Executive Assistant to Law Firm CEO

Position Title: Executive Assistant

Employment: full time or part time contractor

Purpose: Direct support to the business owner / lead attorney through calendar and inbox management as well as travel planning, and supporting corporate administrative tasks.

Location: Remote. Our firm is fully remote, we serve clients in the US, primarily Minnesota.

Days & Hours: This is a night shift role. You will have very limited flexibility to set up your schedule provided there is substantial overlap with our office hours (M-F 9:00AM to 5:00PM CST). Core hours support is important to this role because you will need to work closely with the CEO and the team and make phone calls during US working office hours.

Supervised by: Attorney/CEO - Jess Birken

Experience Requirements:

5-7 years EA experience. Experience must include multiple years providing direct support of an executive or director level professional. General administrative work experience will not replace direct support of an executive. Examples of comparable executive employment settings may include:
• A litigation firm (civil, criminal, family, injury) or tax law firm; OR,
• A high-volume tax and accounting firm; OR
• A real estate firm, or other high volume / highly regulated industry; OR
• A large nonprofit agency or government office

If you do not have experience providing direct support to a busy executive with a very full calendar and competing deadlines, please do not apply. You will make yourself miserable, you will make me miserable and then we will both be miserable.

Must have night shift experience.

Disposition Requirements:
• Enjoys highly variable work and uncertainty (you enjoy solving a new puzzle every day)
• Enjoys learning new things and can roll with frequent changes in process
• Critical thinker, analytical, you look for patterns and thinking deeply about things
• Likes a fast-paced environment where things are always moving and changing
• Curious, self-starter who will pitch in, generally look for work to fill time
• Ask questions, looks for connections, notices when things don’t make sense
• Likes to think of possible solutions and be a team player
• Has a high level of attention to detail and accuracy
• Takes responsibility for errors and helps find solutions
• Has a growth mindset

Required Skills:
• Proficient at MS Office suite (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.)
• Excellent interpersonal / communication skills
• Fluent in English (verbal and written)
• Ability manage competing interests or timelines and determine priority
• Willing to tackle something new, willing to fail and try again
• Ability to assess a new situation and make recommendations on ways forward
• Strong ability to maintain confidentiality both with clients and internally
• Ability to observe, track, and manage upcoming deadlines
• Ability to take detailed and clear notes
• Analytical, problem solving, and critical thinking skills.

Technology Requirements:

You must have a Windows PC (laptop or desktop) with all of the following
• Valid install of Windows Pro 10 or higher operating system
• Chip must be Ryzen 5/Intel i5 (or higher)
• RAM of 16GB (or more)

You will be on the phone, in video calls and working on many cloud-based tools.
• High-speed internet (~35+ mbps down / ~20+ mbps up – or better)
• 1080p or better webcam
• Business appropriate headset with microphone for all meetings and calls
• Ability to set a professional background (real or virtual) for client video meetings
• You will be required to install our law firm’s MS365 device policies on your machine
• You will be required to encrypt your Windows machine with MS BitLocker
• You will be required to install free anti-virus programs like Malwarebytes, Piriform’s CCleaner
• You will be required to use (provided) Nord VPN when using public Wi-Fi or accessing many cloud-products or government websites

Bonus Qualifications:
• Experience with scrum / agile project management methods (LEAN, Sigma 6, EOS, etc.)

About the Business:
We're fun loving and innovative - this firm is not like most other law firms, Google “Jess Birken” or Birken Law Office to learn more. Listen to an episode of the podcast Charity Therapy to get a sense of my personality. We serve small charities, nonprofits, and foundations through our innovative subscription services program and develop long-term working relationships with clients. Our nonprofit clients view us as outsourced general counsel and need help with their operational business issues, people problems, as well as state and federal nonprofit compliance.
I also have a substantial schedule of marketing, public speaking, content production etc.; corporate administration tasks and business development projects which must be kept on track.
I’m the level of busy where I am just walking into the next vitual room and needing someone to tell me what is going on next, who I’ ---------- eting with, etc. I simply can’t keep track of it all in my head and don’t have time to dedicate to looking at tomorrow on the calendar because I need to focus on the task at hand.

About your work:
Your primary role is to support the attorney (me) in all my roles. I’m the CEO and Chief Marketing Officer, and IT person – and I’m a national expert in nonprofit law. I wear a lot of hats and have a lot of equally important things happening at once.
The EA does everything they can do for me so I am freed up to do the things I have to do. There are some things I have to do (either because the attorney licensing rules require I do it or because I have the expertise or whatever). That means you should step in to do just about everything else. Handle all my communications, manage a super complex and always changing calendar, chase down information, prepare, review or file business administration documents, prepare things for my review or signature. Generally, make sure everything is well organized, documents are labeled right, and do everything you can do so that I do only the parts that only I can do. This way we help the most nonprofits possible each year.

Some examples of your tasks:
Calendar / time management. Managing the calendar is the #1 task. You’ll be expected to learn the schedule inside and out, and be able to manage it under the parameters we’ve set out. Proactive and aggressive management of the calendar is a priority. This can also include travel logistics, including accommodations, transportation, and meals.

Communications. Prioritizing and managing emails, as well as scheduled phone calls and virtual meetings (we use Acuity Scheduling). Acting as a point of contact between Jess, employees, clients, and other external partners. Proper communication with Jess is crucial, either over Slack, WhatsApp, Phone, etc.

Business Administration Support. Maintaining business records and documents, gathering documents for meetings, and handling memos, reports, invoices, and other related documents. Completing as much as you can for me in advance. Managing the deadlines to ensure nothing gets missed.

Business Development Support. We are always trying something, changing something or building something. These are projects that get forgotten about if we don't actively keep moving them forward. You will step in as project manager for these initiatives and others around the firm to keep business strategies on track.

Systems we use:
• MS Office (Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint), AirTable, Wildix VOIP phones, Dropbox, Slack, Zoom, PatternBuilder (fka AfterPattern), WordPress, Canva, ChatGPT, Tettra, Acuity Scheduling, Active Campaign, Jotform

Our Core Values:
We hire and conduct performance assessments based on our core values and the core behaviors that support them. In short, our values center on
• Treating people like humans first
• Continuous process improvement and efficiency
• Taking immediate responsibility for our mistakes and the plan to fix them
• Focusing on what we can control – how we respond to things
• Creating win-wins and long-term relationships
• Simplifying or making things easier

Benefits:
• Focus on tea ---------- mbers’ wellbeing
• Work-from-home with flexible night schedule
• Paid holidays and 10 days paid time off after 1 year anniversary
• December bonus after 1 year anniversary
• Friendly remote office culture
• Opportunities for advancement
• Paid training and development opportunities

Contract work usually does not include holidays and time off. However, we think its important for people to spend time with family and friends - and rest. For the first year you will have the following holidays off, unpaid. Your Birthday!, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Labor Day (May 1), Independence Day (June 12), National Heroes Day (Last Monday of August), All Saints Day (Nov 1), All Souls Day (Nov 2) New Year's Eve Day, New Year's Day, Christmas Eve Day, Christmas Day and 10 days off unpaid. Once you have been under contract for 12 months you will have those same days and holidays as paid time off. December bonuses are discretionary and based on outstanding performance.


Working parents and very experienced workers are encouraged to apply.

How to Apply
Send us a resume at least 3 professional references we can contact and a cover letter to birkenlaw at gmail dot com. In your cover letter, share what is the most important skill for an administrative assistant to have and why. Be sure to put your favorite emoji in the subject line of your communication :)

Please note that applications submitted through the website will not be considered.