Legal Practice Assistant - Washington, DC

POSITION: Legal Support Coordinator

FLSA STATUS: Non-Exempt

DEPARTMENT: Office Support

SUPERVISOR: Office Administrator

SUMMARY: 

Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC has an opening for a Corporate Legal Practice Assistant in its Washington, DC office.  The Legal Practice Assistant provides advanced legal administrative and transactional support to attorneys and deal teams. The position supports mergers and acquisitions, corporate transactions, and general legal practice operations from matter opening through closing and post-closing activities. The role requires exceptional organization, attention to detail, strong communication skills, and experience working in a law firm environment.

The ideal candidate will have at least five to seven (5-7) years of experience providing administrative support in a professional law firm environment and will possess exceptional verbal and written communication skills. In addition to strong organizational abilities, the ability to work both independently and as part of a team is essential. We are looking for an individual who is ready to make a significant impact, gain essential skills, and grow with us.

This position may be posted externally under a market-aligned title to enhance candidate reach. Upon hire, the official title for the role will be Legal Support Coordinator.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Essential functions are primarily job duties that incumbents must be able to perform unassisted or with some reasonable accommodation made by the employer.

• Provide high-level legal administrative support to attorneys and legal teams.
• Open new matters, request conflict checks, maintain client and general files, and coordinate file closing and storage procedures.
• Serve as a primary point of contact for deal teams and coordinate communications among attorneys, clients, opposing counsel, and internal stakeholders.
• Collect, organize, monitor, and maintain transaction documents, calendars, milestones, and closing schedules.
• Manage data rooms, access controls, confidential information, and document repositories.
• Coordinate due diligence requests and track responses to ensure timely completion.
• Assist with drafting support, redlining, version control, markup tracking, and preparation of transactional documents, including NDAs, LOIs, purchase agreements, and related documents.
• Prepare correspondence, memoranda, legal documents, signature packets, closing binders, and post-closing documentation.
• Maintain closing checklists; track approvals, consents, post-signing obligations, and integration tasks.
• Proofread documents for accuracy, completeness, formatting, and compliance before distribution.
• Process client billing, review invoices, assist with time entry, and coordinate check requests as needed.
• Monitor attorney emails and maintain electronic calendars and deadline reminder systems.
• Maintain client contacts and mailing lists.
• Coordinate meetings, conference calls, conference rooms, travel arrangements, and expense reimbursements.
• Handle incoming and outgoing mail, courier services, and shipment tracking.
• Operate office technology, document management systems, and other legal support software.
• Perform additional duties as assigned by attorneys or the Office Administrator. 
• Physical presence in the office is an essential duty of this position.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES REQUIRED

• College degree preferred but not required.
• Prior law firm experience required.
• 5–7 years of law firm legal support, legal secretary, legal operations, paralegal, or related experience required.
• Transactional, corporate, and/or mergers and acquisitions experience strongly preferred.
• Litigation and e-filing experience preferred.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines simultaneously.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Word; strong working knowledge of Outlook and Excel.
• Typing speed of at least 65 words per minute with a high level of accuracy.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality and exercise sound judgment. 
• Work occasionally requires a high level of mental effort and strain when producing a high volume of information. 
• Work occasionally requires more than 40 hours per week to perform the essential duties of the position; may require irregular hours. 

PREFERRED TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE

• Document management systems such as Big Hand, NetDocuments, or similar platforms.
• Virtual data rooms and e-signature platforms.
• Adobe Acrobat and PDF editing tools.
• Billing and timekeeping software, including Aderant, iTimeKeep, or similar systems.
• Case management, docketing, scanning, and imaging software.
• Delaware UCC/VCC search experience and related lien search processes.
• Project management and deal tracking tools.

This position requires 40 hours per week, Monday through Friday, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, with a 1-hour lunch break. This is an hourly position, and our law firm offers generous benefits and paid time off.

SALARY: $90,000 - $110,000

If you are organized, detail-oriented, want to be part of a dynamic team, and are ready to take on a new challenge, we encourage you to apply and become a valuable member of our team.

ADDITIONAL INFO

The above is intended to describe the general content of and requirements for the performance of this job. It is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of essential functions, responsibilities or requirements.

All employees are required to comply with BDBCB's information privacy and security requirements including its acceptable use policy. Such requirements are dictated by laws and regulations, by professional standards and by the marketplace and are directly applicable to BDBCB as well as to BDBCB through its clients.