Legal Secretary - Federal Courts Litigation

BakerHostetler • Seattle, WA

9h • $84,000 - $126,000 • Onsite

About The Position

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.

Requirements

• A high school diploma or general education degree (GED) is required.
• A minimum of four (4) years’ experience working as a Legal Secretary.
• 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.
• Ability to work overtime as needed.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s degree is preferred.
• Prior experience in Big Law and/or in patent litigation is a plus.
• 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.

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.

Benefits

• 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
• short and long-term disability

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: High school or GED