JOB TITLE: LEGAL OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR 1, OGC

JOB CODE: 07071

SERIES NATURE OF WORK: The Legal Office Administrator job series describes work in the administrative, operational, or analytical support of legal offices under the jurisdiction of the Governor’s Office of General Counsel (OGC).

DEFINITION: This is professional administrative work involving a variety of functions and roles to support the efficient operation of a commonwealth legal office.

An employee in this job serves as the office manager for a small commonwealth legal office as defined by OGC; supervises support staff functions in a larger or more complex legal office; or performs specialized administrative or analytical staff support work for legal office programs or projects. Work involves interpreting and applying commonwealth administrative programs and standards to meet the distinctive needs of the legal office and includes analyzing, developing, and effectively recommending new or revised administrative policies and operating procedures. Work may also include the exercise of discretion and judgement in the development and application of commonwealth and OGC policies related to procurements and solicitations as well as the conduct of budgetary analyses in the development thereof. Work requires the handling of sensitive and confidential matters consistent with attorney-client privilege. Work is performed independently under general direction and is reviewed through reports and conferences for effectiveness and conformance with policies and procedures.

EXAMPLES OF WORK: (NOTE: The examples of work are representative of the work, but every position classified to this job may not perform all examples of work listed. Conversely, this is not an all-inclusive list of work examples.)

• Serves as the office manager for a small commonwealth legal office as defined by OGC with responsibility for budget support, fiscal management, procurement, human resources liaison, office space utilization, scheduling, travel arrangements, law library maintenance, case management systems, and related administrative and clerical functions.

• Supervises or manages clerical, administrative, and technical legal office support staff.

• Analyzes legal office operations and recommends, develops, and implements procedural and workflow improvements.

• Recommends corrective actions to enforce compliance with commonwealth or OGC policies.

• Serves as the Agency Open Records Officer under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law for an agency with routine to moderately complex public disclosure activity and issues.

• Develops and implements policies and procedures for managing legal records and case files, administering litigation holds, and preserving records and data related to legal action.

• Serves as the business relationship liaison with agency program areas to develop and standardize case referral documentation and processes, and revises these processes based on the analysis of litigation results and regulatory changes.

• Analyzes legal office performance and production data and prepares reports of findings, trends, and opportunities for improvement.

• Serves as the agency’s litigation coordinator by tracking incoming cases and ensuring that all court and filing deadlines are met.

• Administers contracts for outside counsel, court reporter services, online legal research services, expert witnesses, and related legal services and subscriptions.

• Coordinates the legal office review of contracts, interprets and applies commonwealth contracting policies and guidelines, and recommends contracting process improvements.

• Coordinates the legal office review of agency regulatory packages.

• Reviews and responds to administrative appeals of agency decisions by reviewing case files for errors of fact, analyzing the decision making process for conformance with guidelines, and recommending or drafting responses.

• Issues, evaluates, monitors, and recommends transaction policies and procedures to ensure that office transaction and procurement operations are handled in an efficient and effective manner.

• Conducts pre-review of contracts and purchase orders to ensure necessary documents are prepared and available for execution before forwarding to the attorney.

• Prepares procurement solicitations; advises on status of spending plans and suggests resolutions of various budgetary issues as they may arise; researches and advises on procurement issues; and completes necessary actions for service requisitions.

• Manages a portfolio of loan settlements for complex multi-million dollar financial transactions involving public infrastructure funding.

• Assists attorneys with legal research and the preparation of various legal documents.

• Provides advice and direction to agency legal offices on OGC policies and procedures.

• Prepares, reviews, and processes highly sensitive documentation pertaining to extraditions, capital cases, pardons, criminal referrals, and related OGC matters.

• Conducts special projects and studies at the direction of an attorney on legal, regulatory, and policy issues and trends and prepares reports of findings.

• Develops charts, graphs, and timelines based on research and analysis.

• Receives, reviews, and researches requests for information from the public or other commonwealth parties and drafts responses for review by an attorney.

• Leads or participates on a project team to update and modify information technology solutions and resources to better support overall case management and other information needs of the enterprise.

• Engages in cross-functional knowledge and skill sharing and training with colleagues consistent with operational or organizational requirements.

• Performs the full range of supervisory duties.

• An employee in this job may participate in the performance of subordinates’ work consistent with operational or organizational requirements.

• Performs related work as required.

ENTRY LEVEL KNOWLEDGES, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES:

• Knowledge of legal office functions and operations.

• Knowledge of the use and functionality of Microsoft Office Suite software.

• Ability to analyze and interpret written information and numerical data.

• Ability to communicate effectively orally.

• Ability to communicate effectively in writing.

• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships.

FULL PERFORMANCE KNOWLEDGES, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES: (NOTE: These are expected of an employee performing the work of this job at the full performance level. These may not be used for merit system evaluation or examination purposes and are not position-specific performance standards.)

• Knowledge of the principles and practices of legal office administration.

MINIMUM EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING: (NOTE: Based on the Entry Level Knowledges, Skills, and Abilities)

• Two years of varied office management or staff work within a public or private legal office.