Champaign County
Job Description

Job Title: Administrative Legal Secretary
Department: State's Attorney
Reports To: Senior Administrative Assistant
FLSA Status: Non-exempt
Grade Range: E
Prepared Date: August, 2009

SUMMARY Performs specialized and confidential secretarial duties which often require independent judgement. Handles clerical and administrative functions for the State's Attorney's office.

PRIMARY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

Assists and acts in a confidential capacity to the State's Attorney and legal staff, including matters regarding the formulation, determination and effectuation of the State's Attorney's management policies regarding labor relations.

Performs confidential secretarial duties. Types; prepares case management reports; transcribes; trains other staff personnel; prepares and sends letters, memos, reports, warrants, summons, indictments, invoices, legal documents and faxes.

Schedules hearings and meetings, notifies the Judge and all necessary parties.

Organizes and prioritizes work, working independently, meeting deadlines and handling a wide variety of clerical responsibilities without direct supervisory direction.

Serves as back-up secretary for other assigned legal secretaries.

Manages calendar and assists in meeting deadlines. Co-ordinates meetings.

Performs other clerical duties such as answering phones, scheduling appointments, providing information to callers, taking dictation, composing and typing routine correspondence, and reading and routing incoming mail.

Files correspondence and legal documents in office filing system and accesses data and case updates in the computer terminal system. Ensures proper indexing and filing of original legal documents.

Answers telephone and provides information to the County staff and the general public. Receives inquiries, by phone or in person, regarding alleged incidents.

Receives payments for pending cases as directed by supervisors.

May be responsible for maintaining LEADS certification and running criminal history checks.

Schedules appointments, greets visitors and directs them to the proper offices or courtrooms.

Obtains information on cases by utilizing State and County computer terminals.

Maintains a variety of files and records; some of these include a file of active warrants, records maintained by the Civil and Criminal Units. Utilizes a personal computer or terminal to input and update records.

Completes forms and prepares reports such as disposition reports on criminal cases and statistical reports on court cases.

May supervise secretarial/clerical staff. May train and co-ordinate volunteers and interns.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES May supervise and train secretarial/clerical employees, volunteers or interns for the Adult Diversion Program and the State's Attorney's Office. Carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization's policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include interviewing and training employees; assigning, and directing work; appriaising performance, addressing complaints and resolving problems.

QUALIFICATIONS To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each primary duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE High school diploma or general education degree (GED) and three years of progressively responsible secretarial experience, including one year as a legal secretary; or equivalent combination of education and experience. Requires knowledge of modern office practices, principles of modern record keeping, setup and maintaining filing systems and of legal phrases and terminology. Requires skill in operating a personal computer, word processing software, typewriter and in oral communications. May require skill in the use of dictaphones and transcribing equipment.

LANGUAGE SKILLS Ability to read and interpret documents such as court directives and rulings, law enforcement reports, governmental regulations and policy and procedure manuals. Ability to write routine reports and correspondence. Ability to speak effectively before individuals and employees of the organization.

MATHEMATICAL SKILLS Ability to calculate figures and amounts such as discounts, interest, commissions, proportions and percentages.

REASONING ABILITY Ability to apply common sense understanding to carry out instructions furnished in written, oral, or diagram form. Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS As required.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the primary functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; and talk; or hear. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 35 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and distance vision.

WORK ENVIRONMENT The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the primary functions of this job. Normal office conditions. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.