Legal Secretary - Federal Courts Litigation

Bakerhostetler-1; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 84,000 - 126,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Paid holidays (11 days)

Paid time off (18 days)

401(k) plan

Parental leave (4 weeks)

Wellness program

Job summary

BakerHostetler’s Seattle office seeks a Legal Secretary to support partners and associates in the Intellectual Property and Digital Assets & Data Management groups. This non-exempt role reports to the Office Administrator and is on-site five days a week, 9:00 am–5:30 pm.

The candidate should be highly organized, proactive, and capable of managing multiple priorities with strong client service and teamwork. Prior IP litigation or federal court familiarity is a plus.

Qualifications

• Minimum of four years as a Legal Secretary in Big Law or patent litigation is preferred.
• Knowledge of federal and state court systems, including e-filing, required.
• Proven ability to manage complex calendars, deadlines, and client correspondence.
• Proactive, detail-oriented, and able to work under pressure with strong teamwork.

Responsibilities

• Proactively manage workflows, deadlines, and matter-related activities for assigned attorneys.
• Coordinate travel, meetings, and document production; support e-filing and court rules compliance.
• Prepare and format legal documents, pleadings, and correspondence; maintain exhibit organization.
• Record deadlines in docketing systems and attorney calendars; support billing and pre-bill review.

Skills

Legal secretarial experience

Organizational skills

Time management

Attention to detail

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree preferred

High school diploma required

Tools

Adobe Acrobat

Microsoft Word

Outlook

Excel

NetDocs

Intapp Time

Proforma Tracker

Copilot

ChromeRiver

Job description

Legal Secretary - Federal Courts Litigation

Job Category: Secretary

Requisition Number: LEGAL001548

• Posted : September 10, 2026
• Full-Time
• On-site

Locations

Showing 1 location

Seattle, WA 98104, USA

Description

Our Seattle office has an excellent opportunity for a Legal Secretary to support both partners and associates in the Intellectual Property group and Digital Assets & Data Management group. This is a non-exempt position that reports to the Office Administrator.

The successful candidate will be self-motivated, proactive, highly organized, and capable of independently managing complex workflows and competing priorities. This position serves as a trusted business partner to attorneys by anticipating needs, exercising sound judgment, maintaining visibility into critical deadlines, and proactively driving tasks and projects to completion. The ideal candidate will have a strong understanding of the litigation process, advanced technical skills, and a demonstrated commitment to accuracy, responsiveness, teamwork, and exceptional client service.

This position will provide legal support to a legal team consisting of five (5) or more attorneys, all with varying workloads, jurisdictions, and client service demands. This position works under the supervision of attorneys and has an in-person presence of five (5) days a week with a Monday through Friday schedule of 9:00 am to 5:30 pm at our downtown Seattle office.

Responsibilities:

• Serve as a trusted business partner to assigned attorneys by proactively managing workflows, priorities, deadlines, and matter-related activities.
• Build trust and confidence through reliability, responsiveness, proactive communication, attention to detail, and consistent execution.
• Develop a strong understanding of assigned attorneys' practices, clients, working preferences, priorities, and deadlines.
• Regularly communicate with attorneys regarding project status, outstanding items, upcoming deadlines, and competing demands.
• Exercise sound judgment and flexibility in prioritizing work, identifying potential issues, determining when additional guidance is needed, and escalating risks appropriately.
• Anticipate attorney and client-service needs and take appropriate action to keep matters and administrative responsibilities moving forward.
• Leverage firm resources and delegate work to appropriate support departments while retaining ownership of follow-through and timely completion. This includes coordinating and supporting local marketing and business development efforts, as requested.
• Collaborate with attorneys, paralegals, docketing, litigation support, and other business professionals to ensure seamless matter support.
• Prepare and process legal documents including, but not limited to subpoenas, complaints, motions, and other pre-trial documents. This includes performing e-filing in state and federal courts with an emphasis on Western District of Washington.
• Correctly format court pleadings according to applicable court rules including the auto-generation of tables of authorities (TOAs) and tables of contents (TOCs).
• Prepare, proof and format correspondence, pleadings, and other necessary documentation.
• Organize exhibits, documents, briefs, and other supporting documentation. This could include providing clerical assistance in all phases of document production, trial preparation, and trial.
• Record and monitor deadlines through the Firm docketing system and individual attorney calendar systems.
• Prepare engagement letters, open new matters, and interface with New Business and Conflicts department.
• Assist in reviewing and finalizing attorney pre-bills. This could include entering time into Intapp Time.
• Schedule various events and meetings to include coordinating travel arrangements, reserving internal conference rooms, and reserving guest offices (across all offices).
• Process timely expense reimbursements through ChromeRiver.
• Back up other secretaries during planned and unplanned secretary absences.
• Other duties as requested and assigned.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree is preferred. A high school diploma or general education degree (GED) is required.
• A minimum of four (4) years' experience working as a Legal Secretary. Prior experience in Big Law and/or in patent litigation is a plus.
• Knowledge of federal and state court systems, including federal e-filing and state court filing systems required. This includes keeping current with changes in court rules and filing procedures.
• Strong sense of urgency, accountability, flexibility, and resourcefulness with a proven aptitude to learn new systems and platforms.
• Ability to function professionally under pressure, while managing multiple concurrent tasks and deadlines.
• Demonstrated proficiency in Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Office Suite including Word, Outlook and Excel, as well as document management systems such as NetDocs.
• Advanced skills in Word to include using styles, track changes, and document comparison programs is preferred.
• Prior experience with Intapp Time, Proforma Tracker, Copilot, and ChromeRiver is a plus.
• Washington State notary is a plus.
• Ability to work overtime as needed.

The expected annual salary for this position ranges from $84,000 - $126,000. The salary offered will be determined by a wide range of factors including but not limited to experience level, education/training, and relevant skills. Market and Firm factors are taken into consideration as well.

BakerHostetler offers a comprehensive and competitive benefit program including group health, dental and vision insurance, accrued PTO (18 days in the year of hire), paid holidays (11 days), 401(k) plan, parental leave (4 weeks, not including disability, where applicable, and accrued PTO), family care program, wellness program, life and accident insurance, short and long-term disability. #LI-Onsite

Equal Opportunity Employer
This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws.For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.