Bilingual Legal Assistant

MALDEF is the nation’s leading non-profit Latino civil rights law firm. Founded in 1968, MALDEF works to safeguard the civil rights of Latinos and to increase the community’s ability to participate fully in American society. We currently seek a Legal Secretary to support our legal staff in the Los Angeles Regional Office. Job Responsibilities: Under the supervision of the Regional Counsel and National Senior Counsel, the Legal Secretary is responsible for preparing legal documents for filing with state or federal court and for service on opposing counsel/parties using Word and for maintaining pleading/brief dockets, correspondence files, and related files for cases in litigation or under investigation by attorneys in regional office. The Legal Secretary maintains office calendar and tickler system for important court dates, deadlines, and other appointments; prepares and/or finalizes business correspondence, memoranda, and other documents for mailing and/or other distribution; prepares exhibits for use at trial, in a hearing, or as attachments to documents/briefs; collates, numbers, sorts, and files documents and other materials produced by or for opposing party in discovery; drafts simple correspondence and memoranda; prepares expense forms and check requests for attorneys; types, collates, and when necessary, calculates attorney hours for recovery of fees from opposing party; arranges business-related travel for attorneys and other professional staff; answers telephones and completes business telephone calls to confirm appointments and court appearances; receives and guides business visitors; and performs other duties as required. Qualifications and Experience: The successful candidate will have two (2) years experience performing secretarial or clerical tasks in professional office environment. Law office experience highly preferred. Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: The successful candidate will have basic knowledge of legal terminology and basic understanding of court system and legal documents; knowledge of general organization of pleading/brief dockets and legal correspondence files; basic knowledge of format and content of tables of authorities and contents, pleadings, declarations, and proofs of service; excellent computer skills, especially word processing, spreadsheets, and Internet. Knowledge of Outlook, Word, Adobe Acrobat and Internet search engines; knowledge of proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling sufficient to proofread legal work and to compose simple correspondence; ability to read and understand courts rules and procedures sufficient to prepare and format documents for filing; skill in typing and word processing at a minimum of 50 wpm; knowledge of both legal and general office procedures and routines. Candidates must be able to communicate fluently in both English and Spanish, including the ability to speak, read, write, understand, and translate from one language to the other.