Litigation Support Specialist Job Descriptions, Average Salary, Interview Questions

It’s important to include the right content in your job description when hiring a litigation support specialist. The following examples can serve as templates for attracting the best available talent for your team.

Litigation support specialists assist lawyers in litigation support for large, complex cases. They maintain case databases, organize data, and retrieve documents from the database for trial presentations. Litigation support specialists need to have solid communication skills, exceptional organizational abilities, and keen attention to detail. [Your Company Name] is hiring an experienced litigation support specialist to support our legal team in complex matters. If you have experience building and maintaining databases, reviewing legal documents, retrieving records, and developing trial presentation materials, you might be the ideal candidate for this role, so please apply.   

Typical duties and responsibilities

• Assist in compiling data and preparing for trial
• Assist in presentations for hearings and trials 
• Organize and manage files
• Coordinate resources for projects

Education and experience

This position requires an associate degree or bachelor’s degree in law or a related field. Employers also recommend that candidates get a paralegal certificate.

Required skills and qualifications

• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite
• Highly organized
• Able to manage multiple tasks and projects concurrently
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

Preferred qualifications

• Requires 3 years of experience within a law firm or other professional organization
• Computer proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite applications including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook, as well as document management and other office technologies
• Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, or agency rules of assigned practice group/dept

Position summary

This position provides high-level secretarial and administrative support to three or more attorneys. Assist attorneys in preparing litigation cases from onset through post-trial; Document production and management; Data mining, research, obtaining, and organizing case files on a daily basis; preparing, organizing, and maintaining deposition materials and summaries; assisting with trial and mediation preparations; assist with document production including creation and editing of various legal forms, correspondence, and documents. Candidate should also be flexible to work overtime as needed.

Duties and responsibilities

• Handles scheduling and travel arrangements. Schedules court appearances, depositions, arbitrations, mediations, client meetings, and conference calls; arranges business itineraries and coordinates lawyers’ travel arrangements; processes travel reimbursement, maintains calendar and due dates for lawyers as required
• Sorts, reads, and annotates incoming mail and documents as required. Answers phones and directs callers to appropriate persons as circumstances warrant
• Types and composes general correspondence, memos, legal documents, faxes, reports, etc. from various sources (e.g., handwritten notes, tape dictation). Responsible for accuracy and clarity of final copy. Ensures that all correspondence or other documentation is dispatched in a timely manner (via mail, messenger, express delivery services, etc.)
• Prepares draft documents such as briefs, complaints, motions, subpoenas, summonses, using firm templates, and information from attorneys. Prepares motion binders and special working binders
• Coordinates multi-document filings in Federal, Circuit and State courts, including E-filings
• Establishes and maintains filing and records, in both hard copy and electronic formats
• Enters lawyers’ time as needed and sends to accounting by month-end deadlines. Prepares client billing as required
• Assists with the discovery process, including preparing for deposition, propounding and responding to written discovery and preparing for expert discovery
• Oversees and conducts document reviews; prepares documentation regarding criteria changes; tracks and reports on review progress and results
• Performs analytical tasks, including preparing witness interview memoranda, reviewing and summarizing documents and deposition and court transcripts, as well as creating and using substantive coding tools
• Performs and oversees both simple and complex cite checking and proof reading of briefs and other legal documents
• Assists with trial preparation, including creating trial notebooks, identifying and organizing exhibits, coordinating witness schedules, maintaining trial calendars, and communicating effectively with opposing counsel and courtroom staff
• Assists with printing, scanning, organizing exhibit binders, preparing UPS labels and certified letters
• Assists with other department activities as needed, and performs additional duties and responsibilities as assigned

