The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office is looking for a qualified and motivated legal assistant to join its Labor 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 just over 300 talented, dedicated, and diverse attorneys and support staff, 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 the San Francisco’s residents and visitors.

The Office recognizes that diversity in the backgrounds, ideas and lived experiences of our employees enriches our workplace and enhances our work.  We aspire to recruit, employ, retain and promote capable 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, age and candidates with disabilities.  We have a clear vision: to be the place where a diverse mix of talented people want to come and stay, and where employees feel welcomed, engaged and valued for their work and contributions to the Office and the City.

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

To learn more about the Office’s efforts to provide a welcoming, diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace please click here.

About the Labor Team: The Labor Team is a collaborative and dynamic group of attorneys, paralegals, legal assistants and legal secretaries.  The Team defends the City in state and federal civil litigation (through trial and appeals) and administrative proceedings involving labor and employment matters and provides proactive advice and risk management strategies to its client departments on all aspects of the City’s labor and employment relationships.  The Team advises and represents the City in its on-going relationships with the more than 30 unions that represent City employees, including collective bargaining, labor grievance arbitrations, and defending unfair labor practice and other administrative charges.  The Labor Team is made up of 17 attorneys, 3 paralegals, 1 legal assistant, and 5 secretaries.  The Office is adding a legal assistant to the Team.

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.

• Paralegal certificate from an ABA-approved program, or other significant work experience that satisfies statutory requirements (i.e., Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 6450 compliant).

Desired Qualifications

• Minimum 1 – 2 years 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 Team, 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 of Education and Experience:
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 http://sfdhr.org/how-verify-education-requirements

Notes:

1. 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.
2. Applicants must meet the minimum qualification requirements by the final filing date unless otherwise noted.

Appointment Type:  Permanent Exempt (PEX) – This position is excluded by the Charter from the competitive Civil Service examination process and shall serve at the discretion of the Appointing Officer.

Salary and Benefits The position has a five-step salary scale ranging from $86,112 - $104,624.  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 (classification 8173) are represented by the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, Local 21, which has a Memorandum of Understanding with the City that can be found at MOU.

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

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

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Filing Deadline: Interested Applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible as this announcement may close at any time after January 17, 2022.

Question: if you have any questions regarding this job, please contact [email protected] or Lillian Chow at [email protected].

Application Opening: November 29, 2021

Application Deadline: January 17, 2022

Analyst Name: Marylou Remo

CONDITION OF EMPLOYMENT:  All City and County of San Francisco employees are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment.  For details on how it is applicable to your employment, please click here.

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.