Legal Assistant/Paralegal

PAY GRADE: 30E

Context Of The Job

The Legal Assistant, under the general direction of the Deputy General Counsel, supports the General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel’s administration and operations of a diverse range of complex and confidential matters and projects. This position exercises initiative and judgment on a regular basis, offering a high level of service to internal and external constituencies such as faculty, senior University administrators, trustees, attorneys, and students. This role works collaboratively with the Assistant to the Vice President and General Counsel and supports the day to day activities and administrative needs of the Office of General Counsel (OGC).

Major Responsibilities

Executive Support

• Provide a full range of administrative duties of a highly confidential nature on a regular basis, requiring initiative and judgment to make independent decisions.
• Handle confidential materials and information from senior administration, faculty, staff, and students.
• Manage and update OGC websites and policies library.
• Screen telephone calls and visitors, ascertaining who can be redirected to the appropriate administrator, staff, office or unit.
• Provide information to callers which require comprehensive knowledge of policies, practice, and operations. Identify and resolve problems with appropriate actions.
• With minimal supervision, complete special projects as assigned by the AVP & Deputy GC, Associate GC, and Assistant GC.
• Draft, proofread, prepare and distribute correspondence, reports and related material as requested.
• Serve on appropriate University committees, including search committees as requested.
• In the absence of the Assistant to the VP& GC, manage and maintain the calendar of the VP & GC. Perform confidential, urgent and/or important administrative duties as required
• Perform other related duties as assigned.
• Manage the general counsel inbox, respond to inquiries or route to appropriate attorney for other matters
  
  

Litigation and Paralegal Work

• Prepare correspondence and responses dealing with matters requiring considerable judgment and discretion.
• Receive, log and provide paralegal support in responding to subpoenas and other information requests.
• Assist in gathering documents and other materials to respond to discovery requests in lawsuits involving the University and assist in the preparation, tracking and circulation of litigation hold memoranda.
• Maintain and organize data concerning litigation
• Work with OGC attorneys to intake contracts, including engaging with clients to ensure all documentation has been provided in the appropriate format.
• Assist in conducting an initial review of affiliation agreements.
• Maintain communication with University customers, including faculty, administration, and executive staff concerning contract negotiations, process, and status. This includes follow up on pending documents or deliverables and tracking the next steps.
• Maintain detailed and organized electronic files of contracts and legal advice provided, and track contracts by contract type.
• Prepare various analyses and reports on contracts as requested.
• Prepare and disseminate information to various employees regarding contract status and coordinate scheduling of meetings.
• Support the continuous improvement of the legal contract review process and the UD-wide contract lifecycle management initiative.
  
  

Financial

• Administer day-to-day purchasing for OGC (using UDExchange), including ordering supplies, purchasing and maintaining office equipment and related software, registration for conferences and general troubleshooting.
• Receive, process, and track legal billing and payments as they relate to outside law firms.
• Set up and maintain purchase orders in accordance with retainer agreement guidelines and long-term projects.
• Organize, maintain, and track expenditures from the University's legal account.
• Track aggregate outside counsel expenditures and prepare analytic reports (including monthly and year-to-date comparative reports) for the OGC.
• Manage the unit budget, financial transactions, and projections, monitor expenditures, perform analyses, and generate reports.
• Work closely with the assigned analyst from the Budget Office to prepare and complete fiscal year budgets for the OGC operating expense and University legal expense.
• Work directly with the Budget Office as the OGC Basic Budget Turnaround (BTA) Owner to complete budget turnaround.
• Assist with determining the annual allocations of OGC operating budget and University legal expense.
• Process and monitor the timely payment of legal settlements.
• Process routine financial transactions, manage and reconcile procurement card transactions using Concur such as the handling of reimbursements and travel expenses, and gather and sign off on supporting documents for all procurement card transaction.
  
  

Qualifications

• Associates degree and six years of administrative experience or equivalent combination of education and experience. Bachelors preferred.
• Extensive knowledge of the principles and practices of administrative support practices and procedures.
• Knowledge of University programs, policies, and procedures preferred.
• Experience working in an upper-level administration environment preferred.
• Experience handling highly confidential and sensitive information.
• Ability to make independent decisions and judgment in keeping with the level of the position.
• Effective interpersonal and oral and written communication skills.
• Computing proficiency in WordPress, Microsoft Word, and Excel.
• Experience in office operations which includes operating office machines, handling incoming and outgoing mail, postal and shipping services, answering phones, directing calls and taking messages; file maintenance (manual and electronic); maintaining and updating supplies.
• Experience in data collection which includes collecting, compiling and maintaining data from multiple sources such as files, records, databases, customers, staff or others.
• Proficient organizational and detail-oriented skills.
• Experience with subpoenas and civil litigation desirable.
• Knowledge of electronic financial systems desirable.
• Ability to communicate and interact well with people of all ages and backgrounds.