Skills and competencies

• Established understanding of litigation laws as they relate to individuals, partnerships and corporations
• Proficiency with rules for court document filings
• Comprehension of a variety of legal court documents, including complaints, answers, rulings, judgments, affidavits, motions, appeals, table of contents/authorities, subpoenas, court dockets, reports, memos, and correspondence
• Strong ability to maintain high standards, use good judgment and seek out ways to contribute and anticipate needs
• Strong attention to detail, organizational skills, and ability to manage time effectively
• Excellent interpersonal skills, communication skills, and the ability to collaborate well in a team
• Position also requires the ability to work under pressure to meet strict deadlines
• Requires manual dexterity to dial a telephone, enter data into a computer, handle objects, and operate tools
• Some filing is required and this would entail the ability to lift files, open filing cabinets, and bend or stand as necessary
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally required to walk from work station, to desk or to go to various offices to retrieve assignments. This position may also be sedentary and require the employee to sit for extended periods of time

Qualifications and prior experience

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience preferred
• Minimum 5 years of experience as a legal secretary, working in a business law practice with exposure to litigation
• Computer proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite applications including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook, as well as document management and other office technologies, expertise in e-filing
• Exceptional computer skills with the ability to learn new software applications quickly

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to

• Defining case requirements; culling, analyzing, and reviewing discovery data
• Providing technical support using various platforms and training document reviewers as necessary
• Analyzing, uploading, Bates stamping, and processing data for production
• Training on litigation support tools; ability to communicate clearly and provide follow-up support
• Creation of visual aids for reports and presentations; analyzing usage and efficiency of platform and technology
• Researching relevant systems and software
• Familiarity with legal procedures, terms, and processes
• Manipulate load files and conduct quality checks prior to loading data
• Work closely with all members of the legal team and Practice Support throughout all stages of the litigation lifecycle
• Manage secure receipt, encryption, and transmittal of client data including logging and maintaining status tracking charts
• Troubleshoot technical issues with software platforms and work with software vendors and IT on issue resolution
• Coordinate and manage outside e-discovery vendors when data is sent out for processing, hosting, and/or review
• The position requires occasional weekend and after-hours support

Qualifications include, but are not limited to

• In depth understanding of Electronic Discovery Reference Model
• Excellent skills using and administering LAW Pre-Discovery, Relativity Server, Casemap, and TextMap
• 2+ years of experience as a litigation support analyst or paralegal utilizing and analyzing E-Discovery platforms
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience preferred
• High level of proficiency in Excel or MS Access
• Experience using SQL preferred
• Relativity Certified Administrator (RCA) preferred

Responsibilities

• Work cohesively within a high-performing and collaborative team in managing a government client’s expectations throughout the life of a project
• Works closely within the project team and coordinates across departments to ensure proper allocation of resources based on deadlines and priorities
• Continuously monitors multiple projects and jobs within each department to ensure deadlines are met and ensures jobs are completed according to client specifications and industry standards
• Communicates frequently with client to resolve issues and provide status updates according to clients’ needs
• Analyzes client search terms, search term formatting, and within the legal review tools: performs searches, creates layouts/view, provides support for review, and provides general litigation support
• Analyzes client, third party, or production data for potential issues and provides solutions when problems are identified
• Reporting and analysis of exceptions and other issues related to data processing
• Provide final quality control check on client deliverables
• Providing platform training sessions to clients and investigate or troubleshooting reports of connectivity problems or system performance issues

Desired skills

• Excellent communication skills and proven experience in a client-facing role
• Solid organizational skills including high-level attention to detail and multitasking skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills to both internal and external clients
• Ability to describe complex technical concepts and ideas in non-technical terms
• Ability to provide strategy and operations design and implementation services
• Structured and precise with a results-oriented approach to business
• Demonstrates full commitment and offers tactical strength through regular follow-up
• Demonstrated strength through consistent execution, speed, decisiveness, and focused/detailed approach
• Required Qualifications
• The ideal candidate will have a minimum of 2-5 years eDiscovery/litigation support experience with a focus on data handling or client solutions
• Minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree, Computer Science, or IT majors preferred
• Excellent communication, presentation, and inter-personal skills
• Experience/familiarity with eDiscovery Services spanning across the EDRM (File to Trial)
• Position is currently 100% remote due to COVID-19; Under normal circumstances, individual must be able to work onsite in Metropolitan DC area
• Sole U.S. Citizenship
• Ability to obtain and/or maintain Public Trust Security Clearance