Birmingham Legal Secretary - Estate Planning and Corporate
Varnum LLP
On-site
Birmingham, Michigan, United States
Varnum LLP, a Michigan-based, full-service law firm with over 180 attorneys and six offices has a full-time opening for a Legal Assistant - Estate Planning and Corporate. This experienced professional will work with the Estate Planning and Corporate Practice Teams in our Birmingham office. We are seeking a candidate who is extremely organized, with keen attention to detail and a superb commitment to client service, who can work independently in this role.
Requirements:
- Experience in estate planning, trust and estate administration, probate process, guardianships and conservatorships are essential.
- Technical expertise in HotDocs and MS Office (Outlook, Word, Excel) including experience with asset/liability sheets.
- Excellent grammar, proofreading, and organizational skills.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills with attorneys, clients, and staff members.
- Willingness to work in a team-oriented service environment and provide excellent service.
- Project management skills with demonstrated initiative, working with multiple attorneys.
Preferred:
- Bachelor's degree in legal studies or 2+ years' experience as a legal assistant or experience in a law firm, preferably estate planning and/or probate.
- Proficiency with PDF documents and iManage, or other document management systems.
Responsibilities:
- Preparing and filing of probate documents for probate, guardianship, and conservatorship proceedings in Probate Court.
- Supporting daily administration of trust accounts working with trustees, beneficiaries, attorneys, and other advisors.
- Working with financial institutions, trust companies, title companies, transfer agents, creditors, realtors, Social Security Administration, IRS, Michigan Department of Treasury, and other entities regarding trust and estate assets in which a decedent held a beneficiary or ownership interest.
- Managing Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts for attorneys including but not limited to docketing, collection of premiums, monitoring policies, and attending to payment of policy premiums.
- Assist with the preparation and filing of legal documents, including court filings, and estate planning documents.
- Prepare, edit, and proofread legal documents and correspondence, along with handling closing preparations.
- Files legal documents with appropriate attachments, both electronically and via traditional filing methods.
- Transcribes documents from dictation; proofreads and edits all documents to ensure accuracy and professional appearance.
- Maintains attorney calendars and deadline reminders, including but not limited to appointments and follow-up dates.
- Enters and proofreads time in the billing system; to the extent possible, ensures accurate entry of complete information before each monthly deadline on an as needed basis.
- Opens new files, performs conflict of interest checks through conflicts control system, and maintains all electronic and physical client and general files in a neat and orderly condition. Closes inactive files in a timely manner and in accordance with the Record Retention & Destruction Policy and Guideline.
- Schedules appointments, conference calls, and prepares necessary documents and copies for meetings and closings.
- Requests checks for filing fees, etc. and attorneys' business expense reimbursements.
- Assists with legal assistant work overflow or absence coverage as time permits or needs dictate and as requested by other attorneys, paralegals, or Human Resources representatives.
- Attend staff meetings, training sessions and other required employee meetings.
- Copying, typing, scanning, faxing and any other general office duties as needed.
- Maintains confidentiality in all firm and client matters.
- Assists with other firm work as directed by attorney or paralegal.
Job ID:227
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