Legal Assistant / Legal Secretary / Paralegal
Part-Time to Full-Time
Corporate, Business, Transactional & Securities Law Firm in Downers Grove:
Velocity Law, LLC
Business Lawyer: Nancy Fallon-Houle
5449 Bending Oaks Place
Downers Grove, IL 60515
nfallon@velocitylaw.com
www.velocitylaw.com
Near Intersection of I-355 and Maple (Just South of I-88, Just North of I-55)
Law firm in Downers Grove, in business for 17 years, seeks experienced,
personable, part-time, ¾ time, or full-time legal assistant, legal secretary, or paralegal to
work 20 - 35 hours per week in our office. (Not a work-at-home position. Though a few
tasks can be done remotely after becoming familiar with the work for a few months.)
Practice Areas. The firm’s practice areas are in business law, business
formations, business transactions, corporate law, securities law, securities compliance.
We do not handle any of the following: Litigation, divorce, family law, real estate,
estate planning, bankruptcy, tax, criminal.
Corporate Law & Business Law: LLC formation; incorporation; SS-4; REG-1;
issue stock certificates; minute books; resolutions; annual reports; name searches on IL
and DE Secretaries of State, US trademark name searches; corporate maintenance &
compliance filings in Illinois, Delaware and a few other states; business license
applications, business transactions, business agreements.
Securities Law: Private securities offering compliance, investment advisor
registrations with SEC and states on FINRA (will train on this SEC), Regualtion D notice
filings on EDGAR and State Regulation D Filings on NASAA EFD (will train on the
securities electronic filings), CTA and CPO registrations on the NFA systems of ORS
and Easy File (will train on NFA), and a few state blue sky filings (by paper).
Your Ideal Background. Ideally, your background is in corporate law, corporate
compliance, business formations (LLCs and corporations, and Tax ID applications),
business transactions, contracts, business deal documents, business agreements,
online filings. Will consider person with other area of specialty if you are large-law firmtrained, smart, pleasant, demonstrate drive and have advanced skills in Word, Outlook
and document production, with some Excel and Adobe, and solid experience in online
filings.
Experience Required. Please have at least 3 to 5 years’ experience (more the
better, and more nets the higher end of the pay range), as a Legal Assistant, Legal
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Secretary, or Paralegal. Would consider a person with an Administrative Assistant
background, who is an advanced Word and Outlook user, who has done heavy Word
document production, with formatting and edits. Must have:
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Current and fluent experience in 2013 versions of Office, Word, Outlook and
Internet Explorer, including email, contacts and calendar. You will heavily use
Email, Contacts, Calendar and Internet.
Fluency in using the Internet as business info search tool
Fluency in scanning docs to Adobe PDF and naming them (we can train on
this); Somewhat experienced in Adobe PDF, and basic experience in Excel.
If your MS Office experience is older like 2007 or 2010, that’s fine, but you would need
to please take 2013 (or 2010) training on your own at your expense. Its generally free
on the Internet)
Environment of Your Experience. Prefer legal experience from a large
downtown law firm. Will consider person with corporate law or compliance department
background, business transactions, or compliance person in the securities or other
financial services industry, or even litigation background, if you have fluent/advanced
experience in Word and heavy document production background, and if your past or
present company uses current technology.
No trainees please. Let us not waste each others’ time if you don’t have the
stated experience.
If you are a job market re-entrant, please apply only if you were previously
trained at a large downtown law firm, and are very current on, and fluent in, a current
version of Word and in Outlook (2013, or 2010 is acceptable if you get your own
training), and with previous significant document production experience, and advanced
& fluent in use of email, Outlook, and internet research, in a business setting.
Position Content:
How:
o Document production for client businesses, in Word.
o Email communications in Outlook, Add/Update Outlook Contacts,
Calendar Items in Outlook for Attorney.
o Print electronic copies of tasks completed to PDF or scan to PDF.
o Use our templates, which are concise and in Plain English.
