Legal Secretary

Centrally located in the heart of Iowa, Ames is a vibrant, progressive community with more than 66,000 residents providing an excellent quality of life. Home to Iowa State University, Ames offers year-round recreation opportunities, diverse cultural offerings, a stable economy, safe neighborhoods, and a high‑achieving school district.

The City of Ames is conducting a recruitment to establish a Civil Service eligibility list for this classification. The list will be valid for up to one year from the date of certification by the Ames Civil Service Commission and may be used to fill one or more vacancies in this classification. In addition, City of Ames Civil Service employees who have previously held Civil Service status in this classification and are interested in voluntarily demoting or laterally transferring into the current vacancy must submit their application by the deadline.

Under general supervision, provides full service legal secretarial support for the City Attorney and legal staff requiring knowledge of legal terminology and processes and involving material of a confidential and complex nature; performs related work as required. In order to be considered for this position, all applicants must submit their online application by the deadline listed on this posting. Your application includes complete responses to the supplemental questions.

Please keep in mind that submission of a resume in lieu of work history on your application or answering the supplemental questions is not sufficient.

The City of Ames has a compensation philosophy for our merit salary ranges that provides growth for employees as they gain experience and expertise in their roles. The minimum pay of each range is intended to reflect an employee's qualifications that meet the position's minimum requirements. The median of any range is for an employee who can reasonably meet all expectations of the position responsibilities without initial or extensive training.

The City may consider a candidate's education, experience, and skills that are above the minimum requirements when considering a salary closer to the median. The median for this position is $33.75/hour.

Our comprehensive benefits package can be viewed at:

Benefits

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program
:
The PSLF Program is a federal program that is intended to encourage individuals to work in public service by forgiving the balance of their federal student loans. To qualify, the individual must have made 120 qualifying payments while employed by a qualifying employer. For more information, please visit: PSLF

Prepares correspondence, legal documents, opinions, official publications, transcriptions, reports, lists, draft discovery and other similar documents as instructed and requested by attorneys; serves as department receptionist and greets and screens visitors and telephone calls; responds to citizens' questions and comments in a courteous and timely manner; holds primary responsibility for creating paper and electronic files; proofreads material for accuracy, completeness, grammar and punctuation;

assists with and coordinates work of support staff of outside counsel; files electronic pleadings in District Court, Appellate Court and other quasi‑judicial/administrative bodies; assists with witness notification, preparation, depositions and other aspects of discovery; tracks discovery and filing deadlines for attorneys to assure preparation and filing of pleadings to meet legal deadlines; completes forms and documents to effect internal City transactions;

copies, packages and distributes a variety of written materials, including mail, as requested by other office personnel; gathers, assembles, updates, distributes and/or files a variety of information, forms, records and data as requested using an electronic document management system; maintains an effective and efficient office filing system; exercises discretion and independent judgment in applying policies and procedures to division, department, or organization‑wide situations;

assists attorneys in handling sensitive…