Legislative Assistant Job Description

The Director of the Office of Legislative Legal Services is authorized to appoint attorneys-at-law and other technical and clerical personnel as may be necessary for the efficient operation of the Office (Section 2-3-503 (1), C.R.S.) A Legislative Assistant must have a high school or undergraduate degree. A Legislative Assistant is assigned to one of the bill drafting teams in the Office, to the publications team, to the administrative team, or to senior staff members.

A Legislative Assistant, like all other employees of the Office, is an employee of the General Assembly and is not subject to state personnel system laws; however, a Legislative Assistant receives benefits available to other state employees as described in the Office Employee Handbook. Depending on the workload of the team or the Office, a Legislative Assistant may be asked to put in more than an eight-hour work day or to work on a holiday or a weekend with little advance notice. Compensatory time for the additional time worked is given in accordance with the Office Employee Handbook.

A Legislative Assistant's salary is determined by the Director, in consultation with the Management Team. A Legislative Assistant assigned to a bill drafting team reports directly to, and is subject to an annual performance evaluation by, the team leader of the team.

A Legislative Assistant, no matter to what team he or she is assigned, must be able to perform the following general functions:

• Make computer corrections to bills, amendments, and digests

• Perform legal and general research

• Perform editorial work relating to publication of the Colorado Revised Statutes including the preparation of source notes, cross references, and editor's notes

• Proofread bills, amendments, and statutory materials

• Make copies of bills, amendments, and other materials for a team, legislators, lobbyists, or the public

• Deliver bills and amendments

• Contact legislators and lobbyists to obtain information relating to bills and amendments

• Review rules of executive agencies for statutory and legal compliance under the supervision of a senior staff attorney

• Conduct computer searches

In addition to the general functions a Legislative Assistant must be able to perform, a Legislative Assistant assigned to a bill drafting team must be able to perform the following specialized functions:

• Perform editorial work on bills, resolutions, memorials, and amendments to check for proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure, to verify citations, and to check for readability

• Draft bills, resolutions, memorials, and amendments

• Prepare charts and tables as directed by the team leader and staff attorneys on team

• Assist in the enrolling of bills

• Provide general staff support to attorneys on team

• Perform legislation review of newly enacted legislation

• Prepare digest entries for newly enacted legislation

• Complete special projects and perform other duties

In addition, a Legislative Assistant assigned to a bill drafting team may be asked to perform the following functions:

• Assist in the training of newly hired Legislative Assistants

• Coordinate workload among Legislative Assistants on the teamI

In order to satisfactorily perform the functions of a Legislative Assistant, he or she, no matter to what team assigned, must be able to:

• Perform a variety of functions in a team environment but with responsibility for his or her individual work product

• See, hear, and speak in order to communicate with legislators, other Office staff, and other legislative agency staff

• Communicate with legislators, other Office staff, other legislative agency staff, lobbyists, the press, and members of the public in a professional manner

• Move around the building in order to deliver bills, amendments, and other documents (not required if other Legislative Assistants or Senior Legislative Assistants on the team can perform this function)

• Work under stress and within time demands and deadlines

• Work under instructions from his or her supervisor, the Director, or any other senior staff person

• Operate a personal computer

• Operate other office equipment such as printers (including replacement of toner cartridges), copy machines, FAX machines, electric typewriters, and electric and manual staplers (not required if other Legislative Assistants or Senior Legislative Assistants on the team can perform this function)