What:
Most Frequent Work:
o Internet research on Business Names and Due Diligence Items.
o Internet research for due diligence purposes.
o Prepare and file (paper or online): Incorporations, LLC formations, SS-4
and Illinois REG-1, local or professional business license applications,
amendments to Corps and LLCs, and annual reports, each from client
facts.
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o Prepare & issue stock certificates and stock ledgers.
o Prepare Corporation and LLC Resolutions, from client facts.
o Assemble minute books using our checklist.
o Internet research of city or village business license, and Illinois
Department of professional regulation licenses, download forms and fees
for registration of businesses and register if client requests.
o Monitor clients’ corporate and LLC annual reports on secretary of state
site, check to our calendar, send reminders or make filings.
o Name searches in IL Sec of State, IL Trademark office, US Trademark
Office, Google (will train on this aspect)
o Internet research of state securities filing fees, updating our charts with
info from state websites.
o Internet research of state licensing requirements for investment advisers
and professional services
o Edit and format agreements & our form letters with accuracy.
o Edit and format “private offering memos” or disclosure documents
prepared by the lawyer; Clean up formatting or create formatting.
o Create forms, or initial typing input of forms (occasionally).
o Scan documents into PDF and rename them according to our document
naming protocol, emailing scanned documents internally and to clients.
o Make copies (more scanning than copying).
o Sort and File documents in electronic or paper files.
o Make paper and electronic files for client matters, file client documents in
paper files; purge and move files to offsite storage.
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Enter Outlook cards.
Enter attorney calendar items and maintain calendar.
Prepare FedEx internet labels, with email tracking notices.
Enter time in Word documents or Time slips; run time detail in Time slips
invoices.
Expense report data and mileage log
“Remove from mailing list” task.
Bank runs and supply runs.
Fill copier and fax machines with paper
Less Frequent work (will train on these aspects when arise):
o Input client data on securities regulatory compliance forms online and on
paper ADV, Form D (SEC) on EDGAR, Form 8R and 7R (NFA): Will train
on this aspect, but person needs to be able to manage, and keep on top
of, the detail involved and be fluent at doing online applications and saving
records of filings to our server.
o Collect Client Data for filing online.
o Prepare state SEC Form D filings using our template letters; prepare
summary charts of state filings.
o File online state Form D electronic filings on NASAA EFD system.
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o Prepare letters and packages for state securities (blue sky) filings.
o Input client investor numbers from Excel sheets to our Word doc forms.
Flexible Hours. We need you here in person during the week-day work day
please, at our office in Downers Grove, with hours we together arrange, any time
between 9:00 am and 6:00 pm. You can arrive at 10 am and leave at 3pm, if desired, or
any hours in between. Not a work-at-home position, nor a second-job-on-nights-andweekends position. Hours flexible for a dependable candidate with relevant experience
and a demonstrated commitment to completing our client work in a timely fashion, and
after these qualities are demonstrated with several weeks of experience. (Employee
also should be flexible about working varying hours per week, with more hours when
work dictates, or less hours when work flow is slower.) Part-time, with shorter or longer
days, can be arranged, working around the lawyer’s schedule. We can make
allowances for flexibility of hours during work day or week, including sometimes
accommodating kids schedules (but this is not a job to do without some level of
substantial after school care). Flexible as to days off (unpaid), but we also must work
around client work-flow and require you to be here when client needs dictate.
There is a possibility for the exceptional and experienced person, once trained
here, to do a limited amount of the work at home, but only on certain projects, and not
on all work.
Employees Here, Which Will Remain in Place.
1. One lady transactional business law & compliance lawyer (partner & owner).
2. One existing admin assistant, who will continue to work 1 to 3 short days per
week (she handles Quick Books, checks, invoicing, supplies, bank runs,
phones, and a limited amount of Outlook contacts, calendar, scanning,
copying, filing.) She seeks to reduce her current weekly hours.
