Massey LLP (formerly Civis Law LLP) Looking for Law Clerk at Toronto, Ontario, Canada Full Time

Massey LLP focuses on corporate and commercial law with an emphasis on small and medium sized businesses, estate law and and estate administration, real estate, employment and civil and estate litigation.

Massey LLP has been formed through the merger of Civis Law LLP and Lemke Law PC in September 2022. The firm will now consist of five partners, two associates, and three staff. 

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 three years ago at the corner of King Street and Yonge. We embrace technology. 

LAW CLERK OR LEGAL ASSISTANT:

Job Summary

We seek a Law Clerk or trained Legal Assistant who can assist two partners in their respective real estate and estate practices, 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 fulfill client needs, but such requirements are rare. 

We offer: a competitive salary; 2-weeks paid vacation (in addition to our office-wide Christmas – New Year’s break); a decent benefits package; discretionary performance-based bonus; and, a great office space 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;
• 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 their 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;
• 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; 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 among two partner lawyers handling real estate and estates; 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 verification. A reference check will also be conducted.