Administrative Assistant

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is one of the world’s leading international law firms. The Firm was established in 1884 and has approximately 2,000 lawyers. Headquartered in New York with offices in Beijing, Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Dallas, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Luxembourg, Palo Alto, San Francisco, São Paulo, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, D.C., the Firm provides coordinated legal advice and transactional capability to clients around the globe.

The Personal Planning practice counsels clients on gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes; sophisticated estate and trust administration; charitable transfer; and wealth preservation across generations. Working with the Firm’s Private Funds and Litigation practices, among other groups, the Personal Planning team works on succession planning and reorganization of family businesses to ensure a smooth transition of management and control as a family grows; creating solutions for complex family commercial disputes and trusts

and estates litigation; multijurisdictional planning for the Firm’s global client base; and planning with liquid and special assets, such as private equity and hedge fund interests, art, jewelry, ranches and residences. The practice creates lifelong relationships with clients to effectively support the wide range of their needs.

Job Summary & Objectives

The Administrative Assistant in the Fiduciary/Personal Planning group is responsible for performing a variety of general, administrative tasks to support the group. This role works under the direction of the fiduciary manager of the group.

Essential Job Duties & Responsibilities

Maintain and update master client list; Prepare, update and circulate client libraries for review; Maintain and update client vault list, add and retrieve documents from the vault; Maintain and update group’s IRS Employer Identification Number Bulk list: assign numbers to trusts and estates, submit information to the IRS and request new numbers along with verification notices; Maintain and update group’s docket system: input important dates to the system, circulate reports to the group, obtain updates, prepare a summary report;

Maintain and update group’s corporate entities list; Maintain and update group’s attorney referral list; Assist with opening new client/matter numbers, engagement letters; Prepare execution copies of estate planning documents  for client meetings; Conform executed documents: arrange for the originals to be placed in the vault, prepare packages to clients; Attend client meetings to notarize documents in and outside of office, file documents at Surrogate’s Court; Arrange the department continuing legal education meetings by preparing

agenda, materials for the meeting, attendance sheet to Debbie Lewis-Cobb; Assist members of the group with administrative duties; On-going special projects as requested

Education

Bachelor’s degree and/or Paralegal Certificate

Skills and Experience

Required

• Minium 1 year of relevant experience in a professional
• Highly professional in appearance and demeanor
• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to proofread for contextual, grammatical and spelling errors
• Ability to communicate effectively with clients, outside counsel and third-party vendors
• Can organize, prioritize, plan and multi-task work activities in a high-pressure environment with attention to details and deadlines
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Excellent analytical and critical thinking skills
• Flexibility to work late and on holidays/weekends
• Knowledge of MS Office skills, Adobe Acrobat and Internet research

Preferred

Knowledge of Filesite and legal research databases (Westlaw and Lexis/Nexis)