Careers

Located in Wayzata Sanford, Pierson, Thone & Strean builds relationships, solves problems and identifies opportunities for entrepreneurs, closely held businesses, the owners and executives of those businesses, and individuals seeking legal counsel.  We provide our staff with a high quality of life in a caring, collaborative and congenial work environment.  In addition to tangible benefits (salary, retirement package with a match, competitive health insurance, eligibility for annual bonus based on profitability of firm, etc.), we are committed to developing our employees’ skills in a challenging but supportive environment. 

Interested in working here? Please submit a cover letter and resume by email to: recruiting@ssmnlaw.com.

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Administrative Assistant

Are you interested in working in a law office in a team environment?  Sanford, Pierson, Thone & Strean, PLC is looking for an administrative assistant.  The position requires excellent communication skills – both verbal and written, a high degree of initiative and attention to detail, strong organizational skills, the ability to work well on a team and the ability to maintain the utmost confidentiality.  Candidates should have an outgoing personality with strong professional social skills and be proficient in Microsoft Outlook, Word and Excel.

The responsibilities of this position include the following administrative and clerical duties for which the candidate will report to the Operations Manager:

  • General administrative and clerical duties, including reception desk and phone coverage, and filing, mailing and copying or related tasks as directed
  • Maintains a clean and organized work place
  • Manages conference room preparation and use
  • Coordinates service calls and appointments with firm vendors
  • Thinks critically to identify and propose ways to implement new processes and procedures to improve existing operations
  • Manages and/or works on special operating tasks, processes or projects as needed.

The responsibilities of this position include the following marketing-related duties for which the candidate will report to the Marketing Chair:

  • Coordinates and plans firm events
  • Maintains client and referral source listings and tracks incoming files.

Additional duties may be assigned or reassigned to this position and the candidate will be expected to adhere to general firm policies and practices and completes responsibilities in accordance with the firm’s employee handbook (including but not limited to maintaining the confidentiality of client identity and information).

Project Manager/Paralegal

Are you interested in working in a law office in a team environment, managing client projects and working with attorneys?  Sanford, Pierson, Thone & Strean, PLC is looking for a project manager/paralegal.  The position requires excellent project management and communication skills – both verbal and written, a high degree of initiative and attention to detail, strong organizational skills, the ability to work well on a team and the ability to maintain the utmost confidentiality. 

The responsibilities of this position include, but are not limited to:

  • Completes general paralegal responsibilities:
    • Creates outlined file (project) deliverables.  Drafts, reviews and edits a variety of documentation, including letters and legal documents (civil litigation, estate planning, probate, business organization and transactions, real estate) and obtains attorney approval on all work product
    • Electronic and paper filing (internally in accordance with office protocol for file management, with governmental agencies such as the Secretary of State and Office of the County Recorder, and within state and federal court systems)
  • Manages and oversees assigned files (projects) from open to close: analyzing, monitoring, and planning with attorney(s) regarding files and file-related tasks to ensure timely completion or delegation. 
  • Identifies client contact information and shares as necessary
  • Responsible for identifying scope of project (complexity, time and people resources)
  • Estimates resource needs (time and people) for project
  • Identifies potential issues (resources, scheduling or other) that could impact the project.
  • Identifies information that needs to be gathered for the project.
  • Determines and creates a project timeline (identifies milestones and associated “due dates” or completion periods of milestones) and verifies timeline with the assigned attorney, identifies who is responsible for each task (PM or an attorney) and verifies this with the assigned attorney, completes assigned tasks, and ensures that all milestones associated with the file are completed when due.  Responsible for communicating with attorneys on a regular basis (at least two times per month) to confirm or update file needs (and associated due dates and assignment of tasks).
  • Attend and participate in Project Manager meeting with workflow manager.
  • Attends and participates in practice group meetings.  Coordinates the scheduling of the meeting, and creates agenda and minutes for assigned practice group.
  • Gathers project resources (time, people, etc.)
  • Coordinates and participates in the gathering of project information (documents, meetings with clients, etc.)
  • Manages the implementation of the project timeline, deliverables, resources, etc.
  • Closes the project/file
  • Adheres to firm policies and practices and completes responsibilities in accordance with the firm’s employee handbook (including but not limited to maintaining the confidentiality of client identity and information) and project management practices, including file opening, data management, and file closure protocols.
  • Thinks critically to identify and propose ways to implement new processes and procedures to improve existing operations
  • Manages and/or works on administrative support or administrative tasks, processes or projects as needed. Availability for general administrative and clerical duties, including phone coverage, maintaining a clean and organized work place and mailing and copying or related tasks as directed.
  • Manages and/or works on special file management tasks, processes or projects as needed
  • Manages and/or works on special operating tasks, processes or projects as needed
  • Records billable and non-billable time by entering slips in the firm’s Timeslips billing software on a real-time basis. Slips must include slip descriptions that are professional and include sufficient detail to identify the work performed for both billable and non-billable time.