Legal Secretary

A leading international law firm has an opening for a Client Service Specialist (Legal Secretary) in their New York office.

The Client Service Specialist provides administrative client services to both internal and external clients.

In this capacity, the Client Service Specialist will:

• Maintain a consistent physical presence required to facilitate an interactive and collaborative environment ensuring that assignments, cross-training, and peer level support are optimized to provide seamless support;
• Coordinate legal practice tasks and projects;
• Coordinate administrative functions and facilitate completion of tasks including such as finance/ billing-related tasks, time and expense entry, opening of new matters, client presentations, meetings and other administrative projects as assigned;
• Coordinate with and delegate to Firm resources including DPS, Williams Lea, Client Service Center, practice support or similar departments in International offices in the handling of tasks and projects;
• Prepare complex legal documents and correspondence; File with appropriate court or agency; Apply subject matter expertise in coordination of legal practice tasks and projects;
• Coordinate support through the Finance Department including: edit and review process of client bills; correct time entry and promotion of time entry best practices;
• Review and support of the client billing process to include: proofreading, application of task codes and matter management skills, coinciding math aptitude and skills to support rates, rate changes, write-offs, preparation of expense reporting and audits as required, maintenance and consistency with billing protocols and other accounting functions;
• Manage the legal and administrative practices of attorneys and facilitate service levels that meet client requirements; and
• Work overtime as required.

Proficiencies:

• Advanced ability to organize, prioritize, coordinate, delegate and work as part of a team;
• Advanced to Expert proficiency in rules of English grammar, spelling and punctuation; bilingual proficiency as may be required;
• Advanced proficiency in MS Word and document editing/comparison applications;
• Advanced proficiency in MS Outlook and web-based conference call/web-sharing applications;
• Advanced proficiency in MS Excel and spreadsheet/database applications;
• Advanced proficiency in MS PowerPoint and presentation applications;
• Advanced knowledge of time keeping, expense processing and legal billing;
• Advanced knowledge of relevant jurisdictional/court/agency processes and procedures;
• Advanced proficiency in document management applications;
• Proven ability to function as a coordinator with other firm-wide departments with necessary communication skills to transfer instructions/data, verify results, resolution of conflict and delivery or results; and
• Excellent written and oral communications required with strong ability meet deadlines and provide results while supporting Firm policy and procedures.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree (preferred); and
• At least 4 years of legal secretarial experience or relevant legal experience (required).