Administrative Assistant

Job Description

Job Description

Administrative Assistant | Public Benefits | Buffalo Office

Department: Support Staff
Reports To: Office Administrator
Supervisory Responsibility: None

Employment Status: Full-time, Non-exempt

Neighborhood Legal Services, Inc. (NLS) is the largest provider of civil legal services in Western New York and provides free civil legal assistance to low-income individuals and families facing barriers to stability, safety, and access to justice. This Administrative Assistant will support NLS’s Public Benefits Unit in the Buffalo office, which helps clients address urgent needs related to public assistance, SNAP, Medicaid, utility shutoffs, emergency assistance, shelter access, benefits fair hearings, overpayments, language access, and LGBTQ+ advocacy. The role provides critical administrative and legal support to attorneys and paralegals who represent clients before administrative agencies, tribunals, and courts, including clients experiencing homelessness through outreach efforts such as the Homeless Task Force.

Summary of Responsibilities:

The Administrative Assistant will be responsible for general secretarial support, including answering the telephone and assisting receptionists when needed, typing, filing, copying, assisting attorneys and paralegals, and coordinating unit-wide projects.

Essential Functions:

1. Review and format a variety of legal materials, including court filings, petitions, pleadings, motions, memoranda, letters, and reports.
2. Review, format, and edit outgoing correspondence to ensure all legal documents and enclosures are in proper processing order and that correspondence is grammatically correct.
3. Sort and distribute mail.
4. Assist Attorneys and Paralegals as directed with answering inquiries over the phone or in person and managing secretarial and administrative details.

5. Organize and maintain spreadsheets, files, and records of a confidential, complex, or otherwise sensitive nature.

1. Provide backup for reception staff answering telephones and greeting clients.
2. Manage own professional development; keep informed of new rules and processes pertinent to the organization; participate in continuing education and other appropriate training; develop specialty knowledge or areas consistent with the level of experience.
3. Organize trainings and meetings for the unit.
4. Work constructively as a team member with other NLS staff on advocacy projects consistent with program priorities.
5. Perform diverse clerical work as directed by the Office Manager or Attorney staff.
6. Conform to the rules and responsibilities applicable to all employees and perform all other assigned tasks.

Core Competencies

• Strong personal work ethic and ability to organize time, manage diverse activities, and meet critical deadlines with minimal supervision;
• Excellent writing, editing, and proofreading skills, with ability to be detail-oriented;
• Strong interpersonal skills and an ability to work collaboratively with a dynamic and multi-sector team;
• Cultural humility in working with low-income clients across the spectrum of diversity, including race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, immigrant status, religious identity, physical and mental disabilities, and limited English proficiency; and
• Familiarity with diverse communities is a plus.

Compensation and Benefits

Salary is based on years of relevant administrative experience and placement within Steps 1 through 22 of the salary scale. Step 1 of the salary scale correlates to the first year of qualifying administrative experience. Each progressive step reflects an additional year of relevant experience.

Prior credited experience will be calculated from the date the Employee began working in a qualifying administrative or legal support role. If there was a break in relevant employment, only applicable years of qualifying experience will be credited.

Current salary steps include but are not limited to:

• Step 1 – $ 43,000

• Step 5 – $ 50,979.85

• Step 10 – $ 57,000.20

• Step 15 – $62,727.00

• Step 22 – $69,525.00

Full-time, Non-exempt position with a 35-hour work week and reduced summer hours.

NLS offers a comprehensive benefits package to its employees. This includes health, dental, and vision insurance, a generous PTO policy that includes: 3 weeks of vacation time, 12 paid holidays, plus a week of PTO between Christmas and New Year’s, reduced summer hours; additionally, employees have access to sick and personal leave, as well as eligibility for public student loan forgiveness. NLS also provides life insurance, a pension plan, HRA and Flexible Spending Accounts, paid memberships, and professional development.

Qualifications

• Legal services background or knowledge of general civil legal work
• Experience working with vulnerable populations and knowledge of community resources
• Self-motivated and dependable
• Excellent communication skills for client contact and attorney interface
  • Excellent writing skills with attention to detail and proofreading for written materials including court filings, correspondence, and other documents. Understanding of the court filing system and its requirements
  • Excellent organizational skills and calendaring awareness
  • Document-drafting capability under the supervision of staff attorneys for court filings, including how to format those documents
  • Willingness to work as a team member and contribute to the efforts on any case
  • Second language skills a plus but not required

Working Conditions and Physical Requirements:

• Work on-site in an office environment, including working at the workstation and attending meetings and trainings;
• Potentially traveling to meetings and hearings off-site;
• Use of a computer and other office machines such as a fax, photocopiers, and telephones.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

Neighborhood Legal Services provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for

employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion,

age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity

or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. This policy applies to all

terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff,

recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.