Legal Assistant

Guggenheim Partners is seeking a smart, energetic and affable person to join its Legal team on a temp to perm basis. Reporting to the Senior Managing Director, General Counsel of Guggenheim Services, this person will join a highly collaborative legal team and will be responsible for supporting various attorneys and functions at the corporate level. In addition to meticulous organizational skills, the ideal candidate will demonstrate an ability to proactively manage and track various open tasks and assignments independently, and work on a variety of time sensitive projects.

The ideal candidate must exercise excellent judgment, have exceptional communication skills, demonstrate strong customer service and professionalism. The successful candidate will have prior experience in an administrative role, be able to support senior level executives and be comfortable interacting with other high level members of the team and external clients. The successful candidate will also have prior experience as a legal assistant or paralegal and have a willingness to learn and the ability to adapt in a very fluid environment.

This role presents an opportunity to become a permanent member of a growing legal department within a dynamic and fast-paced firm. This Legal Assistant position is located in the Chicago office.

Manage clerical, administrative, organizational, and related matters, including coordinating calls and meetings, maintaining office organization, arranging travel and entertainment, and handling invoices and expense reports.

Answer multiple telephone lines for attorneys, as well as back up for various executives. Professionally able to give appropriate information to callers as directed, routes calls to other persons as necessary, and ensure that messages are received and conveyed promptly.

Proactively organize necessary material for calls, meetings, and travel, including providing detailed itineraries.

Manage complex, ever-changing calendars and task lists effectively to maximize time in accordance with the attorney’s priorities, including scheduling of meetings/conference calls and arranging location/call details.

Notify attorneys of deadlines on incoming requests and take action or apprise attorneys of matters that require immediate attention or follow-up.

Handle confidential information in a professional and discreet manner.

Prepare extensive PowerPoint presentations, Excel worksheets, and Visio structure charts and diagrams.

Gather and receive legal documents from internal and external sources, then store, arrange, index and classify documents electronically and maintain required hard copies. Must be able to properly identify legal document type, parties involved, and specified terms, where appropriate.

Update legal entity management system, properly identifying and inputting entity characteristics and data and related signatory information.

Assist with Annual Board meeting preparation.

Draft basic governance documents or agreements from templates.

Compile, update, and maintain closing documentation including coordinating and obtaining appropriate signatures, creating binders with labels and indexes, and filing and distributing final copies (electronic and hard-copy).

Requirements:

Bachelors degree required, top-tier university and exceptional grades a plus

Above average knowledge of Microsoft Office products including Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint and Visio

5-10 years of administrative and legal experience preferred

Strict attention to detail; accurate and organized while able to prioritize appropriately

Ability to multitask with a high reading level comprehension

Strong interpersonal, organizational, communication and problem solving skills

Ability to effectively and maturely communicate and collaborate with diverse personalities in all levels of management, as well as outside vendors and clients

Excellent team player; collaborative, energized by the open exchange of ideas, but also able to work independently as needed

Ability to learn new software quickly with little external guidance – can "self-teach"