Legal Assistant - Trial/Litigation Team - City Attorneys Office (8173)

Company Description

Appointment Type: Permanent Exempt (PEX) position; individuals who are appointed to Exempt Positions are appointed at the pleasure of their appointing officer and are considered to be "at-will."

• Application Opening: August 20, 2024
• Application Deadline: Continuous, earliest close 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, September 3, 2024
• Compensation Range: $96,408 - $117,156
• Recruitment ID: REF43966D

The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office is looking for a qualified and motivated legal assistant to join its Litigation Team.

About the Office

The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office is an innovative, nationally-recognized municipal law office working to protect and advance the rights and interests of the City and County of San Francisco and its residents. With over 300 talented and dedicated employees, the Office provides exceptional legal services to the City’s Mayor, Board of Supervisors, officials, and departments. Our work empowers City leaders with effective, responsive, and creative legal solutions and representation so they can deliver critical public services, and our affirmative advocacy enhances the lives and wellbeing of San Francisco’s residents and visitors.

The Office recognizes that diversity in the backgrounds, identities, ideas, and lived experiences of our employees enriches our workplace and enhances our work. We aspire to recruit, employ, retain, and promote talented individuals representing the full spectrum of our community, and welcome all candidates, including candidates of any race, religion, national origin, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, and age, and candidates with disabilities. We have a clear vision: to be the place where a diverse mix of people want to come and stay, grow professionally, and find purpose and engagement, and where all employees feel welcomed and respected for their full authentic selves, and valued for their work and contributions to the Office and the City. To learn more about the Office’s efforts to provide an inclusive workplace where employees feel they belong and can meaningfully contribute, please visit: https://www.sfcityattorney.org/aboutus/dei/

The Office offers a hybrid remote work schedule for eligible employees, with three days onsite and up to two days remote.

To learn more about the City Attorney’s Office please visit: https://www.sfcityattorney.org/

About the Litigation Team

The Litigation Team is a collaborative and dynamic group of 23 attorneys, seven paralegals and legal assistants, and eight legal secretaries. The Team defends litigation filed against the City and County of San Francisco and its employees in State and Federal court, and handles a variety of cases primarily involving personal injury, civil rights, and property damage claims.

Job Description

Legal Assistant Position and Responsibilities

Legal Assistants work under the direction of attorneys and/or paralegals, and provide a variety of paraprofessional legal duties in a fast-paced, high-volume litigation practice. The responsibilities listed below represent the range of duties assigned and are not intended as an exhaustive list.

• Implement document litigation holds across various City departments.
• Coordinate with the Litigation Support Team to set up cases and establish and maintain databases.
• Create and organize case-specific databases and maintain case custodian lists on assigned cases.
• Draft and issue subpoenas.
• Assist with discovery, including electronic discovery, and the organization, case management, collection, review strategy, and production of documents obtained from litigants and City departments; prepare privilege logs.
• Conduct database searches using software such as Eclipse, Concordance, CaseMap, and Text Map, and review documents within these programs for relevance, responsiveness, and privilege.
• Assist in preparing motions by gathering exhibits, preparing and managing declarations, and fact and legal cite checking briefs and supporting documents using both Blue Book and California styles.
• Assist on appeals, including assembling the record and conducting fact and legal cite checking.
• Organize, review, search, and prepare documents, exhibits, transcripts, and other materials for use during investigations, discovery, hearings, trials and arbitrations using Eclipse, Concordance, CaseMap, Text Map, Trial Director, and other software.
• Estimate and communicate realistic deadlines and expectations to attorneys.
• Coordinate with attorneys, investigators, paralegals, legal assistants, secretaries, and others and effectively communicate with respect to assignments, workloads, status, and work product.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Compliance with California Business & Professions Code Section 6450 by possessing at least one of the following:
  • A certificate of completion of a paralegal program approved by the American Bar Association.
  • A certificate of completion of a paralegal program at, or a degree from, a postsecondary institution that requires the successful completion of a minimum of 24 semester, or equivalent, units in law-related courses and that has been accredited by a national or regional accrediting organization or approved by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education.
  • A baccalaureate degree or an advanced degree in any subject, a minimum of one year of law-related experience under the supervision of an attorney who has been an active member of the State Bar of California for at least the preceding three years or who has practiced in the federal courts of this state for at least the preceding three years, and a written declaration from this attorney stating that the person is qualified to perform paralegal tasks.
  • A high school diploma or general equivalency diploma, a minimum of three years of law-related experience under the supervision of an attorney who has been an active member of the State Bar of California for at least the preceding three years or who has practiced in the federal courts of this state for at least the preceding three years, and a written declaration from this attorney stating that the person is qualified to perform paralegal tasks. This experience and training shall be completed no later than December 31, 2003.

