Administrative Assistant III - Project Clean Slate

Legal Assistant

Full-time, Detroit, Michigan, United States 

City of Detroit - Work with the Project Clean Slate Team

We are in search of a professional with experience in paralegal and/or legal assistant duties. This is an exciting time in the City of Detroit as we work to rebuild one of the most beautiful cities in the country. Project Clean Slate is an initiative of the City of Detroit Law Department which helps residents seek expungement of their criminal records?to gain access to better employment, housing, and educational opportunities.? 

Responsibilities:

This role is responsible for supporting Project Clean Slate attorneys at Project Clean Slate, the City of Detroit's program to expunge criminal records for Detroit residents.  The work ranges from supporting the Lead Attorney, pulling criminal records, ordering court records, scheduling client appointments, communicating with potential clients, filing, and providing notary services.

The Administrative Assistant class is a non-supervisory role that organizes and expedites office management activities in each major division of the City of Detroit. Administrative Assistants in this class are classified as Administrative Assistants, levels I-IV, with varying degrees of responsibility.

Administrative Assistants in this class lead and perform general office assistant work. The work requires knowledge of the procedures, techniques and practices involved in carrying out the work of an organization within established guidelines, and the skill to use various office equipment including fax machines, photocopiers, scanners, videoconferencing, telephone systems, and the ability to create and edit documents.

Duties Include:

• Attorney support, including communication with clients and court staff

• Retrieving criminal records (also known as ICHAT) and court Registers of Action

• Court record ordering (including arranging payment and retrieval) and follow up

• Efiling pleadings using MiFile and other court filing systems

• Supports department managers, department directors or related management staff

• Prepares standard and custom reports of a financial, personnel, payroll, or department- specific nature

• Greets visitors or callers and handles their inquiries or direct them to the appropriate persons according to their needs

• Sorts, opens, and distributes incoming mail to staff

• Makes copies of correspondence or other printed material

• Answers telephones and gives information to callers, takes messages, or transfers calls to appropriate individuals

• Requisitions office supplies, repairs on office equipment, and printing services

• Coordinates conferences, meetings, or special events, and arranges travel reservations for office personnel

• Maintains scheduling and event calendars

• Locates and assembles documents for briefings and conferences

• Assists staff by providing information about procedures, practices and policies in division

• Prepares minutes of meetings from notes and/or recordings

• Serves as liaison between management and staff by transmitting information, explaining appropriate work instructions, and following up on assignments

• Sets up, manages, and develops systems for paper or electronic filing systems, recordsinformation, updates paperwork, or maintains documents, such as attendance records,correspondence or other material

• Checks and/or compares documents, forms, applications, or other materials for accuracy, completeness, grammar, and format

• Creates, maintains, and enters information into databases

• Writes simple or repetitive, non-technical correspondence such as letters of acknowledgement in accordance with a given format

• Operates electronic mail systems and coordinates the flow of information, internally or with other organizations

• Operates office equipment, such as fax machines, copiers, or phone systems and arranges for repairs when equipment malfunctions

• Uses computers for various applications, such as database management or word processing

• Independently notes and follows up on commitments made at meetings and conferences by staff members

• Develops material for supervisor's use in public speaking engagements

• Maintains information needed for budget purposes

• Performs special projects and other duties as assigned

Education

For all Administrative Assistants, it is a requirement to have completed High School graduation or General Educational Development (GED) certificate.

For entry into the Administrative Assistant position, at least one (1) year of administrative support experience where use of personal computers to prepare correspondence, reports and charts to enter and retrieve information is required. Administrative Assistants must demonstrate proficiency with integrated word processing and spreadsheet functions. This proficiency may be measured by taking a written test.

For selection, appointment to an Administrative Assistant level II or higher, in addition to the minimum education requirements, more progressive levels of experience are required based on the following:

Administrative Assistant III - at least three (3) years of experience

Preferred Qualifications/Certifications: 

2-4 years of experience as paralegal, legal assistant, or court clerk 

Technical Skills:

Familiarity with court processes and efiling 

Advanced knowledge of Smartsheet

Knowledge & Attributes:

• Customer Advocacy - understanding customer needs is key to process improvement.

• Communication - effective verbal and written communication skills at all levels of the organization; essential for the many roles you may fill, i.e.

• Passion - must be self-motivated, have initiative, and have a positive personality.

• Change Leadership - demonstrated performance as a change agent in the past; ability to deal well with changes and setbacks.

• Program Specialties - specific experience in law related fields is required.

• Knowledge

• Basic or commonly used rules, procedures, or operations, which typically require some previous experience or training

• Administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology, for example, to file material and obtain requested data from files

• Principles and processes for providing customer and personal services, which includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction

• Grammar, spelling, punctuation, and required formats sufficient to recognize and correct such errors in correspondence and reports

• Extensive body of rules, procedures, or operations applied to clerical assignments and knowledge of the organization and functions of the office in order to perform all of the procedural work of the office. This includes knowledge to carry out and coordinate, in a timely and effective manner, many different procedures, each of which might involve numerous steps.

• Advise clerks or secretaries in subordinate organizations of the appropriate procedures to use

• Duties, priorities, commitments, policies, and program goals of the staff sufficient to perform non-routine assignments

• Coordinating the work of the office with the work of other offices

• Administrative concepts, principles, and practices sufficient to perform independently such duties as eliminating conflict and duplication in extensive office procedures

Skills

• Use of personal computers, telephone systems, fax machines and other standard office equipment

• Use of Microsoft Office (e.g. Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint) and other office suite software packages

• Use of Excel (e.g. Formulas, Pivot Tables, Vlookup, Hlookup, other functions, charts, tables) and other financial management software packages functionality

• Adapting policies or procedures to emergency situations and establishing practices or procedures to meet new situations

• Recognizing how and when certain policies, procedures, or guidelines will be confusing to others

• Communicating effectively, both orally and in writing

• Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents

• Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times

• Talking to others to convey information effectively

• Managing one's own time and the time of others

Ability

• Effectively speak, write, read, and understand the English language

• Follow written and oral directions

• Read and comprehend relevant documents

• Process and integrate simple data

• Hear at a conversational level

• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with both external and internal contacts

Evaluation Plan

• CBT/Computerized Assessment    30%
• Interview: 70%
• Evaluation of Training, Experience & Personal Qualifications: P/F
• Total of CBT, Interview and Evaluation T.E.P: 100%

Additional points may be awarded for:

• Veteran Points: 0 - 15 points

• Detroit Residency Credit:   15 points

ALL APPLICANTS MUST SUBMIT RESUME TO BE CONSIDERED!