Ottawa | 2 + Years

The Bilingual Legal Assistant will be primarily responsible for providing clerical and administrative support to bilingual Ottawa lawyers in a professional, effective and efficient manner in French and English.

Major Responsibilities:

• Performs clerical, administrative and general office duties for the Ottawa lawyers as requested and assigned by the Ottawa Office Administrator;
• Communicates with peers and clients to schedule appointments, hearings, arbitrations, meetings etc. and coordinates arrangements for lawyers’ attendance requirements;
• Receives incoming mail and redirects, prioritizes and records deadlines;
• Organizes and expedites the flow of work through the lawyers’ offices;
• Creates, types, formats, reviews and proofreads documents and correspondence to ensure compliance with legal procedures and grammatical usage;
• Assists in the preparation and formatting of legal documents;
• Prepares forms according to instructions and/or precedents, and accompanying documentation;
• Arranges for proper service and filing of court pleadings;
• Makes travel arrangements, including booking flights, hotels, vehicle rental, etc.;
• Arranges for timely payment of invoices, completes expense reports, prepares file status reports, work-in-progress reports and pre-bills;
• Sets up and maintains filing systems, utilizing knowledge of legal records and procedures (including a tickler system);
• Enters student/lawyer dockets into accounting software (French and/or English)
• Follows proper file closure procedures, coordinates file closing
• Performs any other related assistant duties as required

Knowledge, Skills and Personal Attributes:

• Fluent written and oral French and English skills are essential for this position;
• Strong set of technical skills which include, but are not limited to, Word, Outlook and Adobe. Knowledge of Excel is considered an asset;
• Knowledge of the Rules of Civil Procedure, Federal Court Rules, court filing procedures and time limitations;
• Must be able to prioritize, meet deadlines and adapt to frequently and rapidly changing priorities;
• Demonstrates competence and effective communication (written and orally) as well as proper grammar, spelling and punctuation in French and English;
• Strong attention to detail, and excellent proofreading skills in French and English;
• Highly organized;
• Demonstrates discretion and effectively manages confidential information;
• Effectively works in a team environment or independently, as the situation requires;
• Working knowledge of legal office administration through the completion of an office procedures course, or related experience;
• Working knowledge of NetDocs, PowerPoint and Tikit an asset;
• Flexible, respectful, honest and trustworthy;
• Demonstrates sound work ethic.

For more information or to submit your CV to kgauthier@zsa.ca reference #34034