Transactional Legal Secretary Job Description

'Legal secretaries also known as administrative assistants are professionals assisting attorneys by performing the daily clerical functions required for the efficient operation of a legal office. Legal Secretaries can be employed in a private law firm, corporation, government agency, or legal services office. They are often trusted with confidential information. Experience in a transactional practice area in a law firm environment is always essential to be successful. Understanding, recognizing, and honoring the value of confidentiality in communications is the most essential characteristic of a legal secretary. They work with clients and perform general administrative duties. Their duties include managing attorneys calendar, answering phones, opening and sorting mail, entering attorneys time, assisting with billing books and coordinating projects with word processing and in-house copy service. Familiarity with legal terminology, state and federal court filing rules, basic legal procedure and law office protocol is important for the legal secretary. Excellent typing and computer skills, including Word, and any document management software like Summation is always beneficial. Legal Secretaries should have expertise in time management, juggling many activities and roles at the same time. Extraordinary organizational skills are required. There are various factors which affect the salaries of legal secretaries including experience, geographic location and practice setting. Salaries range from $28,000 for entry level professionals employed in a small firm to $65,500 for senior legal secretaries employed in a large firm, according to the Internet Legal Research Group.


Here are a few sample transactional legal secretary job descriptions:

Transactional Legal Secretary

The candidate will be entering time sheets and maintaining calendars along with heavy word processing such as typing up large agreements and redlining documents. Must have strong key-boarding experience with a proactive work ethic.

Transactional Legal Secretary

The candidate should have 3+ years of experience working in a law firm preferably in both the Real Estate and Litigation arenas. Experience in filing documents with ICCES, calendaring, entering attorneys' time, preparing legal documents and redlining documents are some of the responsibilities on this desk.

Transactional Legal Secretary

The candidate will support 4 attorneys. Will perform a variety of secretarial duties for the attorneys support. Produces information by transcribing, formatting, inputting, editing, retrieving, copying, and transmitting text, data, and graphics; coordinating case preparation. Reading, researching, reviewing, verifying, and routing correspondence, reports and legal documents; drafting letters and documents; collecting and analyzing information; initiating telecommunications; organizing client conferences, and attorney meetings; scheduling couriers, and other special functions; coordinating preparation of charts, graphs, and other visuals; preparing expense reports. Maintains attorneys' calendars; plan and schedule conferences, teleconferences, dispositions, and travel. Maintain hard copy and electronic filing system (FileSite/iManage). Schedule meetings and arrange conference rooms. Enter attorney billable time, expense reports; preparing invoices; tracking payments. Coordinate monthly billing process between accounting and assigned partner for pre-edits, and final bill processing. Bachelor's Degree is strongly preferred. Should have 5+ years of Transactional Secretary experience in a fast paced law firm environment. Should have good working knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint 2003 and 2010 as well as programs such as FileSite/iManage and Elite.

Corporate/Transactional Legal Secretary

The candidate should have 2-4 years of Corporate / Transactional experience. Must have strong Microsoft Office experience and have advanced formatting skills. Must have excellent written and oral communication skills and interpersonal skills.

Corporate Transactional Legal Secretary

The candidate will provide service and support while producing a high volume of consistently excellent complex transactional documents, correspondence and memoranda from rough draft, dictation or transcription. Will maintain a specialized knowledge of the Public Finance practice and clients; observe client matter confidentiality; establish and maintain positive working relationships with attorneys and co-workers; and provide secretarial support. Establish and maintain public finance closing calendar and coordinate with the team as appropriate; open new files and client matters, request conflict of interest checks, and maintain all client and general files. Handle the maintenance and organization of active client matter materials in accordance with firm policy; Remove non-record materials from official client matter file before sending to the Records Management Department to be transferred to off-site storage and coordinate with the Records Manager in the labeling and management of secured files. Receive clients and visitors; and maintain good public relations with clients. Should have 5+ years of experience to support three attorneys and a paralegal in the Public Finance Department. Experience in real estate and securities practice areas is strongly preferred. Must be proficient with Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint.

Corporate Transactional Legal Secretary

The candidate will provide secretarial and administrative support, including document production, client contact, scheduling, and related duties. Should have 3+ years of experience in a law firm (real estate or renewable energy experience would be a plus). Must have strong communication skills, the ability to exercise initiative and judgment, and effectively manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment. Must possess a high degree of technical proficiency in Microsoft Office (Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint), and be proficient in digital data rooms.'