Our client, a Houston area law firm, has a new opportunity for an entry level paralegal to join their Public Finance team. 

Paralegals in this practice group work with a high level of responsibility both independently and in coordination with attorneys to provide skilled and substantive transactional legal services to the practice group’s clients, which include municipal utility districts (MUDs) and other special purpose districts located throughout Texas. The work regularly involves direct client contact through work with the district’s governing board of directors and the district’s professional, outside consultants. The work sometimes requires overtime with evening meetings that take place at the location of the districts; reliable, personal transportation is a requirement of the job. All daily time incurred on a matter is billed to the client.

The ideal candidate will have a 4 year degree, paralegal certificate and the desire to work in a law firm setting with a focus on public finance. The ideal candidate should have the desire to learn the drafting legal documents related to the issuance of public financing bonds and working with governing (public or private) corporate boards. Familiarity with special purpose entities (with particular focus on municipal utility districts) is a plus. Candidate should have strong academic credentials and proven writing skills with undergraduate degrees in majors such as Communications, English, Writing, or other liberal arts fields.

Responsibilities:

• Attend meetings of the Board of Directors of the firm’s municipal utility district clients and take notes of all board actions and decisions.
• Draft and prepare agendas, orders, and resolution required for Board of Directors meetings and prepare multi- lingual agendas for election matters (outside translation services are used).
• Ensure that the Board of Directors follows proper legal procedures at meetings (such as no entering into executive session inappropriately).
• Prepare minutes of the Board meetings.
• Interact with the Directors of the districts as well as the other consultants for the districts, including engineers, operators, bookkeepers, and tax assessor/collectors.
• Prepare required bond documents and assemble into a transcript of proceedings and assist in submission to the Attorney General of Texas for review prior to the district’s issuance and selling of bonds.
• Prepares documents for obtaining the approval for annexation of land to districts and administers the applications for such approval.
• Review memoranda regarding current legislation and inform the Board about new regulations.
• Assist with the renewal of various permits.
• Prepare documents for the districts’ annual tax exemptions and assessing the collection charges on delinquent taxes.
• Provide documents for the required annual review of investment policies and investment strategies; prepare required certificate pages.
• Maintain district files and permanent documents.
• Review and finalize correspondence.
• Record all client billable hours on the firm’s tracking system timely.

Requirements:

• Requires high-level proficiency in Microsoft Office 365 suite of software applications and competency in preparing documents in Word using a networked document management system.
• Familiarity with NetDocuments (document management system), LMS+ (client billing system), and Adobe Acrobat Pro a plus.
• Excellent listening, verbal and written communication, and grammar skills. Writing sample will be required to secure an interview.
• Excellent organizational skills, with ability to attend to multiple deadlines and details.
• Ability to work with a wide variety of professional personnel with professional questions.
• Ability to professionally and courteously respond to customers of client-districts.
• Paralegal certificate required.
• Degree is a plus.