Location: Charlottesville,VA, USA
The University of Virginia School of Law seeks an experienced and highly motivated professional to serve as a Clinical Programs Legal Assistant. This is a new position at the Law School.
The University of Virginia School of Law is consistently recognized as one of the top law schools in the country. The environment is both active and supportive, with a strong sense of collegiality among students, faculty, and staff. The Law School's clinical programs currently include 24 clinics in a wide range of practice areas, and offer students exposure to a range of litigation, policy and transactional work. The clinics provide free legal services to clients in the local community, nationally and internationally. Over half of the Law School's students enroll in an academic clinic during their studies. While the clinical programs include both in-house clinics (taught by resident faculty) and external clinics (taught by adjunct faculty), this position will primarily serve in-house clinics, with some basic administrative support for external clinics.
The Clinical Programs Legal Assistant will perform a range of administrative tasks in support of the in-house clinics as part of a team with the Clinical Programs Paralegal. Successful candidates must understand and maintain client confidentiality and information safeguarding, as well as demonstrate strong interpersonal skills. Responsibilities include performing complex and detailed clerical, administrative, and secretarial duties to assist attorneys in the representation of clients, as well as more traditional faculty support work such as tracking student hours, assisting with reimbursements, and assisting with some events. Meticulous attention to detail, a high level of organization, and working efficiently within a team are essential to be successful in this position. The extent to which the Legal Assistant may share responsibility for paralegal work with the Clinical Programs Paralegal will depend on the skills, experience and interests of the candidate as well as the needs of the clinics at various points in the semester.
Specific duties of this position include:
* Answer phone calls, handle prospective client inquiries and intake, manage attorney scheduling, and notarize documents.
* Perform conflict checks before opening new files; create new paper and electronic files and organize documents.
* Keep clients informed by maintaining contact, scheduling meetings, and communicating case progress.
* Maintain an up-to-date list of active files, including calendaring deadlines, for supervising attorneys.
* Assist with event and meeting planning, including reserving space, ordering catering, communicating with guests and participants, coordinating with Law School departments as relevant, and other event-related tasks.
* Track students' class hours and serve as administrative liaison with students.
* Collaborate with Clinical Programs Paralegal to draft legal documents when requested, such as letters, motions, subpoenas, summonses, and other pleadings, using judgment and attention to detail for content, accuracy, and completeness.
* Collaborate with Clinical Programs Paralegal to prepare court documents for filing, including copy editing, cite checking, preparing tables of contents/authorities and assembling exhibits.
* Process reimbursements and assist with travel arrangements for faculty, students and occasionally clients.
* Interact with other offices and departments outside of the Law School to obtain and provide information.
* Observe strict confidentiality of all matters within the office.
* Other duties as assigned.
Required Education and Experience:
* High school diploma plus four years of relevant experience; a Bachelor's degree may substitute for years of experience.
* Ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, prioritize and effectively manage workload, and regularly meet deadlines.
* Proficiency with Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat.
* Ability to communicate professionally, verbally and in writing.
* Ability to communicate effectively with diverse populations and marginalized individuals.
* Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships.
* Ability to problem-solve independently and proactively seek out opportunities to support and improve operations.
* Ability to maintain a high level of professionalism and confidentiality.
* Ability to effectively proofread for accurate grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Preferred Education and Experience:
* Five or more years' experience supporting a lawyer, law practice or legal clinic.
* Experience working with persons of various social, racial, cultural, economic, and educational backgrounds.
* Familiarity with law practice management software such as Clio, as well as with Microsoft Teams and cloud-based document storage services.
This is primarily a sedentary job involving extensive use of desktop computers.
This position requires most work to be performed in person at the Law School, with the opportunity to perform a limited amount of work remotely in accordance with Law School policy. This is a full-time University Operational and Administrative position with benefits.
To Apply:
Apply online at Internal applicants must apply through their UVA Workday profile. Complete the application, and attach the following:
* Cover letter
* CV/resume
* Names and contact information for three professional references
* Please note that ALL REQUESTED documents MUST be uploaded in the resume submission field, and you can combine documents into one PDF. *
Applications that do not have all the required documents will not receive full consideration.*
The University will perform background checks on all new hires prior to employment.
Questions regarding the position should be directed to Professor Sarah Shalf, ...@law.virginia.edu. Questions regarding the application process should be directed to Marcus Rozier, Academic Recruiter ...@virginia.edu.
The School of Law is located in Charlottesville, VA, a college town setting with natural beauty and significant historical relevance in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Charlottesville is a wonderful place to live with an extraordinary quality of life, often ranked among the best places to live in the United States.
For more information about UVA and the Charlottesville community please see and
The University of Virginia, including the UVA Health System which represents the UVA Medical Center, Schools of Medicine and Nursing, UVA Physician's Group and the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, are fundamentally committed to the diversity of our faculty and staff. We believe diversity is excellence expressing itself through every person's perspectives and lived experiences. We are equal opportunity and affirmative action employers. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, color, disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, national or ethnic origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, veteran or military status, and family medical or genetic information.