Legal Specialist

Legal SpecialistThe Legal Specialist provides a variety of highly responsible, confidential, and complex legal secretarial and paralegal duties in support of the General Counsel. This position also serves in a back-up capacity for the Board Clerk. Essential performance responsibilities include preparing and processing pleading and documents requiring knowledge of legal format, terminology and procedures; researching, gathering, and organizing pertinent data and information into manageable formats for reports, legal opinions, and staff use; maintaining a schedule of appointments and arranging and scheduling conferences and interviews; assisting in litigation being handled by outside counsel; drafting and reviewing contracts and agreements from all areas of the district under the direction and supervision of the General Counsel; monitoring and interpreting relevant state and federal statutes, regulations, and pending legislation as they apply to school district operations; preparing, processing, and filing legal documents, pleadings, and motions with the appropriate courts for all district-related legal matters; acting as a primary liaison for the filing and retrieval of documents from court systems to support the General Counsel and outside counsel in active litigation; coordinating the preparation and issuance of subpoenas for various administrative and judicial proceedings; facilitating meetings with district court judges to obtain necessary signatures and ensuring proper service of process; obtaining and organizing pertinent evidence, records, and data from district departments for use in court filings and legal opinions; providing legal secretarial support to the general counsel and legal staff including but not limited to all copying, mailing, filing of outgoing documents; assisting the General Counsel in reviewing and monitoring Data Privacy Agreements (DPAs) and Data Use Agreements (DUAs) with third-party educational technology vendors to ensure compliance with FERPA, SOPPA, and district-specific security standards; managing the identification, preservation, and collection of relevant electronic records in response to litigation, OCR complaints, or Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) requests; providing administrative support in the event of a data breach, including organizing required legal notifications and maintaining a log of remedial actions taken by the district; overseeing the legal department's digital filing system, ensuring that all confidential legal briefs, contracts, and court orders are organized, searchable, and stored according to district retention policies; overseeing and managing case notes for all matters brought into the Legal Services Department.