Legal Assistant | 12-Month Contract

Smart & Biggar; Ottawa; On-site; CAD 53,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Smart & Biggar, a leading Canadian IP law firm, is seeking a Legal Assistant to join our national patent team for a 12-month assignment. You will be part of the administrative group providing operational support to patent agents and lawyers in Ottawa.

The role emphasizes document filing with CIPO, deadline tracking, client communications, time entry and invoicing, plus mentoring junior colleagues. A Legal or Administrative Assistant diploma and IP exposure are preferred.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of legal or professional services assistance experience.
• 1+ year experience in intellectual property.
• Bilingual English/French with strong communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Prepare and file patent correspondence and related documents with CIPO.
• Analyze documents from patent offices and draft client reports.
• Track deadlines and ensure statutory compliance.
• Manage invoices and record-keeping in a paperless environment.
• Mentor junior staff and support team as needed.
• Other duties as assigned.

Skills

2+ years' legal office experience

1+ year IP experience

Bilingual English and French

Excellent interpersonal communication

Detail-oriented and highly organized

Education

Legal or General Administrative Assistant Diploma

Tools

MS Office Suite

Job description

Smart & Biggar has been at the forefront of intellectual property (IP) and technology law for over 100 years. We practice in every area of IP on behalf of an exceptional international clientele, and we are consistently ranked as Canada’s leading IP firm. We are committed to hiring people with different backgrounds and experience, who represent the best talent in their field.

What We Do

Smart & Biggar has been at the forefront of intellectual property (IP) and technology law for over 100 years. We practice in every area of IP on behalf of an exceptional international clientele, and we are consistently ranked as Canada's leading IP firm. We are committed to hiring people with different backgrounds and experience, who represent the best talent in their field.

We are part of the IPH Group. IPH Limited is the holding company for intellectual property ("IP") and associated companies offering a wide range of IP services and products. IPH companies employ a highly skilled multidisciplinary team of over 1,200 people in Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong SAR, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Thailand. IPH companies service a diverse client base of Fortune Global 500 companies, multinationals, public sector research organizations, SMEs, and professional services firms worldwide.

We are passionate about what we do and what we can achieve. The IPH Group is committed to promoting and maintaining a workplace culture of shared respect across companies to enable us all to feel valued and be the best we can be.

The Opportunity

We are currently looking for a Legal Assistant to join our national patent team for 12 months. In this role you will be part of our administrative team providing operational support to our patent agents and lawyers.

Responsibilities

• Prepare and file patent correspondence and related documents with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO).
• Analyze documents received from the patent offices and write associated client reports.
• Track and ensure compliance with statutory and internal deadlines.
• Perform general administrative duties including creation of outgoing correspondence, time entry, preparation of invoices/billings and record management (in a paperless environment).
• Prepare correspondence to clients, foreign associates, CIPO, and other parties as required.
• Train and mentor more junior assistants and other team members.
• Other duties may be assigned or amended as required

Qualifications, Competencies And Experience

• Legal or General Administrative Assistant Diploma
• 2+ years' experience as an assistant in a legal or professional services environment
• 1+ year experience in intellectual property
• Bilingual: strong written and spoken English and French
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills including the ability to deal directly with clients and all levels of staff
• Excellent attention to detail, highly organized and proactive
• Highly proficient in MS Office and ability to learn new software and technology quickly

Compensation

The base salary for this role will be positioned between $53,000 - $80,000 taking into consideration factors such as location, job-related knowledge, prior experience, qualifications, and internal equity.

Our recruitment process uses AI-enabled tools to assist with the assessment of applications based on job-related criteria. These tools do not make the final decisions. All decisions related to screening, interviewing and selection are made by our Talent Acquisition and hiring teams.