Legal Secretary

A well-established law firm in the Northwest Suburbs is seeking an experienced Legal Secretary with recent law firm experience and a strong working knowledge of litigation support.

The firm handles a broad mix of matters, including civil and commercial litigation, business and corporate law, real estate, community association matters, employment law, estate planning, and related legal work.

While the position will provide support across multiple practice areas, the majority of the work is litigation-focused. Candidates must be comfortable preparing, formatting, finalizing, and filing litigation documents in a professional law firm environment.

Responsibilities

• Prepare, revise, proofread, format, and finalize pleadings, motions, discovery, notices, correspondence, and other legal documents
• Understand and distinguish between common litigation documents, including pleadings, motions, written discovery, notices of motion, notices of filing, and proofs of service
• Generate litigation documents from attorney direction, templates, and existing matter files
• Handle electronic filing with Illinois state and federal courts
• Prepare documents for filing and ensure proper formatting, signatures, exhibits, service information, and filing requirements
• Maintain attorney calendars, court deadlines, meetings, conferences, and conference calls
• Handle typing and dictation/transcription
• Maintain digital case files and organized electronic filing systems
• Organize and file correspondence, pleadings, discovery, and case-related documentation
• Answer and route telephone calls and messages professionally
• Provide day-to-day administrative support to attorneys and staff
• Assist with scheduling and general office coordination
• Help maintain an efficient and organized workflow in a deadline-driven environment

Qualifications

• Recent legal secretary or legal administrative experience within a law firm
• Prior litigation support experience required
• Hands-on experience preparing and finalizing pleadings and discovery
• Experience with electronic court filing required
• Working knowledge of common litigation documents and court filing procedures
• Ability to take a document from attorney direction or draft form through final, professionally formatted filing-ready form
• Corporate, transactional, or business-law experience is a plus, but litigation experience is more important
• Strong proofreading, grammar, formatting, and organizational skills
• Accurate typing speed of approximately 80+ WPM
• Strong time-management and multitasking abilities
• Professional communication skills and telephone manner
• Dependable, punctual, flexible, and comfortable working under deadlines
• Strong team-oriented mindset

Technology

Candidates should be comfortable with:

• Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office
• Corel WordPerfect
• Illinois and federal electronic court filing systems
• Legal calendar and client database systems
• Email and internet-based applications
• Dropbox and electronic document management systems

Important: This is not an entry-level litigation support position. The successful candidate should already understand the basic litigation workflow and be able to independently recognize, prepare, format, and finalize common court and discovery documents.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, age, color, sex (including pregnancy), religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, military status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable laws or regulations.

GPAC (Growing People and Companies) is an award-winning search firm specializing in placing quality professionals within multiple industries across the United States since 1990. We are extremely competitive, client-focused and realize that our value is in our ability to deliver the right solutions at the right time.