JOB TITLE: LEGAL OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR 2, OGC

JOB CODE: 07072

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 and analytical 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 commonwealth legal office; manages support staff functions in a complex legal office as defined by OGC; or performs specialized administrative or analytical staff support work for complex legal office programs or projects. Work involves interpreting, applying, and adapting commonwealth administrative programs and standards to meet the distinctive needs of the legal office. An important aspect of this work involves 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 information, which may include, but not be limited to, attorney-client privilege. Work is performed with initiative and independence and is reviewed through reports and conferences for overall effectiveness.

   DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS:

• Work at this level is differentiated from the next lower level by the ongoing development and evaluation of administrative operations or programs within a legal office setting, or by the organizational complexity of the legal office support function.

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 commonwealth legal office 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 complex public disclosure activity and issues.

• Coordinates an agency’s discovery and case management functions for complex litigation cases.

• Manages the document production and review process for cases according to agency standards, including collection of materials from clients, opposing parties, and third parties.

• Assists OGC litigation attorneys with administrative proceedings or civil cases by performing legal research, drafting legal documents, and analyzing legal issues.

• Assists OGC transactional attorneys by performing legal research, drafting transactional documents, and analyzing contract and procurement issues.

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

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

• 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.

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

• Participates in legal practice meetings pertaining to legal research and analysis or the development of case management policies and procedures.

• 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)

• One year as a Legal Office Administrator 1, OGC (commonwealth title);

or

• One year of professional administrative experience within a public or private legal office.