What are the responsibilities and job description for the Lead Paralegal / Office Manager position at Goodspeed Merrill?
Lead Paralegal / Office Manager – Dallas/Ft Worth Metroplex Area (Bedford), TX
This is a unique opportunity for a highly capable legal professional who enjoys both hands-on legal work and operational leadership. This role will support our Corporate and Advanced Tax Strategies teams while also helping manage the day-to-day operations of our new Dallas/Ft Worth office.
We are seeking someone who takes ownership, thrives in a fast-paced environment, and enjoys maintaining structure and efficiency within a legal practice. This individual will play an important role in supporting attorneys, coordinating office operations, and ensuring matters and workflows move forward smoothly.
Importantly, the firm’s main office in Colorado has already established the core operational infrastructure, including legal software, systems, and policies. This role is not responsible for building processes from scratch, but rather for implementing and maintaining these systems locally while ensuring the Texas office operates efficiently and consistently with firm standards.
The ideal candidate is a detail-oriented and proactive professional with strong organizational, communication, and problem-solving skills. They will be comfortable balancing substantive paralegal responsibilities with operational oversight while helping maintain a highly organized and professional office environment.
Key Responsibilities
Legal Support & Case Management
This is a unique opportunity for a highly capable legal professional who enjoys both hands-on legal work and operational leadership. This role will support our Corporate and Advanced Tax Strategies teams while also helping manage the day-to-day operations of our new Dallas/Ft Worth office.
We are seeking someone who takes ownership, thrives in a fast-paced environment, and enjoys maintaining structure and efficiency within a legal practice. This individual will play an important role in supporting attorneys, coordinating office operations, and ensuring matters and workflows move forward smoothly.
Importantly, the firm’s main office in Colorado has already established the core operational infrastructure, including legal software, systems, and policies. This role is not responsible for building processes from scratch, but rather for implementing and maintaining these systems locally while ensuring the Texas office operates efficiently and consistently with firm standards.
The ideal candidate is a detail-oriented and proactive professional with strong organizational, communication, and problem-solving skills. They will be comfortable balancing substantive paralegal responsibilities with operational oversight while helping maintain a highly organized and professional office environment.
Key Responsibilities
Legal Support & Case Management
- Provide paralegal support to attorneys within the Corporate and Advanced Tax Strategies practice groups.
- Assist attorneys with case preparation, legal research and drafting legal documents.
- Prepare and review pleadings, motions, discovery and legal correspondence.
- Maintain and organize case files and document management systems.
- Manage court filings, deadlines and case calendars.
- Assist with discovery management, document review and trial preparation.
- Communicate with clients, courts and opposing counsel as needed.
- Prepare governance documents such as operating agreements, bylaws, shareholder agreements, resolutions and consents.
- Assist attorneys with transaction closing checklists, tracking deliverables and assembling post-closing binders.
- Support attorneys on complex transactions through coordination, document review and organization.
- Maintain organizational charts and asset schedules for clients with multi-entity structures.
- Assist with preparation of trust instruments, powers of attorney, deeds, assignments and related estate planning documents.
- Coordinate trust funding and ownership transfers to ensure proper implementation of planning strategies.
- Support attorneys in implementing multi-generational wealth transfer strategies.
- Communicate and coordinate with clients, family offices, CPAs, fiduciaries and financial institutions.
- Coordinate execution of legal documents and ensure compliance with required formalities.
- Prepare materials for client meetings, governance sessions, and strategic discussions.
- Coordinate and manage the day-to-day administrative operations of the Dallas office.
- Maintain matters within the firm’s legal software systems, ensuring accurate data entry and document organization.
- Ensure firm procedures, workflows, and operational standards established by the main office are followed locally.
- Coordinate office scheduling, attorney calendars, and meeting logistics.
- Assist with billing coordination, time entry review, and file management.
- Help identify opportunities to improve office efficiency while maintaining alignment with firm systems and best practices.
- Serve as a point of coordination between the Texas office and the firm’s main office.
- Provide guidance and support to paralegals and administrative staff as the office grows.
- Assist with training, onboarding, and process improvements.
- Work closely with firm leadership to support continued growth and operational development of the office.