Legal Secretary - Federal Courts Litigation

Our Seattle office has an excellent opportunity for a Legal Secretary to support both partners and associates in the Intellectual Property group and Digital Assets & Data Management group. This is a non-exempt position that reports to the Office Administrator.

The successful candidate will be self-motivated, proactive, highly organized, and capable of independently managing complex workflows and competing priorities. This position serves as a trusted business partner to attorneys by anticipating needs, exercising sound judgment, maintaining visibility into critical deadlines, and proactively driving tasks and projects to completion. The ideal candidate will have a strong understanding of the litigation process, advanced technical skills, and a demonstrated commitment to accuracy, responsiveness, teamwork, and exceptional client service.

This position will provide legal support to a legal team consisting of five (5) or more attorneys, all with varying workloads, jurisdictions, and client service demands. This position works under the supervision of attorneys and has an in-person presence of five (5) days a week with a Monday through Friday schedule of 9:00 am to 5:30 pm at our downtown Seattle office.

Responsibilities:

• Serve as a trusted business partner to assigned attorneys by proactively managing workflows, priorities, deadlines, and matter-related activities.
• Build trust and confidence through reliability, responsiveness, proactive communication, attention to detail, and consistent execution.
• Develop a strong understanding of assigned attorneys’ practices, clients, working preferences, priorities, and deadlines.
• Regularly communicate with attorneys regarding project status, outstanding items, upcoming deadlines, and competing demands.
• Exercise sound judgment and flexibility in prioritizing work, identifying potential issues, determining when additional guidance is needed, and escalating risks appropriately.
• Anticipate attorney and client-service needs and take appropriate action to keep matters and administrative responsibilities moving forward.
• Leverage firm resources and delegate work to appropriate support departments while retaining ownership of follow-through and timely completion. This includes coordinating and supporting local marketing and business development efforts, as requested.
• Collaborate with attorneys, paralegals, docketing, litigation support, and other business professionals to ensure seamless matter support.
• Prepare and process legal documents including, but not limited to subpoenas, complaints, motions, and other pre-trial documents. This includes performing e-filing in state and federal courts with an emphasis on Western District of Washington.
• Correctly format court pleadings according to applicable court rules including the auto-generation of tables of authorities (TOAs) and tables of contents (TOCs).
• Prepare, proof and format correspondence, pleadings, and other necessary documentation.
• Organize exhibits, documents, briefs, and other supporting documentation. This could include providing clerical assistance in all phases of document production, trial preparation, and trial.
• Record and monitor deadlines through the Firm docketing system and individual attorney calendar systems.
• Prepare engagement letters, open new matters, and interface with New Business and Conflicts department.
• Assist in reviewing and finalizing attorney pre-bills. This could include entering time into Intapp Time.
• Schedule various events and meetings to include coordinating travel arrangements, reserving internal conference rooms, and reserving guest offices (across all offices).
• Process timely expense reimbursements through ChromeRiver.
• Coordinate travel arrangements.
• Back up other secretaries during planned and unplanned secretary absences.
• Other duties as requested and assigned.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree is preferred. A high school diploma or general education degree (GED) is required.
• A minimum of four (4) years’ experience working as a Legal Secretary. Prior experience in Big Law and/or in patent litigation is a plus.
• Knowledge of federal and state court systems, including federal e-filing and state court filing systems required. This includes keeping current with changes in court rules and filing procedures.
• Strong sense of urgency, accountability, flexibility, and resourcefulness with a proven aptitude to learn new systems and platforms.
• Ability to function professionally under pressure, while managing multiple concurrent tasks and deadlines.
• Demonstrated proficiency in Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Office Suite including Word, Outlook and Excel, as well as document management systems such as NetDocs.
• Advanced skills in Word to include using styles, track changes, and document comparison programs is preferred.
• Prior experience with Intapp Time, Proforma Tracker, Copilot, and ChromeRiver is a plus.
• Washington State notary is a plus.
• Ability to work overtime as needed.

The expected annual salary for this position ranges from $84,000 – $126,000. The salary offered will be determined by a wide range of factors including but not limited to experience level, education/training, and relevant skills. Market and Firm factors are taken into consideration as well.

BakerHostetler offers a comprehensive and competitive benefit program including group health, dental and vision insurance, accrued PTO (18 days in the year of hire), paid holidays (10 days), 401(k) plan, parental leave (4 weeks, not including disability, where applicable, and accrued PTO), family care program, wellness program, life and accident insurance, and short and long-term disability. #LI-Onsite