Legal Assistant

What We Do.

Smart & Biggar has been at the forefront of intellectual property (IP) and technology law for over 100 years. We practice in every area of IP on behalf of an exceptional international clientele, and we are consistently ranked as Canada’s leading IP firm. We are committed to hiring people with different backgrounds and experience, who represent the best talent in their field.

We are part of the IPH Group. IPH Limited is the holding company for intellectual property (“IP”) and associated companies offering a wide range of IP services and products. IPH companies employ a highly skilled multidisciplinary team of over 1,200 people in Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong SAR, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Thailand. IPH companies service a diverse client base of Fortune Global 500 companies, multinationals, public sector research organizations, SMEs, and professional services firms worldwide.

We are passionate about what we do and what we can achieve. The IPH Group is committed to promoting and maintaining a workplace culture of shared respect across companies to enable us all to feel valued and be the best we can be.

The Opportunity.

We are currently looking for a bilingual Legal Assistant to join our national patent team. In this role you will be part of our administrative team providing operational support to our patent agents and lawyers.

Responsibilities.

• Prepare and file patent correspondence and related documents with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO).


• Analyze documents received from the patent offices and write associated client reports.


• Track and ensure compliance with statutory and internal deadlines.


• Perform general administrative duties including creation of outgoing correspondence, time entry, preparation of invoices/billings and record management (in a paperless environment).


• Prepare correspondence to clients, foreign associates, CIPO, and other parties as required.


• Train and mentor more junior assistants and other team members.


• Other duties may be assigned or amended as required

Qualifications, competencies and experience.

• Legal or General Administrative Assistant Diploma


• 3-5 years’ experience as an assistant in a legal or professional services environment


• 1+ year experience in intellectual property


• Bilingual: strong written and spoken English and French


• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills including the ability to deal directly with clients and all levels of staff


• Excellent attention to detail, highly organized and proactive


• Highly proficient in MS Office and ability to learn new software and technology quickly