Paralegal – Economic Justice

Description

Legal  Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio (LASCO)’s mission is to provide civil  legal aid and advocacy to overcome unfairness and injustice, reduce  poverty, and increase opportunity. LASCO has a long-standing history of being  committed to searching out the patterns, causes of, and solutions to  the repetitive and fundamental legal problems facing low-income Ohioans  and pursuing the legal recourse needed to address those problems. Since  1966, our organizations have helped thousands of Ohio’s poor obtain and  keep housing, secure public benefits, worked with families to gain and  maintain economic stability, and helped domestic violence survivors to  live free of fear and abuse and to obtain the resources needed to  sustain themselves and their children.

LASCO is actively seeking a professional, reliable, and dedicated paralegal to join our team. This position will initially support the Consumer / Economic Justice Law  Practice Group to provide comprehensive legal services for civil issues  in pursuit of LASCO’s mission and priorities in Central Ohio.

In  this multifaceted role, responsibilities include collecting and  organizing information and documents from clients, intake evaluations to  help with case determinations, completing forms for clients, file  maintenance, routine correspondence with clients and others, and some  general administrative tasks.

Are You Someone Who:

• Has interest in and sensitivity to the legal needs of low-income individuals?
• Is motivated, professional and customer service focused?
• Can communicate verbally with a wide range of people?
• Takes pride in excellent attention to detail when producing documents and other work?
• Is agile and able to respond effectively to the changing needs of a growing organization?
• Creates processes to increase work efficiencies and systems to work smarter not harder?
• Is open to participating in community events?
• Works well within in a fast paced, collaborative, team-driven, and goal-based environment?

You Will:

• Serve as support for the daily work needs of attorneys in the Economic Justice Team, including the Consumer Law and Bankruptcy Practice Group
• Support all functions related to legal advocacy, including but not limited to client communication, document review, drafting  and filing pleadings, conducting research, discovery, cite-checking and editing and formatting motions and briefing, drafting procedural  motions, trial preparation
• Assist in the work needs of attorneys in person at court
• Build  relationships with clients and usher them through the intake and case  acceptance process, working respectfully and effectively with clients  who are dealing with high levels of stress
• Collect, organize and manage information and documents from clients
• Support translation of necessary documentation such as identification documents, written statements or similar
• Intake evaluations to help with case determinations
• Conduct client calls and follow up with clients as needed
• Assist attorneys in assessing client financial situation
• Draft correspondence to clients including routine communications, closing letters and no contact letters among others
• Draft forms for clients among other necessary documentation
• Perform  administrative tasks including opening hard files, opening electronic  cases, sending intake packets, completing reporting paperwork and other  related duties
• Support and collaborate with staff, partners and other related parties to help achieve goals
• Provides other assistance to attorneys as requested by the Managing Attorney or Executive Director
• Be responsible for some general office work including incoming/outgoing mail, making copies, sending client information and other similar tasks

Requirements

You Have:

• A positive attitude, go-getter mindset and drive to do things well
• Demonstrated relevant experience of at least 3 years
• Ability to anticipate needs and navigate problems with a creative, practical approach toward reaching successful resolution
• Ability to work collaboratively with a team as well as independently
• The ability to prioritize workload to manage time and tasks in a dynamic environment
• Proficient skills across the Microsoft Office Suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint)
• Demonstrated ability to communicate, verbally and in writing, effectively with diverse audiences
• Strong work ethic with an eye for detail
• High ability to exercise sound judgement and discretion
• English language proficiency is essential and Spanish/English bilingual skills are a plus. Additional languages – even better
• Legal authorizatio