Legal Secretary

Legal Secretary

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP is a multidisciplinary, integrated national professional services firm known for quality and an extraordinary commitment to clients. The Firm's groundbreaking approach—bringing together legal services, advocacy and business strategy—differentiates Manatt from its competitors and positions the firm to provide a unique and compelling value proposition.

Our prestigious national professional services firm has an immediate opportunity for an experienced Legal Secretary with strong litigation and appellate skills to join our growing San Diego office. As office demand continues to expand, we are actively building out our support team to meet increasing client and practice needs. This is a five-day in-office position.

The ideal candidate is a bright, detail-oriented professional with strong proofreading skills, excellent spelling and grammar, and familiarity with both state and federal court filings, including e-filing. A successful candidate will bring a positive attitude, strong initiative, and a high degree of flexibility in supporting a dynamic and fast-paced environment. They will be comfortable working independently, highly self-motivated, and take ownership of their work while also contributing to a collaborative team culture. In addition to legal secretarial responsibilities, this position may provide limited administrative support as needed.

Responsibilities:

• Daily interface with attorneys, visiting attorneys, and teams to manage administrative support tasks and act as a liaison between billing partners and team members, including paralegals.
• Coordinate and submit state, federal, and appellate court filings, including complex filings requiring careful attention to court rules, formatting requirements, deadlines, exhibits, appendices, and supporting documentation.
• Organize, prepare, and maintain client documents, pleadings, case files, and records using the Firm's document management systems.
• Edit and proofread all legal documents for accuracy, grammar, and formatting.
• Maintain attorney calendars, including scheduling conferences, depositions, and meetings.
• Monitor and track filing deadlines, court rules, hearing dates, and other matter-related timelines to ensure timely and accurate filings.
• Answer emails and phone calls, and redirect inquiries as appropriate.
• Research and authenticate case-related information as needed.
• Prepare legal documents, including motions, pleadings, and appeals.
• Serve as a professional point of contact for attorneys, clients, and internal teams, exercising discretion and sound judgment.
• Support document preparation and filing readiness, ensuring all materials meet court requirements.
• Act as backup support to other secretaries and shared attorney teams.
• Provide ad hoc administrative support as needed.

Qualifications:

• Minimum of 5 years' experience as a Litigation Secretary required
• Candidates should have 5+ years of previous experience supporting multiple professionals, including ability to keep team members on track with processes, policies and deadlines in a fast-paced environment. Reliable, friendly and positive, can-do attitude is essential.
• Must have knowledge of Federal, State court filing rules
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office, iManage and various legal software applications; heavy knowledge of Word, plus strong Outlook knowledge
• Writes clearly and informatively; edits work for spelling and grammar, varies writing style to meet needs, able to read and interpret written information
• Must be skilled at typing correspondence and pleadings for attorneys
• Must be extremely detail oriented, organized and have great follow through skills
• Must be able to coordinate complex scheduling for multiple individuals in a fast paced environment
• Must have the ability to prioritize, work well under pressure, and multitask to meet deadlines and be able to identify and resolve problems in a timely manner
• This position will have extensive contact with others (including clients) requiring discretion and will need to maintain a professional and courteous when dealing with others.
• Must have strong writing and research skills.
• Accuracy, and professionalism a must
• Has the ability to use diplomacy and maintain strict confidentiality
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• BA Degree highly preferred.

The base annual pay range for this role is between $75,000-$100,000. The base pay to be offered will vary and depend on skills and qualifications, experience, location and will also take into account internal equity. A full range of medical, financial and/or other benefits dependent on the position will also be offered.

Manatt is an equal opportunity employer, dedicated to a policy of non-discrimination in employment on any basis including race, color, physical or mental disability, religion, creed, national origin, citizenship status, ancestry, sex or gender (including gender identity, gender expression, status as a transgender or transsexual individual, pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), age (over 40), genetic information, past, current, or prospective service in the uniformed services, sexual orientation, political activity or affiliation, genetic or and any other protected classes or characteristic protected under applicable federal, state, or local law. Consistent with the American Disabilities Act, applicants may request accommodations needed to participate in the application process.

This employer will provide the Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with information from each new employee's Form I-9 to confirm work authorization.

IMPORTANT: If the Government cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, this employer is required to provide you written instructions and an opportunity to contact SSA and/or DHS before taking adverse action against you, including terminating your employment.

Employers may not use E-Verify to pre-screen job applicants or to re-verify current employees and may not limit or influence the choice of documents presented for use on the Form I-9. In order to determine whether Form I-9 documentation is valid, this employer uses E-Verify's photo screening tool to match the photograph appearing on some permanent resident and employment authorization cards with the official U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' (USCIS) photograph. If you believe that your employer has violated its responsibilities under this program or has discriminated against you during the verification process based upon your national origin or citizenship status, please call the Office of Special Counsel at View phone number on click.appcast.io (TDD: View phone number on click.appcast.io).