Legal Secretary - Temporary

Grand Traverse County is a team of passionate and incredible people who are committed to providing responsive, effective quality service to our up-north community.  We strive to be a leader in innovative, effective, collaborative, and sustainable county government.  We offer stable work environments and competitive salaries to both full- time and part-time employees.  Understanding the many challenges facing today’s professionals and families, we offer a competitive compensation package including an impressive list of benefits and time off.

Job Description:

Primary function of this job is to independently provide legal secretarial and confidential litigation support to the Prosecuting Attorney’s office including gathering and analysis of information requiring subjective judgment within defined parameters. Employees work as part of a team and are responsible for ensuring that the team meets its objectives.

Employees must meet the minimum requirements, conditions of employment, and be able to successfully perform all essential duties and responsibilities with or without reasonable accommodations.

This position is temporary with no guaranteed duration.

Wage - $20.92

PRIMARY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES (may include but are not limited to the following)

• Provides litigation support as well as confidential administrative support to attorneys.
• Assembles information into proper legal form, files with appropriate court, and maintains control over the flow of documents, records, and files.
• Processes, compiles, researches, and analyzes legal information, and prepares and verifies reports, correspondence, and other documents utilizing applicable software, within established procedures.
• Transcribes legal dictation, conferences, and interviews.
• Provides comprehensive customer service, including delivery of accurate, prompt, and courteous assistance on complex policies, guidelines, and standard practices to internal and external customers, both verbally and in writing.
• Sorts, files, and maintains materials and filing systems (paper, computer or imaging), retrieves file materials, and keeps a record of file movement.
• Schedules and maintains department calendars and ensures court deadlines are met.
• Uses a wide variety of office machines such as printers, personal computers, facsimile machine, postage machine, adding machine, scanners, and copiers.
• Uses a wide variety of office software such as Microsoft Word, AS-400 and Prosecutor by Karpel for case management

EDUCATION, FORMAL TRAINING, AND EXPERIENCE (minimum requirements)

• Graduation from High School, or G.E.D.
• Three (3) or more years of related legal experience is required.
• College level course work in a related field may substitute for up to one year of experience

CERTIFICATIONS, LICENSES

• None required.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT (minimum requirements - legal or contractual pre- employment obligations and/or requirements, such as drug testing, background check, etc.)

A background check may be required initially and periodically for an individual hired, transferred, reclassified, promoted, or currently working in this job. Appointment to or continued employment in this job is contingent upon a satisfactory background check which may include, but is not limited to: confirmation of a persons’ identity; review of criminal conviction records; verification of educational degree, license, or certificate required for the position; review of Department of Motor Vehicles records; Department of Justice fingerprint scan; and/or drug and alcohol testing as required and allowable by law. A satisfactory background check is defined as the absence of a criminal history record which bears a demonstrable relationship to the applicant's or employee's suitability to perform the required duties and responsibilities of the position.

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS

Highly organized individual able to handle large case load and good communication skills for interaction with attorneys as well as the public. Work involves gathering and analyzing information to determine the best course of action, based on general guidelines or rules of operations. This requires the use of judgment to choose alternatives, many of which may be correct, but one is better than another depending on the situation. Errors at this level could cause serious, but short-term consequences involving significant financial impact or cost, reduced service to the public, and/or strong negative citizen reaction requiring intervention from a higher-level manager and could impact others outside of the department.

Compared to the Office Specialist classification, work requires specialized legal skills.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS, WORK ENVIRONMENT, AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS

• Work is performed in an office environment
• May be required to reach with hands and arms; sit; stand; talk and hear; use hands to finger, handle, or feel
• May be required to lift/move up to 50 pounds (such as a box of paper)
• May be required to work directly with criminal suspects or prison inmates.

  KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, ABILITIES, COMPETENCIES (minimum requirements)

• Proficiency in English grammar, spelling, punctuation, and simple mathematical functions such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, percentages, ratios, etc.
• Specialized knowledge of legal principles and practices
• Skill in operation of modern office equipment such as personal computer, facsimile, copiers, scanners and telephones
• Skill in use of personal computer software, including spreadsheet development and word processing
• Interpersonal skills necessary to develop and maintain effective and appropriate working relationships with customers, co-workers, and representatives of other agencies.
• Skilled in researching and resolving problems in order to ensure compliance
• Ability to develop, layout and implement clerical procedures and operations from general instructions
• Ability to comprehend, process and apply both verbal and written skills appropriate to the job
• Ability to explain complex policies and processes in layman’s terms
• Ability to accurately organize and maintain paper documents and electronic files
• Ability to maintain the confidentiality of information and professional boundaries
• Able to use County resources effectively and efficiently