The additional person we seek will work here onsite, and handle legal assistant,
law clerk, legal secretarial, legal admin aspects described above in “Position Content”.
Skills Needed: We seek a person who is highly accurate in work product, who
proof-reads work before giving it to the attorney, or before sending out an email or letter.
We need someone who assertively accomplishes work, communicates the completion
status back to attorney by email, keeps his or her own “to-do lists”, follows-up, and
anticipates the next step. Employee who works amicably with others in this small
environment of 2 other people.
Need a flexible, even-tempered person to juggle multiple clients in sometimes
fast-paced environment, in which priorities can change abruptly to meet client our
needs. In exchange, if client needs are met, we offer flexibility of work hours that can
perhaps better meet the personal needs of an employee, rather than working daily 9 to
5, and commuting downtown.
Applications Skills Required. Candidate must be Internet & email savvy, wellversed in a current version of MS Word to Advanced level, or to an
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Intermediate/Advanced Level. Thorough knowledge required of Word editing features,
tables & intermediate to advanced toolbar features. Some knowledge of Track
Changes / Compare changes, and Styles & Table of Contents. Experience at moving
through a document, or between documents, quickly and with ease is key. Uses Word
function keys or short cut keys for efficiency, or willing to learn and implement them.
Word: Ideally, an Advanced Word User. For someone with a solid IntermediateAdvanced Word foundation, we can train on the Advanced features. (Please do not
apply if you need beginning Word training, or are a Beginner or Advanced Beginner in
Word). Understand the use of folders in MS Windows set up, and use of Windows
Explorer to find, open or attach documents.
Outlook: Must be fluent in address cards, email and calendar in Outlook,
understand use of folders, which probably translates to an Intermediate level in Outlook.
(Not Outlook Express, it is not the same.).
Excel: Basic easy formulas (addition, subtraction, multiplication, percentages);
insert and delete rows, formatting, set up headings, page numbers and page headings,
merge cells. Nothing more complicated than this basic.
Adobe Acrobat: Save to PDF and rename docs. Complete auto fill docs, how to
manipulate text or add text boxes, how to insert pages into PDFs or delete Pages.
Other: A plus, but not required: Familiarity with Time Entry (We use Bill4Time,
like Timeslips), and rarely use of Fed Ex internet ship.
Environment
We work in casual dress, in a casual environment, but we work hard and move at
a fast pace to meet client deadlines! We juggle many clients at once, and interruptions
occur!
The law office is in a home office, built with three offices and space for 3
employees on two floors. The office uses sophisticated technology, and the lawyer is
very tech savvy, as an Advanced Word and Outlook user, and avid email and internet
user for communication; therefore the same is expected of our staff.
Location; Background
Preferably, candidate lives in, or near, west suburbs, but reasonable further
distance is fine.
No smokers! Please do not apply if you are a smoker.
Drug testing and background check required. References Required.
Hourly Rate
The position is hourly pay, rather than salary, because of the flexible hours.
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Rate $18 to $25 per hour (higher end for an exceptional candidate with large firm
background and substantial experience in business law/corporate law). Pay rate based
on relevance and depth of experience, presence, and whether part-time or full-time.
Possible Retirement benefits after 5 years. No other benefits at this time, but we
may consider low-cost or reasonable-cost health insurance options in the future.
We withhold taxes as employee, unless you are a temporary independent
contractor who serves other clients besides our firm.
How to Apply
Please submit your resume as follows: Email to nfallon@velocitylaw.com. In
subject line: “Legal Assistant, Legal Secretary, Paralegal". Email your resume as an
attached Word document, named as “Last Name, First Name - Resume”. If you also
attach a cover letter, not only attach the cover letter, but please also paste your cover
letter content directly into the body of the email text. A lengthy cover letter is not
needed.
Thank you for applying! Please: No phone calls, faxes, or paper mail.
(No replies from placement agencies or job listing services, unless you are willing
to waive, or substantially reduce your fee.)
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