Department of Transportation
Job Description and Duties
Under the direction of a Legal Support Supervisor I or Staff Services Manager I, the Legal Secretary will provide secretarial support in a fast-paced legal office of the Legal Division, which consists of litigation and house counsel/transactional attorneys, investigators, paralegals, and administrative staff in the following major specialties of law; Tort, Construction Arbitration, Environmental, Contracts, Employment, Real Property, Inverse Condemnation, legal opinions, and administrative matters. Traditionally each Legal Secretary is assigned to two to four attorneys, but may provide clerical support and assistance to other profession staff. Legal Secretaries are assigned to a team for back-up purposes and assistance with overflow work. Incumbent must possess a valid typing certification of 45 WPM. The position is in our Los Angeles Legal Office.
Perform complex legal secretarial work including the preparation, processing, filing and service of a large variety of legal documents in multiple jurisdictions, i.e. municipal, superior, state, federal and appellate courts or the Office of - Administrative Hearings; prepare, compose and proofread correspondence independently; accurately transcribe difficult dictation involving a variety of legal terms from a machine or handwritten documents, as well as format computer-generated documents from various forms of electronic media and file types; check and confirm citations and quotations from reference books or electronic research tools; generate tables of authorities and tables of contents.
Maintain calendar of court and response dates; maintain case files to include organizing and indexing pleadings, correspondence, invoices, case contacts, etc.
Coordinate and schedule court-related services, including making arrangements for court reporters, witnesses, depositions, vendors and hearing rooms, etc., with specific instruction.
Perform other administrative and clerical tasks, including but not limited to processing mail, invoices, travel expense claims, making travel arrangements, photocopying, assisting with overflow work, covering reception phones, etc. Must be able to use scanners, fax and copy machines.
The Caltrans Legal Division is comprised of five offices statewide including its headquarters office near the State Capitol in Sacramento and branches in Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Fresno. We have statewide administrative (legal support) committee with members from each office to facilitate information sharing and networking. The Los Angeles Legal Office is a mid-size legal office with approximately 40 attorneys handling legal matters for Caltrans’ districts which include District 7 (Los Angeles and Ventura Counties) and portions of District 8 (San Bernardino County).
Our overall environment is both supportive and challenging where employees are given substantial responsibility at every stage of their career.
Eligibility for hire may be determined by your score on the Legal Secretary exam. For those who do not have current eligibility (e.g., transfer, permissive reinstatement, or voluntary demotions) and/or who will be new to state civil services employment, you must be on the state examination list to be eligible for these positions. To apply for the exam, please click here and search by typing in the classification title.
The Human Resources Contact is available to answer questions regarding the application process. The Hiring Unit Contact is available to answer questions regarding the position.
Apply today to join our team! We especially encourage applicants to check out our Caltrans Career Compass tool!
You will find additional information about the job in the Duty Statement.
