Our Children’s Trust is seeking a Legal Assistant to join our Legal team. 

The Legal Assistant is a salary, non-exempt position, and a member of the OCTWA Bargaining Union. The annual salary range is $47,492- $52,785 and is benefit eligible. Benefits include 100% employer paid medical and dental for employee, long and short-term disability, life insurance, SIMPLE IRA plan with employer match, generous vacation, sick and holiday leave including restorative leave after 6 years.

This position is an in-office position. Work is primarily performed Monday through Friday during regular business hours; however, evening and weekend hours may be necessary dependent upon case activity, deadlines, and workload. Some travel may be required at the cost of Our Children’s Trust. 

About Us

Our Children’s Trust (OCT) was founded in 2010 on the idea that courts are vital to democracy and empowered to protect our children and the planet. Without a stable climate system, every natural resource we rely upon to exercise our basic human rights—life, liberty, home, happiness—is under threat. Our work will be achieved when there is universal recognition of children’s climate rights by courts around the world and children’s fundamental rights to life on this planet are protected. www.ourchildrenstrust.org

Position Overview

The Legal Assistant will in roughly equal parts (1) assist OCT’s Deputy Director, Litigation Practice in l program administration and (2) provide administrative and general litigation support to the legal team.

Responsibilities 

• Support multiple lawyers and paralegals with litigation and non-litigation tasks, including composing legal correspondence, maintaining contact lists, monitoring case and court-related deadlines, and managing legal calendars and schedules.
• Assist the Deputy Director, Litigation Practice with their calendar, scheduling, and task management.
• Coordinate travel arrangements and provide travel support for attorneys, clients, and experts.
• Assist the Deputy Director, Litigation Practice with OCT’s law clerk program in collaboration with Operations, including onboarding and offboarding, organizing meetings, and tracking assignments.
• Assist paralegals with the tracking of all case and docket requirements, deadlines, and the management of case files, including discovery and Bates stamping.
• Assist paralegals and attorneys with client management to ensure professional monitoring, collection, documentation, tracking and management of client circumstances and related evidence, in coordination with counsel of record.
• Prepare legal meeting agendas in coordination with the Deputy Director, Litigation Practice or Litigation Paralegal and take notes as requested.
• Organize in-person meetings including scheduling, agenda preparation, room reservations, and meals where applicable.
• Ensure arrangements for depositions, court reporters and service agents and ordering of transcripts of every court proceeding in a timely manner
• Prepare discovery, pleadings, caselaw and document binders to prepare attorneys for meetings, hearings, and trial. 
• Assist with formatting pleadings, motions, and briefs for filing according to rules of court and Bluebook.
• Assist the Deputy Director, Litigation Practice with organizing professional development CLEs.
• Report client needs to counsel of record.
• Support the legal team with excellent knowledge of all facets of Microsoft 365. 
• Support other projects, such as PowerPoint presentations, as needed. 
• Be or become familiar with the rules of practice for every court in which we work.

An ideal candidate will have: competency in Microsoft 365; exceptional writing, organizational, and communication skills; experience with state and federal court rules and electronic filing; experience working in a fast-paced trial and appellate advocacy practice; highly dependable and available and able to respond quickly to litigation needs, including short deadlines and in high pressure situations; demonstrated commitment to legal excellence and attention to detail.

Minimum Required Education and Experience

• Six years of experience as administrative assistant or office assistant, legal secretary or legal assistant.
• -OR- Associate’s degree plus four years of related experience 
• -OR- Bachelor's degree plus two years related experience

Application Instructions

Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply for jobs unless they believe they have every one of the qualifications as described in the job description. We are most interested in finding the best candidate for the job, and that candidate may be one who comes from a less traditional background. We would encourage you to apply, even if you don’t believe you meet every one of our qualifications described. If you are unsure of whether you meet the qualifications of this position, or how this would be determined, please feel free to contact us to discuss your application.

Visit our Jobs and Internship page at https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/jobs-internships, and follow prompts to submit: 

• Resume. 
• One-page cover letter that addresses your interest in OCT’s mission.

• A list of three professional references and their contact information.

Physical Working Requirements:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations will be provided to the extent possible and appropriate in the event of ADA qualifying disability.

This position requires the incumbent to sit for long periods of time; understand speech of another person and speak clearly so listeners can understand; routinely uses fingers to grasp, type move or assemble small objects. Position occasionally lifts and carries files and boxes weighing up to 20 pounds.

EEO Statement

At Our Children’s Trust, we are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and teammates without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Our Children’s Trust believes that diversity and inclusion is critical to our success and we seek to recruit, develop, and retain the most talented people.