The Legal Assistant provides administrative and substantive support to the Legal Department and the General Counsel’s office, particularly focusing on managing the priorities and projects of the Legal Director, and the General Counsel. The Legal Assistant is an integral part of these teams, which also include four Legislative Counsels, a Deputy General Counsel, a Program Manager and law fellows.
Position Responsibilities:
Administrative
• Assists the Legal Director and General Counsel in managing the priorities and projects of the Legal Department, and General Counsel’s office, including assisting with the calendar and systematizing and maintaining electronic and paper files.
• Supports all staff of the Legal Department and General Counsel’s office in all administrative duties including journal and Lexis-Nexis subscriptions, reimbursements, travel arrangements, as well as scheduling meetings with coalition members, pro bono attorneys, etc.
• Assists with the departments’ finances, including check requests, purchase orders, expense reports and the annual budgeting process.
Communications and Website
• Drafts and/or assists with editing and proofreading of other materials – including letters of support for nominees and legislation, talking points, fact sheets, articles for Equality magazine and other HRC and external publications.
Corporate Counsel
• Assists the General Counsel with the drafting of contracts and cease and desist letters for his or her review.
• Maintains the General Counsel’s filing, track contracts and intellectual property enforcement.
• Responsible for taking minutes during Board Meetings (including the coordination of law fellows to assist with the note-taking) and compiling the minutes for review and approval by the General Counsel.
Legal Referrals
• Responds to requests for legal referrals and other legal/legislative information requests from individuals and organizations, via phone, email and regular mail.
McCleary Law Fellow Program
• Assists with recruitment, selection and administrative support of the McCleary Law Fellow Program including, but not limited to, regular mailings to law schools to recruit candidates, contact with prospective law fellows to schedule interviews, posting and regular updating of law fellow application information on HRC website.
• Assists with the management of law fellows during their fellowship periods, etc.
Other Duties
• Provides the Policy Assistant with support in the planning for and administration of as many as three lobby days every year.
• Assigned other duties, including, but not limited to, assisting with legal and legislative research and attending coalition and other meetings on behalf of Legal, or General Counsel staff.
• Bachelor’s degree required and/or equivalent work experience.
• Administrative experience in a legal or public policy environment a plus.
• Familiarity, and preferably be proficient with, Windows-based word processing, calendar/contact management, and database applications such as MS Word, Outlook, Excel.
• Excellent organizational skills in terms of managing project deadlines, volumes of paperwork.
• Ability to adapt to rapidly changing political environment.
• Must be able to handle multiple tasks simultaneously while prioritizing important issues.
• Must be independent at times, collaborative at other times, and have the judgment to discern when to be either.
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to high quality and timely work product a must.
• Willingness to learn LEXIS-NEXIS necessary and knowledge of legal research techniques helpful.
• Experience with blogging and other communications work a plus.
• Personal interest and commitment to LGBTQ equality.
All positions at the Human Rights Campaign may require travel on a regular basis or periodically. Where the need arises for business travel, appropriate compensation as outlined by the Fair Labor Standards Act will apply.
To apply please visit www.hrc.silkroad.com