Legal Assistant, Office of General Counsel

Job Description

Job Description

Salary: $40,000-50,000

Organization
Founded in 1913, the Illinois Association of School Boards' Vision is excellence in local
school board governance supporting quality public education.
Job Title and Classification: Legal Assistant; full-time, N4

Position Information
DEPARTMENT: Office of General Counsel (OGC)
REPORTS TO: Deputy Executive Director, Office of General Counsel
OFFICE LOCATION: Lombard
SALARY RANGE & BENEFITS: The position offers an annual salary of $40,000 $50,000, with
a generous benefits package that includes holidays, vacation and sick time, medical,
dental, vision, life insurance, and retirement benefits. The position will be eligible for
Hybrid work after 30 days of employment.

Departmental Mission/Vision/Goals
OGCs mission is to honestly, professionally, and credibly protect and preserve IASB
through legal risk management and compliance services for the IASB Board of Directors
and staff; promote best practices to IASB members; create educational products and
services; and maintain strong, collaborative relationships with the public education
community.

Position Summary
This position provides a wide range of administrative and office support activities for the
Office of General Counsel (OGC) in the performance of its duties.

FUNCTIONS OF THE JOB include the following; essential functions appear in bold
type:
1. Provides high-level administrative support
2. Creates and maintains current, organized, and accurate written procedures
and electronic and paper files relating to job tasks, duties, and areas of
responsibility
3. Ensures all phone calls, emails, and other communications are handled in
an efficient and courteous manner
4. Creates and maintains accurate databases and spreadsheets in Excel, as
needed
5. Participates in appropriate professional development offerings as needed

6. Participates in cross-training with other policy services support staff and
OGC administrative assistant(s) to provide backup
7. Attends periodic meetings both in and out of the office for continuous
improvement and alignment of work throughout OGC and the Association
8. Practices reliable and consistent attendance and punctuality
9. Attends the Joint Annual Conference in Chicago annually and performs
duties as assigned
10.Attends occasional meetings outside the office that may require overnight travel
11.Contributes to team effort and OGC mission/vision/goals work
12.Performs other duties as assigned

Responsibilities for the Office of General Counsel (OGC)
1. Provides high-level administrative and paralegal support
2. Assists in high-level, direct support of General Counsel
3. Conducts legal research independently as needed; this includes using
Westlaw/LexisNexis to:
a. Retrieve court decisions for the IASB website, recent court and agency
decisions, find news articles, and general Internet research related to
legal current events
b. Review and input Legal References and footnote citations in the IASB
Policy Reference Manual (PRM) for PRESS Issues
4. Schedules meeting dates, reserves conference rooms and/or any other
meeting places for the OGC, Illinois Council of School Attorneys, or Policy
Services for departmental meetings and video conferences, along with
arranging for any meals and providing meeting materials electronically
5. Monitors federal and state legislation and follows the promulgation
process for federal and state administrative rules
6. Contacts state agencies for information and instructions
7. Maintains school law pages on
8. Manages details for 9-12 legal panels for the Joint Annual Conference
9. Collaborates with other IASB departments to coordinate statewide and online
training
10.Serves as back-up to the primary PS-OGC Legal Assistant.
11.Manage the operations of the timeline for PRESS Issue editing and creation by
ensuring that general business processes for OGC are completed by Editors and
Policy Directors for the timely delivery of PRESS to subscribers.
12.Exercises discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of
significance.
13.Utilizing Microsoft Word processing and web-based word processing
applications, proofreads, edits, and performs legal research for PRESS, PRESS
Online, and PRESS Plus

14.Designs, creates, and contributes to forms and exhibits in the IASB Policy
Reference Manual (PRM) as assigned by PRESS Editors, requiring invention,
imagination, and originality in materials
15.Maintains the IASB PRM base in Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF versions
16.Prepares Microsoft Word documents for transfer to IASBs contractor (currently
MicroScribe) to upload into PRESS Online
17.Executes Word processing and updates of Policy Customizations and
Administrative Procedures Manuals, as directed by the Asst. Director, Office of
General Counsel and/or General Counsel
18.Assists with creation and maintenance of Policy Services shared files and a list of
current tasks, duties and responsibilities as assigned by the Asst. Director, Office
of General Counsel
19.Creates and maintains templates for new documents, memos, and online
instructions
20.Coordinates processes with IASBs contractor (currently MicroScribe), including
updates and changes
21.Creates, provides, and edits requested reports
22.Creates job tickets and coordinates with the print shop and IASBs contractor
(currently MicroScribe)
23.Manages the creation and maintenance of written procedures for PRESS Issues
and electronic and paper files
24.Updates and stocks office supplies for the Lombard office and third-floor space,
as necessary

Responsibilities for the Illinois Council of School Attorneys (ICSA)
1. Provides administrative and paralegal support
2. Responds to questions from school attorneys about ICSA
3. Maintains active ICSA memberships, including coordination of concurrent
memberships with the National School Attorneys Association (NSAA)
4. Maintains accurate records and prepares and maintains the ICSA directory
5. Provides extensive support for all stages of ICSA In-House Counsel Networking
Meetings and the ICSA Annual Seminar, using creativity and originality in
preparing materials and in maintaining the website
6. Secures ICSAs status as an accredited Minimum Continuing Legal Education
(MCLE) provider under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 795 and the Commission on
Professionalism; this includes knowledge of Illinois Supreme Court Rule 795 and
completing instruction provided by MCLE from time to time as the Supreme
Courts rules related to MCLE change
7. Assists and supports all ICSA Committees, including in the formatting
development, and delivery of ICSA Publications and comments for submission to
administrative agencies during rule promulgation.

