Paralegal 3

Paralegal 3

Join Team Georgia and impact lives everyday while receiving a robust benefits package designed for every stage of your career!

The GEMA/HS paralegal provides administrative, organizational, drafting, and research support to the General Counsel. The paralegal receives, analyzes, and responds to requests for available, releasable department records related to administrative, operational, and emergency matters within the required deadlines established by state law.

The primary duties include, but are not limited to:

• Under the supervision of the General Counsel, the Paralegal reviews and analyzes open record requests from the public, attorneys, the media, and other parties. Corresponds with GEMA/HS division administrators, outside vendors, and requesting parties to coordinate fulfillment of Open Records Act requests. Maintains organization of all requests and records. Coordinates responses to requests for production of documents and other legal requests. Reviews records for potential exemptions. Processes and tracks payments for Open Record Requests.
• Provides administrative support to General Counsel including but is not limited to compiling, preparing, and distributing meeting materials and taking meeting notes; maintaining records and files; preparing research data; drafting correspondence or other materials as requested by General Counsel; scheduling and confirming meetings; making travel arrangements; and managing procurement of office supplies.
• Performs specialized and confidential support duties to aid the General Counsel with legal matters related to employment litigation and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) matters, including assisting with investigations of internal and external employee complaints, fact finding, witness interviews, and document requests.
• Conducts thorough legal research on disaster recovery and emergency management laws, regulations, and federal guidelines Analyzes and summarizes findings for attorney review.
• Reviews written responses for grammatical and spelling errors and performs Blue Book citation checks on documents prepared by General Counsel.
• Maintains and organizes records, contracts, and state and federal documents including keeping the General Counsel up to date on upcoming deadlines.
• Typing of correspondences, briefs, pleadings, forms, agreements, memoranda, and administrative orders from handwritten notes or dictation.
• Prepares PowerPoint presentations and other training material as requested by General Counsel.
• Helps General Counsel review various policies for legal and ethical sufficiency and revises accordingly.
• Assists General Counsel with the Legislative Session, including research, bill tracking, and hearing and committee meeting preparation.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by persons assigned to this title and therefore may not include all job duties performed by persons on this job title.

Technical competencies include knowledge of the Georgia Open Records Act, general employment, anti-discrimination law, state and federal EEOC procedure, the Stafford Act, legal forms and legal terminology, agency vendors, customers, etc. Intermediate to advanced Word and Excel and basic Access skills are also required.

Minimum qualifications include a paralegal certificate, diploma or degree, or an associate's degree (non-paralegal) and 1 year of paralegal experience, or three years of documented paralegal experience; and the ability to type, exhibits high level of attention to detail, and strong communication skills.

Essential functions include acting in a manner that reflects positively on GEMA/HS by being professional, courteous, responsive, and helpful at all times, carefully analyzing problems, questions, and issues to identify, evaluate, and implement appropriate resolution, independently establishing and monitoring deadlines to ensure timeliness of completion of critical tasks, and strong oral and written communication skills and excellent interpersonal skills and teamwork skills are essential.

Work environment is primarily in office, regular business hours Monday through Friday. The following factors contribute to creating stressful and demanding working conditions: high volume of work, deadlines required by state and federal law, and irregular hours when emergencies or disasters occur, including potential weekends and holidays.