Legal Secretary I/II (Open and Promotional) - County of San Mateo

About the Agency:
The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office mission is to prosecute adult and juvenile offenders, provide services to support victims, enforce consumer and environmental laws, provide legal and investigative support to public safety partners and to remain committed to the principles of equity and transparency in seeking justice and greater public safety. To that end, we are committed to ensuring that no member of our office will seek or obtain a criminal conviction or seek or obtain a sentence of any individual on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, or disability. To learn more about the District’s Attorney’s Office please visit: https://www.smcgov.org/da.
 
The Position: 
Legal Secretaries perform essential tasks, including preparing legal documents, correspondence, memoranda, and reports, providing support for incoming referrals, and arranging court dates, meetings, and appointments. Screening phone calls, conducting research, and compiling information are crucial aspects of the role. Additionally, Legal Secretaries maintain organized files, process mail, and effectively manage their own work, ensuring priorities are set and critical deadlines are met.
 
Rewarding Aspects of the Job:
The department offers an environment where you can develop or enhance your administrative professional skills within the county and judicial systems. Additionally, there will be opportunities to collaborate with a variety of public safety partners.  As a new member of the office, you will be a part of a diligent and diverse team that is committed to maintaining justice and public safety. 

Challenging Aspects of the Job: 
In this role, you will need to retain an abundance of procedures and consistently work under pressure. Communication, organizational, and time-management skills are essential to succeed in this position due to the demand of administrative support that is to be provided to the managers and attorneys of the office.
 
  The ideal candidate for this position will have:

• Experience working in a public or private law office.
• In-depth knowledge of legal terminology and legal procedures.
• Experience supporting multiple managers or attorneys simultaneously.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications including Word and Excel.
• Working knowledge of legal case management systems.
• Strong interpersonal, communication, organizational, and time management skills.
• Proven success of working independently on multiple assignments and meeting deadlines. 

Depending on the qualifications of the selected candidate, the vacancy may be filled at the Legal Secretary I or Legal Secretary II level.  
 
Legal Secretary I ($31.46-$39.34 Hourly) is the entry level in this specialized secretarial series. It is designed to allow an experienced incumbent with either well-developed office administrative or secretarial support skills to learn the terminology, formats, and procedures in the legal secretarial field, or an incumbent with knowledge of legal office terminology, formats, and procedures to learn office administrative and secretarial support skills. This classification is flexibly staffed with Legal Secretary II and incumbents may advance to the higher level after gaining experience and demonstrating proficiency which meet the qualifications of the higher-level class.
 
Legal Secretary II ($35.03-$43.80 Hourly) is the journey level class of this series, fully competent to independently perform a wide range of legal secretarial support work. General procedures and guidelines are normally established by the secretarial lead or the attorney to which assigned; however, day-to-day activities may require the use of initiative and independent judgment. Responsibilities include regular contact with County staff and outside agencies in situations where tact and discretion are important.
 
Note: The eligible list generated from this recruitment may be used to fill future extra-help, term, unclassified, and regular classified vacancies.