Profession legal administrative assistant

Legal secretaries perform secretarial and administrative duties in law offices, legal departments of large firms, real estate companies, public courts and government. Prepare legal papers and correspondence, such as summonses, complaints, motions and subpoenas. May also assist with legal research.

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Personality Type

• Conventional / Social

Tasks legal administrative assistant

• Prepare and process, often from dictated notes, legal documents and papers, such as deeds, wills, affidavits, contracts, leases, summonses, subpoenas, complaints, appeals, motions and pretrial agreements.
• Mail, fax or arrange for delivery of legal correspondence to clients, witnesses, court officials and other parties.
• Receive and place telephone calls, answer enquiries and direct clients to appropriate experts.
• Schedule and make appointments.
• Draft and type office memos.
• Make photocopies of correspondence, documents and other printed matter.
• Attend court, legal meetings or negotiations, such as client interviews, hearings or depositions, and take notes or minutes.
• Review and proofread outgoing documents and correspondence to make sure that the documents agree with legal procedures and grammatical usage.
• Organize and maintain law libraries, documents and case files.
• Assist lawyers in collecting information for cases and in preparing first drafts of legal documents.
• Review legal publications and perform database searches to identify laws and court decisions relevant to pending cases, and to find out about changes in legislation, High Court verdicts and interpretations, etc.

Related professions secretary

• Administrative secretary
• Executive secretary
• Medical secretary or receptionist
• Minutes secretary
• Office manager
• Personal assistant
• Project secretary
• Secretary
• Secretary, all other
• Team or department secretary

Knowledge

• Legal terminology

  The special terms and phrases used in the field of law.

• Legal department processes

  The different processes, duties, jargon, role in an organisation, and other specificities of the legal department within an organisation such as patents, legal cases, and legal compliance.

• Procedural law

  The law that encompasses the rules of procedure followed in court, and the rules governing the civil and criminal procedures.

Skills

• Perform office routine activities

  Program, prepare, and perform activities required to be performed everyday in offices such as mailing, receiving supplies, updating managers and employees, and keeping operations running smoothly.

• Meet deadlines for preparing legal cases

  Plan and adjust timings in order to prepare legal documents, collect information and evidence, and contact clients and lawyers in order to prepare the case properly.

• Perform clerical duties

  Perform administrative tasks such as filing, typing up reports and maintaining mail correspondence.

• Observe confidentiality

  Observe the set of rules establishing the nondisclosure of information except to another authorised person.

• Communicate by telephone

  Liaise via telephone by making and answering calls in a timely, professional and polite manner.

• Manage personnel agenda

  Schedule and confirm appointments for the personnel of the office, mostly managers and directive employees, with external parties.

• Compile legal documents

  Compile and collect legal documents from a specific case in order to aid an investigation or for a court hearing, in a manner compliant with legal regulations and ensuring records are properly maintained.

Optional knowledge and skills

Source: Sisyphus ODB