Desired Qualifications

• At least one year of litigation experience as a legal assistant or paralegal or 5+ years as a legal secretary providing proof of performing high level duties as described under Responsibilities section above.
• Excellent verbal and writing skills, and an ability to work independently, as well as collaboratively with attorneys, other paralegals, secretaries and others.
• Ability to analyze legal problems, and perform detailed analytical work with accuracy and initiative.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and deadlines, accept and implement written and oral instructions, and communicate effectively and tactfully with attorneys, office personnel, court personnel, vendors and representatives of other governmental departments/entities and the general public.
• Working knowledge of civil legal procedures, legal terminology, and court rules.
• Adept in Microsoft Office Suite.
• Experience with Adobe Professional, Cisco WebEx, Microsoft Teams, TextMap, Concordance, IPRO Eclipse, CaseMap, Trial Director, or other similar software.
• Strong interpersonal skills and a positive attitude.
• Commitment to valuing diversity and contributing to an inclusive working and learning environment.
• Desire and ability to work successfully as part of a team.
• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.

Verification

Applicants may be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience at any point during the recruitment and selection process. If education verification is required, information on how to verify education requirements, including verifying foreign education credits or degree equivalency, can be found at https://sfdhr.org/how-verify-education-requirements”

Note: Falsifying one’s education, training, or work experience or attempted deception on the application may result in disqualification for this and future job opportunities with the City and County of San Francisco.

All work experience, education, training and other information substantiating how you meet the minimum qualifications must be included on your application by the filing deadline. Information submitted after the filing deadline will not be considered in determining whether you meet the minimum qualifications.

Resumes will not be accepted in lieu of a completed City and County of San Francisco application.

Applications completed improperly may be cause for ineligibility, disqualification or may lead to lower scores.

Selection Procedures

The selection process will include evaluation of applications in relation to minimum requirements. Applicants meeting the minimum qualifications are not guaranteed advancement to the interview. Depending on the number of applicants, the Department may establish and implement additional screening mechanisms to comparatively evaluate the qualifications of candidates. If this becomes necessary, only those applicants whose qualifications most closely meet the needs of the Department will be invited to participate in the oral/performance interview.

Additional Information

Salary and Benefits

The position has a five-step salary scale ranging from $96,408 - $117,156. The successful candidate will be placed at a salary step based on years of experience and additional relevant degrees, certifications, credentials or skills. The City offers robust health, retirement and other benefits. For more information please visit: https://sfdhr.org/benefits-overview. Legal Assistants are represented by the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, Local 21.

Additional Information Regarding Employment with the City and County of San Francisco:

• Information About the Hiring Process
• Conviction History
• Employee Benefits Overview  
• Equal Employment Opportunity 
• Disaster Service Worker
• ADA Accommodation
• Veterans Preference
• Right to Work
• Copies of Application Documents
• Diversity Statement

HOW TO APPLY

Applications for City and County of San Francisco jobs are only accepted through an online process. Visit https://careers.sf.gov/ and begin the application process.

• Select the “Apply Now” button and follow instructions on the screen

Applicants may be contacted by email about this recruitment and, therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that their registered email address is accurate and kept up-to-date. Also, applicants must ensure that email from CCSF is not blocked on their computer by a spam filter. To prevent blocking, applicants should set up their email to accept CCSF mail from the following addresses (@sfgov.org, @sfdpw.org, @sfport.com, @flysfo.com, @sfwater.org, @sfdph.org, @asianart.org, @sfmta.com, @sfpl.org, @dcyf.org, @first5sf.org, @famsf.org, @ccsf.edu, @smartalerts.info, and @smartrecruiters.com).

Applicants will receive a confirmation email that their online application has been received in response to every announcement for which they file. Applicants should retain this confirmation email for their records. Failure to receive this email means that the online application was not submitted or received.

Human Resources Analyst Information: If you have any questions regarding this recruitment or application process, please send your inquires to Asa Nojd, HR Analyst, at [email protected].

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.