Description:
Overview:The Associate Attorney represents LWCC and/or its policyholders in court or legal proceedings and issues advisory opinions of a complex nature.
Major Areas of Accountability
- Represents the LWCC and/or its policyholders in important litigation before trial courts, appellate courts and administrative tribunals statewide.
- Provides guidance, assistance, and training to attorneys with less experience.
- Prepares and/or directs the preparation of legal documents, memoranda of law and other documents incidental to litigation.
- Coordinates and participates in in-service seminars for claims department personnel.
- Advises claims department personnel and policyholders of litigation plans and significant litigation developments.
- Conducts legal research and prepares written opinions.
- Conducts depositions and prepares deposition summaries.
- Other assignments as directed.
- Partners with designated departments on the onboarding and training of new leaders within the company
- Strong character
- Alignment with company values, mission, and vision
- Trustworthy and honest
- Strong leadership skills
- Goals-oriented and results focused
- An entrepreneurial, can-do spirit and roll up sleeves attitude
- Change management skills to support and lead performance change initiatives
- Strong critical thinking and collaboration skills to help the business partners achieve the best results
- Facilitation skills to manage meetings and projects to achieve objectives.
- Passion for innovation
- Adaptive to changing business plans (tolerance for ambiguity)
- Desire to partner with designated teams to achieve department goals
- Strong communicator
- Excellent written and oral communication skills; computer literate
- Effective communication, listening and training skills
- Willingness to have difficult conversations and resolve conflict
- Commitment to accountability
- Relationship building skills to establish and maintain collaborative partnerships across a broad range of departments and disciplines
- Significant in-state travel. Preferred candidate will have significant trial experience in both state and federal courts in Louisiana. Experience in workers' compensation and/or Longshore defense preferred but not required.
Education and Experience:
- Possession of a license to practice law in the State of Louisiana
- A minimum of four to six (4 - 6) years' experience as an attorney practicing Louisiana and/or federal workers' compensation defense,
- A minimum of three years' experience working as a Staff Attorney for the LWCC legal department
- Areas of concentration may include a level of difficulty dealing with State Workers' Compensation litigation; Maritime litigation (including Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act and Jones Act); and the aggressive recovery of benefits through Subrogation litigation.
- Those associate attorneys whose caseloads include considerable maritime litigation will be hired/retained at the upper range of the pay scale due to the complexity of issues and labor market demands afforded this type of legal experience and expertise.
- Prior legal experience in other specialty or complex areas of law may be substituted in part for experience at any attorney level based upon departmental need.
- Movement between attorney levels is not automatic and promotions are not given solely on service years. Promotions are based on: (1) corporate and departmental need; (2) performance (3) budgetary considerations.