Job Description: Legal Clerk/Assistant - Real Estate & Estates

Company: Civis Law LLP/Lemke Law PC
Location: Toronto, Ontario (Downtown)
Job Category: Real Estate
Job Type: Full-Time
Salary: Not Specified

Apply Now

Legal Clerk/Assistant - Real Estate & Estates

Civis Law LLP has a focus in three areas of law: corporate and commercial with an emphasis on small and medium sized businesses, estate law and wealth management; and, civil litigation in the aforementioned areas. Lemke Law Professional Corporation focuses on real estate and business law & litigation. The two firms practice in association and you would be a shared employee. Between us, we are four partners, two associate lawyers, a business consultant, and an office administrator.

We are seeking a loyal, dedicated, and, hard-working law clerk (or legally trained assistant) to help get and keep our team organized, track work-flow, and meet the job description below.

We are a fun group of lawyers to work with, and while we are serious about our work and serving clients faithfully, we try to have fun while doing it. Our team is a diverse group of characters who provide fair, friendly and plainspoken advice to our clients. Our office has a good vibe, our team gets along well, and everyone embraces a good work-life balance. We moved into brand-new offices two years ago at the corner of King Street and Yonge. We embrace technology.

You would be our firms’ first ever official law clerk, and, that means you would help us set the tone with respect to overall organization and day-to-day administration.

Job Summary

We seek a Law Clerk or trained Legal Assistant who can assist two partners in their respective real estate and estate pratices, is an expert at keeping lawyers organized, and possesses solid knowledge of real estate and estate law.

The successful candidate will have a strong work ethic, be collaborative, professional, adaptable, and, have a sense of humour. We want someone to truly cares about the job and is capable not only of identifying problems but is a fixer in developing and executing a solution.

Our offices hours are generally 9:00 am to 5:00pm but we expect you to manage your day as you see fit with regard to your lunch, breaks, duties and tasks at hand. There are occasional opportunities for pre-authorized overtime or time-in-lieu to fulfil client needs, but such requirements are rare.

We offer: a competitive salary; 3-weeks paid vacation (in addition to our office-wide Christmas – New Year’s break); a decent benefits package; discretionary performance-based bonus; and, a nice new private window office with access to good technology.

Overall Day-to-Day Responsibilities

General administrative duties might include: filing/scanning; printing/photocopying, scheduling appointments; performing client administrative duties in opening, closing and billing files; preparing correspondence, documents, and presentations as required;
Help the firm create written ‘check-lists’ and guides/protocols on how to do things more effectively, and, where necessary, provide advice to management on improving internal processes;
Be a demonstrably strong writer who revels in catching the drafting errors of lawyers and, who can effectively proofread and correct grammar;
Provide back-up assistance to various other professionals and/or assistants within the team, as required and being a leader in the office with respect to organization and keeping people on task;
Be proactive and taking initiative in anticipation of next steps of a matter and not sitting idle;
Assisting the office administrator, when necessary, including covering the reception desk, handling mail and courier packages, scheduling, and assisting with bookkeeping tasks.
Other duties as assigned.

Practice Specific Responsibilities:

Estates Practice:

Assisting lawyers as needed in document preparation of wills, powers-of-attorney, or other legal files as necessary in the execution of testamentary documents or trust/estate administration;
Assisting lawyers with preparation of estate administration/probate documents;
Attend client meetings for the purpose of executing testamentary documents;
Maintain the Wills Vault; scan and save executed testamentary documents and provide clients and investment advisors with information and documents as required;
Other general administrative duties with respect to estates, such as coordinating the will instruction process between the lawyer and client; opening and date marking estate or trust information from the Court; and, being hyper-responsive to our exacting clients and financial advisors etc.
Other tasks as reasonably required.

Real Estate Practice:

General duties including opening and maintaining files, drafting and sending correspondence, etc.;
Client banking, as required;
Independently manage commercial and residential real estate transactions including preparation of documents, including leases, requisition letters, reverse mortgages, agreements, etc. and prepare reports for the above types of files;
Conduct corporate searches, title and off-title searches, including PPSA searches and preparing detailed title reports and summaries, and solving title issues or deficiencies;
Prepare corporate documents for private lender real estate transactions;
Ongoing verbal and written communication with lawyers, law clerks and clients;
Manage administrative details with respect to billings and opening/closing files;
Knowledge of government regulations and policies as they relate to real property and the registration of documents;
Strong time management skills to effectively prioritize and meet deadlines;
Proficiency in Teraview and Conveyancer/Unity;
Negotiating and finalizing title insurance policies for acquisitions and financing; and
Other tasks as reasonably required.

Required Knowledge, Experience and Skills

Completion of a post-secondary Legal Assistant or Law Clerk course (transcripts required);

Three to five years’ experience working in one or both of Real Estate or Estates .
- In your cover letter, please clearly outline your experience in the one or more areas mentioned above. You don’t necessarily need experience in both.