EDUCATION and EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS
1. Bachelors Degree and/or paralegal certification preferred
2. Demonstrable high-level experience with Microsoft Word and Web-based word
processing applications and Excel
3. Experience assisting lawyers and/or lobbyists, and performing legal research
4. Strong customer service background
5. Strong Internet research skills

REQUIRED COMPETENCIES
To perform this job successfully, an individual must satisfactorily perform each essential
duty. The requirements listed below represent the knowledge, skills, and/or abilities
required. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with
disabilities to perform the essential functions.
1. Ability to use discretion and maintain strict confidentiality
2. Ability to manage multiple, often competing, projects without direct supervision
3. Strong interpersonal skills necessary to successfully work with numerous and
varied individuals and groups, including IASB members, attorneys, and other
staff
4. Strong communication skills, including excellent grammar - verbal and written
5. Attention to detail, high degree of accuracy, and excellent proof-reading skills
6. Professional demeanor
7. Ability to consistently exercise discretion and independent judgment, be selfdirected, be detail-oriented, master a high degree of accuracy, and have
excellent proofreading skills
8. Computer skills and in-depth knowledge of relevant software:
a. Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Expert; MOS Master preferred
with an emphasis on Microsoft Word and Excel.
b. For Microsoft Word processing, demonstration of the following skills is
required:
1) Understanding of Auto Text and macros in Microsoft Word documents to
save time on repetitive tasks; understanding of Auto Text and macros
preferred.
2) Ability to review documents for accuracy and consistency in formatting,
pagination, link management, and page references.
3) Advanced level of proficiency preferred using Microsoft Word to produce
complex legal and policy documents, which must include:
a) Work with advanced styles, formatting, columns, tables, alignment,
footers, headers, and other page layout features.
b) Work with documents that require tables of contents, footnotes,
endnotes, and cross references.
c) Manage and track document changes with multiple users using
highlights and comments.
d) Knowledge of Visual Basic Editor
c. For Excel, the following skills are required:

1) Filters and Data Manipulation
2) Flash Fill
3) Conditional Formatting
4) Advanced Charting
5) Macros/VBA
6) Sparklines
7) PivotTables
d. For web-based applications, the following skills are preferred:
1) NetForum;
2) Higher Logic;
3) Zoom Enterprise;
4) Avery
5) Google Sites
6) SharePoint Sites
7) SurveyMonkey; Kentico; CMS, Sage; Intacct;
8) Westlaw/LexisNexis for legal research; and
9) records retrieval

9. Advanced knowledge of Adobe Acrobat Pro
10.Strong time-management skills and ability to adapt to constantly changing
circumstances
11.Enthusiasm for learning new skills
12. Knowledge of and ability to use office equipment, including postal, scanning,
copying, and printing

SPECIAL CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT:

Physical Demands
As necessary to perform the functions of the job, sedentary to light work (this position
requires the employee to be able to be able to lift, move and safely handle boxes and
materials up to 25 pounds); to see (visual acuity including color, depth perception, and
field vision for reviewing hard copy documents, viewing a computer terminal, extensive
reading, visual inspection involving small defects); hearing (perceiving the nature of
sounds at normal speaking levels with or without correction and ability to receive
detailed information through oral communication, and to make the discriminations in
sound); speaking (expressing or exchanging ideas by means of the spoken word, which
include conveying detailed or important spoken instructions to other workers and/or
members accurately, loudly, or quickly); fingering (picking, pinching, typing or otherwise
working, primarily with fingers rather than with the whole hand as in handling); repetitive
motion (substantial movements (motions) of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers).

Conduct Standards

The highest moral and ethical standards are demanded in accordance with the IASB
Staff Standards and Staff Core Values. Employee conduct standards and other aspects
of employment are addressed in the IASB Employment Handbook.

DISCLAIMER
This job description may be changed at any time and is not a contract with the individual
employee(s). IASB retains its right to change this job description and assign or reassign
duties and responsibilities to this job at any time.

Equal Employment Opportunity
The Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB) is proud to be an Equal Opportunity
Employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace and we will consider all
qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex,
pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry,
age, disability, genetic information, veteran or military status, or any other protected
class under applicable law. Reasonable accommodations are available throughout the
hiring process for qualified applicants with disabilities. If you require an
accommodation, please notify Human Resources.