demonstrated ability to synthesize the results of legal research into clear, understandable written notes and memoranda

•               Proficiency in English sufficient to engage in conversations with English speaking clients and to read and comprehend basic documents and references in English

Time management and work management skills sufficient to allow one to meet reasonable deadlines for the completion of assigned tasks