Litigation Legal Secretary / Legal Administrative Assistant - San Jose at Hoge Fenton

Hoge Fenton is a law firm headquartered in Silicon Valley providing legal services in a broad range of areas of law. We are recruiting for a full-time Litigation Legal Administrative Assistant in our San José, CA office. 

Job Summary

The primary responsibilities are to perform secretarial and administrative duties to support litigation attorneys and paralegals across multiple practice groups, including preparing various legal documents such as briefs, motions, complaints, and general correspondence.

The legal administrative assistant ensures administrative tasks are handled promptly and professionally for attorneys and legal professionals in a fast-paced environment. With strong attention to detail, this position acts as a partner to attorneys and paralegals to ensure accuracy and adherence to court rules, legal formatting, and terminology; keep documents and workflow organized and moving forward; and maximize the use of software for efficient document processing, retrieval, and usage. 

Job Duties and Responsibilities

• Maintains client and administrative files. Opens and closes matters promptly and following firm and practice group policies and procedures; obtains new client matter information, such as contact information, scope of engagement, fee agreement, conflict results, financial and corporate standing reports, and conflict waivers; enters new client matter information in ProLaw and NetDocs, and keeps updated throughout engagement.

• Communicates with clients and other parties electronically and by phone at the direction of their assigned timekeepers.

• Greets and assists clients and other visitors to the firm; arranges parking and building security access, reserves conference room, and ensures technical needs are arranged.

• Provides meticulous document formatting. Creates, formats, proofreads, redlines, and edits drafts of documents including administrative correspondence and all forms of litigation documents for filing with the court.

• Schedules and reserves dates for hearings with California and Federal Courts.

• Maintains attorney calendars; schedules conferences and meetings; schedules, calculates, records, and monitors all court appearance dates and associated deadlines; calendars depositions and discovery deadlines.

• Arrange court reporters for hearings and depositions.

• Responsible for profiling documents into the document management system following practice group guidelines during the course of the engagement.

• Manage incoming mail process: copy/download, scan, name, and file mail for attorneys according to practice group guidelines; calendar dates and determine next steps based on the content of the correspondence.

• Organize exhibits, documents, evidence, briefs, and appendices; prepare documents and binders for hearings, trials, and meetings.

Other administrative duties

• Monitor and assist attorneys with the status of receivables.
• Review and approve vendor invoices and ensure they are submitted to the accounts payable department.
• Coordinate attorneys’ travel arrangements; book airfare, and hotel, and make other arrangements as needed.
• Keeps record of attorney’s expenses for submission to the Accounting Department.
• Register attorneys for professional, business development, and continuing education events.
• Assists with attorney timekeeping, as well as invoice reviewing and processing.
• Assists with other duties as assigned.
• Backs up assigned team members.

Qualifications

EDUCATION

• High School education or equivalent required; Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree preferred.

EXPERIENCE

• Minimum of 3 years as a litigation legal secretary. Legal Secretary Certificate from an ABA-accredited school preferred.

• At least 3 years of civil litigation calendaring and court filing experience. Familiarity with Probate and Real Estate Litigation a plus.

• Strong knowledge of motions, discovery, evidence, and litigation documentation, as well as court rules, procedures, and deadlines.

SKILLS

• Strong skills in Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint. Familiarity with NetDocs and ProLaw a plus.
• Strong word processing skills using Microsoft Word, especially formatting pleadings, preparing Table of Contents and Table of Authorities, and redlining.
• Knowledge of legal calendaring is required.
• Knowledge of e-filing in State Courts in Bay Area counties (Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo), Federal, and Appellate Courts.
• Ability to handle the workload for three or more attorneys and/or paralegals.
• Keen attention to detail.
• Strong proofreading skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and work under the pressure of deadlines.
• Ability to think critically and analytically in a pressured environment.
• Maintains a method of tracking one’s own assigned tasks in an effective and systematic manner.
• Works efficiently and effectively using the firm’s systems, software, and procedures.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills to interact with attorneys, clients, vendors, court personnel, and other staff members. 

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

• Strong work ethic.
• Well organized.
• Punctual and reliable.
• Practices and fosters an atmosphere of teamwork and cooperation; work productively and cooperatively with other employees.
• Ability to constantly adapt and develop skills as they become necessary.

Physical Requirements

• Essentially a sedentary position.
• May be required to travel to other work locations for meetings, document production, and/or trials.
• Normal effort of general office work typically includes bending, moving, and lifting up to 25 pounds; and working at computer terminals and telephones.

The hourly base salary range for this position is $35 to $48. This salary range represents the firm’s good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting. Actual compensation will depend upon a number of factors, including but not limited to, the candidate’s years of experience, qualifications, and skill set. 

This is a full-time position with occasional overtime as needed. After candidates are well settled into the role, requests for a one-day-a-week remote work schedule will be considered.

Hoge Fenton has a strong commitment to diversity. We strive to recruit and retain a workforce that welcomes and supports the interests of women, families, and people of any age, race, creed, religion, color, national origin, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/gender expression, disability, or military or veteran status. Our environment is collegial, collaborative, flexible, and supportive. 

Please send your resume and cover letter to Debbie Sanders, Director of HR and Operations, Hoge Fenton: debbie.sanders@hogefenton.com. Please include the job title and preferred location.