Legal Administrative Assistant

barnes; Minneapolis (MN); On-site; USD 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

Barnes & Thornburg in Minneapolis seeks a detail-oriented Legal Assistant to support attorneys in corporate transaction matters. You will draft, format and proofread legal documents, manage calendars, and coordinate meetings and travel while maintaining confidentiality and accuracy.

The role requires 3–5 years of corporate transactional experience, strong MS Office skills, and proficiency with iManage, Emburse, and other firm software.

Qualifications

• Proofread and edit routine law office correspondence and matters.
• Transcribe legal documents, correspondence, and reports from rough draft or dictation.
• Approximately three to five years of on‑the‑job corporate transactional experience.
• Advanced MS Office proficiency and strong attention to detail.
• Handle confidential information with integrity and discretion.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in a professional setting.
• Ability and willingness to manage multiple priorities in a fast‑paced environment.
• Customer service orientation towards internal clients and attorneys.

Responsibilities

• Operate firm software and MS Office applications (e.g., Word, Outlook, iManage, Excel, PowerPoint, Adobe PDF).
• Prepare, format, and proofread legal documents and correspondence.
• Maintain closing files and assist with transaction closings.
• Conduct due diligence research using various tools.
• Establish and maintain attorney calendars and deadline reminders; coordinate meetings and travel.
• Process bills and review billing sheets.
• Open new matters; review conflicts submissions; close matters when appropriate.
• Manage workflow of tasks with other shared services to meet deadlines.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Skills

MS Office

Legal terminology

Proofreading

Transcription

Organizational skills

Communication skills

Customer service

Multitasking

Education

High school diploma

Tools

Word

Outlook

iManage

Excel

PowerPoint

Adobe PDF

Emburse

Job description

Summary

The Legal Support Team is a dedicated and centralized group of LAAs who will be supporting attorneys using a workflow management software to delegate tasks.

Key Responsibilities

• Solid working knowledge and a demonstrated high acumen in the operation of computer software applications, specifically Word, Outlook, iManage, Excel, PowerPoint, Adobe PDF, Emburse, and other firm software as required.
• Prepares correspondence, memoranda and other legal documents from written and oral drafts; drafts standard correspondence, and other documents.
• Creates, edits, formats, and proofreads documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with the highest level of accuracy and attention to detail. Creates Table of Contents; Table of Authorities; and other formatting items such as, headers, footers, signature blocks, etc.
• Has an understanding and handling of routine corporate matters such as formations, generation of organization of documents and agreement.
• Familiar with SOS Direct and SEC/EDGAR systems.
• Maintains closing files, assists with transaction closings and compiles closing sets.
• Conducts due diligence non-legal research using various research tools.
• Establishes and maintains attorney calendar and case deadline reminder systems with properly coordinating essential tasks that go along with calendared events (i.e., reserve conference room; making deposition arrangements).
• Scheduling meetings and travel itineraries based on attorney calendar availability.
• Processes bills; proofs billing sheets; reviews and edits bills.
• Processes new business requests by opening new matters; preparing and reviewing conflicts submissions; and closing matters appropriately.
• Manages workflow of assigned tasks and projects, prioritizing incoming tasks to meet deadlines and coordinate with other shared services to complete work.
• Ability to work with little supervision; prioritizes and anticipates work needs; works well under occasional periods of competing priorities and deadlines.
• Collaborates with administrative support staff (office services, word processing, accounting, IT, etc.) as necessary or appropriate to complete tasks.
• Performs legal assistant duties, as required.
• Other duties as assigned.

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

Qualifications

• Ability to proofread and perform editing (e.g., punctuation, grammar, spelling) of routine law office correspondence and legal case matters. Perform basic 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.
• Ability to transcribe legal documents, correspondence, and reports from rough draft or dictation with minimal errors.
• Approximately three to five years on the job corporate transactional experience necessary in order to produce accurate corporate documents and correspondence with minimal supervision.
• Ability to organize and prioritize tasks, as well as complete them within established time constraints. Consult with attorneys when priorities conflict.
• Interpersonal skills necessary to communicate and follow instructions effectively from a diverse group of clients, attorneys, and staff to provide information with ordinary courtesy and tact. High level of interpersonal skills required to handle sensitive and confidential situations.
• Work occasionally requires a high level of effort while producing a high volume of information and performing other essential duties.
• Must have exceptional technical skills and an advanced-level working knowledge of the MS Office Suite.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Proven proficiency using legal terminology and experience working in various practice area.
• The ability to quickly learn and integrate new technical skills and knowledge; seeks out avenues to enhance technical skills.
• Ability and willingness to cross train across different legal departments within the firm.
• Must exhibit a high degree of initiative in managing multiple priorities simultaneously in a fast-paced, deadline-driven and detail-oriented work environment utilizing excellent judgment, initiative, decision-making skills and the ability to work independently.
• Ability to effectively gather and summarize information to complete tasks.
• Ability to adapt to differing and individual styles and administrative tasks applicable to a variety of practice areas.
• Ability to provide outstanding customer service to internal and external clients/contacts.

Working Conditions

• Normal office environment with little exposure to noise, dust, temperature, and the like.

The above is intended to describe the general content of and requirements for the performance of this job. It is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of essential functions, responsibilities, or requirements.

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.