Be highly organized; and, can coach others (i.e. lawyers) on staying organized;

An excellent problem-solver who is resourceful enough find a solution and execute the solution;

Capacity to work with minimal instruction or supervision; and, capable working within tight timelines while also being able to reassess and shift priorities as needed;

Clear and accurate communicator (both verbal and written) when dealing with lawyers, clients, staff and third parties;

Proficiency and working knowledge of Office 365 is mission critical; and experience with one or more of the following software programs is a big asset: FastCompany; WillBuilder; Estate-a-Base; Conveyancer/Unity; WestLaw or Practical Law; EsiLaw; Cosmolex; general accounting software.
- In your cover letter, outline which software/legal programs noted above with which you have had experience. If no experience, fear not. Existing experience is nice-to-have not need-to-have and we want to know where we would need to provide training. If you have experience in software NOT noted above, also tell us about that, as we would like to know.

Supervision

Your time will be split amongst two partner lawyers handling real estate and etates; however, you may be tasked to assist other lawyers and staff in the firm on specific projects.

Background and Reference Checks

Any offer of employment may be conditional upon full background check including a criminal record check, and employment and educational verifications. A reference check will also be conducted.

Your Application

We value a diverse workforce and invite all interested and qualified applicants to apply and submit their application by e-mail to info@civislaw.ca.

Please indicate in the SUBJECT LINE the following: LAW CLERK 2021. In addition to your resume, in your own words in your cover letter, please ensure you provide ample detail that clearly indicates HOW or WHERE you meet the criteria in “Required Knowledge, Experience and Skills” section.

We appreciate hearing from all qualified candidates, however, only those applicants whose background and experience match our requirements will be contacted. No telephone calls, please.

NO AGENCIES, PLEASE.

{FIRST_NAME}	Adds the recipients First Name.	Use
{LAST_NAME}	Adds the recipients Last Name.	Use
{COMPANY_NAME}	Adds the Company Name.	Use
{PORTAL_NAME}	Adds the application portals name.	Use
{MEMBER_NAME}	Adds the Recipients Membership name.	Use
{SIGNATURE_OPT_IN}	Adds the Opt-in link.	Use
{SIGNATURE_OPT_OUT}	Add the opt-out link.	Use
%signature%	Adds your preferred signature block.	Use
{Event_Start_Date}	Adds the Event's Start Date.(Events Only)	Use
{Event_End_Date}	Adds the Event's End Date.(Events Only)	Use
{Event_Name}	Adds the Event's Name.(Events Only)	Use
{Event_Description}	Adds the Event's Description.(Events Only)	Use
{Online_Training_Description}	Adds the Online Training Description.(Online Training Only)	Use
{Event_Specific_Dates}	Adds the Event's specific dates.(Events Only)	Use
{member_number}	Adds the Membership Number.	Use
{MemberSince}	Adds the Member Since Date.	Use
{CONTACTEMAIL}	Adds the Contact's Email Address.	Use
{EVENT_CREDITS}	Adds the Event's Credits.(Events Only)	Use
{EVENT_CREDITS}	Adds the Event's Credits.(Events Only)	Use
{CERTIFICATE_NUMBER}	Adds the Contact's Certificate Number	Use
{EVENTLOCATION}	Adds the Event's Location.	Use
{TOTALEVENTCREDITS}	The total number of credits that the contact has earned through the event tickets and workshops.	Use
{ASAPPEARSONBADGE}	Display the text of as appears field in the event setup.	Use
{contact_organization}	Displays the organization name of the contact.	Use
{RENEWALDATE}	Adds the Member Renewal Date in (yyyy-mm-dd).	Use
{MEMBERSHIP_YEAR}	Adds the Member's Membership Year	Use
{RENEWALDATE_MM-DD-YYYY}	Adds the Member Renewal Date in (mm-dd-yyyy).	Use
{LMS_CREDIT}	The number of credits the LMS course is worth for Continuing Education	Use
{COLLECTION_PERIOD_END-DATE_YYYY_MM_DD}	The end date of the CE collection period end date	Use
{LMS_COURSE_COMPLETION_DATE}	The completion date of the LMS course	Use
{INCEPTION_DATE}	Adds the Member Inception Date in (yyyy-mm-dd).	Use
{EVENT_END-DATE_MONTH_YYYY}	Adds Event End Date in Full Month Name and Year Format.(Events Only)	Use
{EVENT_END-DATE_MONTH_YYYY_ADD3}	Adds Event End Date in Full Month Name and Year Format Plus 3 Years.(Events Only)	Use
{WORKSHOP_NAME}	Adds the workshop name (if applicable)	Use
{WORKSHOP_DESCRIPTION}	Adds the workshop description (if applicable)	Use
{WORKSHOP_CREDITS}	Adds the workshop credit for related workshop (if applicable)	Use
{TOTALWORKSHOPCREDITS}	Adds the sum of all workshop credits for related event (if applicable)	Use
{Event_Start_Date_DD-MM-YYYY}	Adds the Event's Start Date in (dd-mm-yyyy).(Events Only)	Use
{Event_End_Date_DD-MM-YYYY}	Adds the Event's End Date in (dd-mm-yyyy).(Events Only)	Use
{RENEWALDATE_DD-MM-YYYY}	Adds the Member Renewal Date in (dd-mm-yyyy).	Use
{RENEWAL_DATE_MONTH_DD_YYYY}	Adds the Member Renewal Date in (Month Dth, yyyy).	Use
{INCEPTIONDATE_DD-MM-YYYY}	Adds the Member Inception Date in (dd-mm-yyyy).	Use