Litigation Secretary

Location: Fairland / Northcliff, Johannesburg
Salary: R20,000 – R35,000 gross/CTC per month, depending on experience
Availability: ASAP
Employment Type: Full-Time

About the Role

Our client is seeking a highly experienced and proactive Litigation Secretary to join their legal team in the Fairland/Northcliff area.

This is not a general legal secretarial position. The successful candidate must have solid, recent experience in civil litigation and debt collection within a law firm, together with the ability to independently manage litigation files from inception through to finalisation.

The ideal candidate will be highly organised, accurate and productive, with strong attention to detail and the ability to proactively manage deadlines, follow up outstanding actions and progress files without requiring constant instruction.

Minimum Requirements

• 5–10+ years' recent litigation secretarial experience within a law firm preferred.
• Strong civil litigation and debt-collection experience.
• Good working knowledge of:
• High Court procedures.
• Magistrates' Court procedures.
• Court Online.
• CaseLines.
• Dictaphone typing proficiency.
• Typing speed of approximately 65–80 words per minute.
• Strong Microsoft Word, Outlook and Excel skills.
• Good PDF and electronic document-management skills.
• Own reliable transport.
• Stable employment history.
• Contactable references.

Key Responsibilities

The successful candidate will be responsible for independently managing and progressing litigation matters, including:

• Managing litigation files from inception to finalisation.
• Preparing and drafting:
• Letters of demand.
• Summonses.
• Notices.
• Pleadings.
• Default judgment documentation.
• Warrants and execution documentation.
• General litigation correspondence.
• Preparing correspondence to:
• Sheriffs.
• Counsel.
• Correspondents.
• Clients.
• Debtors.
• Managing Court Online and CaseLines matters.
• Maintaining accurate litigation files and records.
• Diary and deadline management.
• Monitoring important dates and ensuring that required steps are actioned timeously.
• Proactively following up outstanding documentation and procedural steps.
• Liaising with attorneys, clients, sheriffs, counsel and other relevant parties.
• Following up on debtors and outstanding collection matters where required.
• Ensuring that matters continue progressing without unnecessary delays.
• Providing administrative and procedural support to attorneys.
• Managing a portfolio of files with a high degree of accountability and ownership.

Advantageous Experience

The following would be highly advantageous:

• Levy collection experience.
• HOA / Homeowners' Association matters.
• Sectional-title matters.
• Body-corporate matters.
• Debt collection within the property-management environment.
• Ghost Practice.
• Experience working with high-volume litigation and collections files.

An excellent litigation and collections secretary should not be excluded solely because they do not have specific HOA, sectional-title or levy-collection experience.

Personal Attributes

The successful candidate must be:

• Proactive.
• Productive.
• Accountable.
• Highly organised.
• Accurate and detail-oriented.
• Reliable.
• Able to multitask.
• Deadline-driven.
• Able to work independently.
• Comfortable taking ownership of a portfolio of files.
• Confident in following up with attorneys, clients, sheriffs, counsel and debtors.
• Able to identify outstanding actions and progress matters without waiting for constant instruction.

Important: This position requires someone who actively manages and progresses files. The successful candidate should not require constant supervision or view the role simply as typing documents when instructed by an attorney.