Legal Assistant

Description

We're Hiring: Legal Assistant

Join our City Attorney’s Office as a Legal Assistant and play a vital role in supporting the City's legal operations and commitment to public service.

We are seeking a detail-oriented, professional, and resourceful individual to provide comprehensive administrative, clerical, and legal support to the City Attorneys. This position offers considerable independence in managing daily operations, coordinating legal matters, maintaining records, preparing legal documents, and ensuring deadlines and confidential information are handled with accuracy, discretion, and professionalism.

Bring our City values to life:

• Accountability: Ensure accuracy, confidentiality, and dependability in managing legal documents, records, and deadlines.
• Empowerment: Exercise sound judgment, initiative, and independence in supporting the City Attorney’s Office.
• Innovation: Identify opportunities to improve office processes, organization, and operational efficiency.
• Ownership: Take pride in your work, anticipate needs, and see responsibilities through to completion.

Position Details: Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., with occasional evening meetings, public hearings, and City Council meetings as required.

If you are organized, diplomatic, and passionate about public service, we invite you to bring your skills and commitment to our team!

Join us in making a difference through accountability, empowerment, innovation, and ownership.

Duties and Responsibilities

The functions listed below are those that represent the majority of the time spent working in this position. Management may assign additional functions related to the type of work of the position as necessary.

• Maintains calendars for the Attorneys; schedules and coordinates meetings, appointments, hearings, conferences, and public meetings; makes travel arrangements as needed; and assembles meeting materials, agendas, and briefing packages for attorney attendance.
• Monitors and tracks contract and agreement review deadlines; proactively alerts attorneys to approaching deadlines and priority matters requiring their attention.
• Coordinates the execution of legal documents by appropriate City officials; manages routing, signature collection, distribution of executed documents, and filing of executed documents in accordance with City record retention policies and applicable law..
• Receives and screens telephone calls and visitors; responds to routine inquiries; routes calls and visitors to the appropriate attorney; and takes accurate messages.
• Processes, sorts, routes, and distributes incoming correspondence, mail, and legal documents to the appropriate attorney or City department in a timely manner.
• Performs data entry into legal management, document management, and City systems; maintains accurate and current records in all systems used by the City Attorney's Office; orders office supplies and processes purchase requisitions and invoices in accordance with City procurement procedures.
• Prepares, formats, and proofreads a variety of legal documents including contracts, agreements, ordinances, resolutions, memoranda, legal opinions, correspondence, and legal notices as directed; reviews documents for accuracy, completeness, and conformance to established standards; flags discrepancies prior to attorney review.
• Maintains and organizes physical and electronic filing systems for the City Attorney's Office, including legal files, contracts, agreements, and memos of understanding; ensures files are accurate, current, and accessible.
• Drafts and transcribes correspondence, meeting minutes, and statements from dictation or written instructions; prepares reports, summaries, and routine replies to non-legal inquiries as directed.
• Serves as a Florida Notary Public; notarizes legal documents, agreements, affidavits, and other documents as required.
• Maintains records in compliance with Florida Public Records Law and applicable federal and state requirements; ensures appropriate handling and retention of confidential and attorney-client privileged materials.
• Conducts basic legal research as directed, including researching Florida statutes, local ordinances, City Charter provisions, and administrative rules; searches public records, court databases, and legal research platforms; compiles and organizes findings for attorney use.
• Monitors relevant legal notices, legislative updates, and filing deadlines as directed; keeps attorneys informed of applicable requirements and approaching deadlines.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements

• High school diploma or GED equivalent is required.
• Associate's degree in Legal Studies, Paralegal Studies, Office Administration, Business Administration, or a related field is preferred.
• Minimum of three (3) to five (5) years of progressively responsible experience in a legal office, law firm, government attorney's office, or comparable legal environment; or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience that provides the required knowledge, skills, and abilities. The ideal candidate will have a minimum of two (2) years’ experience working with county or municipal government.
• Demonstrated proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, including Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint, is required; experience with document management systems, legal research platforms, or government ERP systems is preferred.
• Must possess or obtain Florida Notary Public certification within three (3) months of hire and maintain active notary status throughout employment.
• Must possess and maintain a valid State of Florida Driver's License with an acceptable driving history.

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities

An Equal Opportunity Employer
The City of St. Cloud is an equal opportunity employer that prohibits discrimination, harassment, or retaliation in all of its employment practices based on race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran or family status, genetic information, or any other status or condition protected by applicable state or federal laws. The City participates in employment eligibility verifications through E-verify. Veteran’s preference is given in accordance with Florida Law.

City of St. Cloud Benefits Package
We believe our City employees to be our most valuable asset. To attract and retain those employees, we offer a competitive wages and benefits package including on-the-job training, seminars, and performance appraisals.

We invite you to look at the benefits the City of St. Cloud has to offer. We think you will find that the rewards of the job are equal to the challenge.

All of our Full-time regular employees are eligible for the city's benefits package, which includes:

• On-Site Employee Health Care Center - free for employees and their dependents on the health insurance plan
• Paid Vacation
• Sick Leave (Ability to roll over from year to year)
• 11 Paid Holidays for General Employees – Sworn Fire department employees can earn up to 156 holiday hours per fiscal year, and sworn Police Officers earn up to 116 holidays hours per fiscal year. (Both are prorated from the employee’s start date.)
• One (1) Floating Holiday for General Employees.
• Medical and Dental Coverage
• Pension Plan
• Awards Programs
• Deferred Compensation Plan
• Discounted Automobile Insurance
• Employee Assistance Program
• Flexible Spending Account
• Flexible Work Schedules
• Holiday Bonus – subject to City Council approval
• Take-Home vehicles policy (Police Officers)
• Life and Accidental Death (One-time annual salary paid by City)
• Long Term Disability Coverage (paid by City)
• Management Leave
• Sick Leave Bank available for all employees - for Fire Union sick leave bank information, see union contract