Bilingual Legal Assistant - Los Angeles, CA

MALDEF is the nation’s leading non-profit Latino civil rights law firm. Founded in 1968, MALDEF works to safeguard the civil rights of Latinos and to increase the community’s ability to participate fully in American society. We currently seek a Bilingual Legal Assistant to support our legal staff in the Los Angeles Regional Office.

Job Responsibilities:

Under the supervision of the Regional Counsel and National Senior Counsel, the Legal Assistant is responsible for preparing legal documents for filing with state or federal court and for service on opposing counsel/parties using Word and for maintaining pleading/brief dockets, correspondence files, and related files for cases in litigation or under investigation by attorneys in regional office.

The Legal Secretary conducts and assists attorneys in conducting interviews of actual and potential clients and/or witnesses; maintains office calendar and tickler system for important court dates, deadlines, and other appointments; and/or finalizes business correspondence, memoranda, and other documents for mailing and/or other distribution; prepares exhibits for use at trial, in a hearing, or as attachments to documents/briefs; collates, numbers, sorts, and files documents and other materials produced by or for opposing party in discovery; drafts simple correspondence and memoranda; prepares expense forms and check requests for attorneys; types, collates, and when necessary, calculates attorney hours for recovery of fees from opposing party; arranges business-related travel for attorneys and other professional staff; answers telephones and completes business telephone calls to confirm appointments and court appearances; receives and guides business visitors; and performs other duties as required.

MALDEF offers a generous benefits package, including 100% employer-paid medical, dental, vision for the employee and qualified dependent family members, as well as short- and long-term disability insurance, term life insurance, 403(b) retirement plan with employer contribution and match, employee assistance plan, 11 paid holidays, and 20 days of personal time off (PTO) per year.

Candidates must be able to communicate fluently in both English and Spanish, including the ability to speak, read, write, understand, and translate from one language to the other.