Construction and Design Practice Assistant (Legal Assistant/Secretary)

About the role

The Construction and Design Practice Assistant position at Stoel Rives LLP's Seattle office provides legal and administrative support to attorneys in the Litigation and/or Real Estate/Construction and Design practice groups. This position reports to the Practice Assistant Supervisor or Office Administrator.

Responsibilities

• Prepare template/shell pleadings, contracts, and other legal documents; coordinate document production; revise, finalize, file and serve pleadings; and coordinate preparation of attorney and court working notebooks.
• Keyboard correspondence and simple to complex legal documents and forms from transcription, handwritten drafts, or notes; apply track changes, formatting, and styles; proofread, format, edit, label and redact documents; transcribe voice mail messages and attorney dictation; and compare documents using document comparison software and produce redline comparison.
• Enter, proofread, and close timekeepers’ time entries in billing software; review, proofread, distribute, and track proformas and client invoices; manage complex proformas, incorporate edits, and mail out client invoices as needed; research and resolve billing problems and questions from clients and accounting as needed; and process expense reports and invoice disbursement requests.
• Communicate with clients and outside counsel via phone and email; work with clients to obtain signatures on legal documents; coordinate client travel for in-person meetings and hearings; and coordinate client holiday cards and gifts.
• Work with and provide coverage for practice assistant team during times of need, such as heavy workload and unplanned or planned absences; delegate and coordinate projects with support departments; assist coworkers and timekeepers with questions related to technology or firm procedure; and participate in team meetings.
• Scan, copy, fax, print, and organize documents; request and review conflicts reports; open new client/matters using firm’s electronic records system; maintain electronic and physical files; retrieve documents from document management system and hard copy files; prepare and maintain notebooks; and transmit voluminous electronic documents via secure file sharing website.
• Maintain timekeepers’ calendars and monitor docketing deadlines; review documents and correspondence for important deadlines and information; maintain Outlook and Interaction contacts and working lists; prepare PowerPoint presentations; distribute internal and external mail electronically and/or by hard copy; schedule meetings and coordinate reservations for conference rooms and lunches; CLE credit reporting; prepare and submit appropriate request form for business development or professional development expense approval; answer phone calls and relay phone messages; arrange travel; update and maintain practice group page on the firm’s intranet; and comply with firm policies, including confidentiality, insider trading issues, etc.
• Perform other administrative support duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• High school diploma or GED equivalent required.
• At least 3 years of experience providing legal administrative support, preferably in the area of litigation and/or construction and design law.
• Certificate or college degree in administrative assistant, legal assistant/secretary, or paralegal program, or related field in lieu of one year of work experience.
• Familiarity with local state and federal court procedures and electronic court filing preferred.
• Basic understanding of accounting preferred.