SUMMARY
The Legal Writing Specialist will support the mission of the law school by working alongside the Director of the Writing Center and the Legal Research & Writing (LRW) faculty to help South Texas College of Law Houston students become practice-ready legal writers.
· The Legal Writing Specialist will teach students fundamental writing skills.
· The Legal Writing Specialist will collaborate with the LRW faculty in evaluating, teaching, and otherwise assisting students with their writing skills.
· The Legal Writing Specialist will also provide assistance with all tasks needed to administer a successful writing center at the law school.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include the following.
Provide one-on-one tutoring to students who seek help with fundamental writing issues, including grammar, punctuation, and paragraph structure.
· Provide one-on-one tutoring to first-year students who seek help with 1L writing projects.
· Work with ESL/EAL students on fundamental writing issues as well as specific legal writing skills.
· Design and implement writing support workshops on basic writing skills open to all law students.
· Coordinate, promote, and host drafting events for students to work on various writing projects.
· Support the writing center’s online presence with content providing writing tips and information regarding writing center events.
· Work collaboratively with the LRW faculty to address the needs of individual students who display writing challenges and to provide the schedule of writing center events.
· Provide one-on-one tutoring to first-year students who seek help with various writing skills.
· Gather, input, and assess data collected to assess the success of the writing center.
· Provide administrative support to the writing center, which will include keeping records of those who attend workshops and come to office hours for writing support.
· Comply with all aspects of the law school’s Customer Service Standards.
· Fulfill other duties as assigned.
· Other duties may be assigned.
· Comply with all aspects of the law school’s Customer Service Standards.
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES
N/A
QUALIFICATIONS To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
· JD degree required. Additional graduate experience in education or English welcomed.
· Significant experience working with students is required.
· Experience teaching or tutoring writing in an academic or legal setting preferred.
· Must be professional and confidential with all department data and correspondence.
· The person must have a poised and professional image; strong ability to multi-task and prioritize in a fast paced environment; excellent interpersonal skills; and the ability to interact effectively and efficiently with all employees, visitors, and students while projecting a positive image for the law school.
· The person must be service oriented to make all students feel welcome.
· Must be computer literate with proficiency in MS Office applications (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) with ability to learn new programs as necessary.
· Must be detail-oriented and able to work in a fast-paced multi-tasking environment.
· Experience working with ESL/EAL students on fundamentals of English language is strongly preferred.
· Knowledge of adult learning theories.
· Proficient in both spoken and written English.
· Ability to interpret and explain complex data.
· Ability to effectively and professionally communicate in one-on-one and small group situations to students, faculty, and other law school employees.
· Ability to perform basic to intermediate math is essential.
· Must possess the ability to analyze numerical data and detect patterns, errors, and trends.
· Ability to define routine problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions to solve routine problems and/or deal with a variety of variables in situations, especially when department head may be out of office or unavailable.
· Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form.
Must be professional and confidential of all department data and correspondence. The person must have a poised and professional image; strong ability to multi-task and prioritize in a fast paced environment, excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to interact effectively and efficiently with all employees, visitors and students while projecting a positive image for the area and law school. Service oriented with ability to make all visitors feel welcome. Must be computer literate with proficiency in MS Office applications (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) with ability to learn new programs as necessary. Must be detail-oriented and able to work in a fast-paced multi-tasking environment.
LANGUAGE SKILLS
Proficient in both spoken and written English. Ability to interpret and explain complex data. Ability to effectively and professionally communicate in one-on-one and small group situations to students, alumni, clients, and other employees of the organization.
MATHEMATICAL SKILLS
Ability to perform basic to intermediate math essential. Must possess the ability to analyze numerical data and detect patterns, errors and trends.
REASONING ABILITY
Ability to define routine problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions to solve routine problems and/or deal with a variety of variables in situations, especially when department head may be out of office or unavailable. Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form.
CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS
PHYSICAL DEMANDS The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit and talk or hear. The employee is regularly required to stand and walk. Ability to lift up to 20lbs. is required. Lifting from floor level, at waist, and above shoulders required. Infrequent bending and stooping necessary. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision in order to accurately input data and proofread; distance vision in order to recognize and assist visitors to the department.
WORK ENVIRONMENT The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Extremely fast paced, multi-tasking, non-smoking work environment. Must be able to work the general business schedule of the law school (9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.) plus occasional evenings and weekends as necessary.
Competitive Benefits Package for full-time staff
Required Skills
Required Experience