Career Opportunity

Legal Assistant - Litigation Support - City Attorney's Office (8173)

Recruitment: RTF0126708-01056294

Published: January 24, 2023

Apply using SmartRecruiters, the City and County of San Francisco's application portal Learn More

About:

• Application Opening: October 17, 2022; Reposted January 24, 2023
  • Previous applicants do not need to re-apply
• Application Deadline: Continuous, earliest close February 3, 2023
• Compensation Range: $90,636 - $110,110
• Recruitment ID: RTF0126708-01056294

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

About the Office: The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office (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, dedicated, and diverse employees, the Office provides exceptional legal services to the City’s Mayor, Board of Supervisors, officials, and departments. Our work empowers the City’s public servants 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 click here.

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/

Role description

Legal Assistant Position and Responsibilities:

• Act as an internal litigation support consultant and provide direct support to attorneys and legal support staff to develop, implement and support efficient, cost-effective discovery processes, case automation systems, and practice support applications.
• Consult with practice teams to identify and implement best practices for the identification, preservation, collection, analysis, processing, review, and presentation of paper and electronic discovery materials.
• Advise, consult, and assist attorneys and paralegals on eDiscovery case management, as well as act as a liaison with eDiscovery vendors.
• Stay current on the rapidly changing technology developments relating to litigation support.
• Coordinate and monitor our use of litigation support vendors. 
• Create, update, and maintain databases in practice support applications, including but not limited to: Ipro, CaseMap/TimeMap, Text Map, Law PreDiscovery, Trial Director and be familiar with hosted solutions (for example, kCura Relativity, etc.) or other similar litigation support and eDiscovery software tools as required.
• Identify case-specific litigation support application needs with attorneys, paralegals and clients.
• Develop, maintain, and troubleshoot case-specific databases, image bases, and image load files, to facilitate the retrieval of documents and testimony during discovery and trial preparation.
• Conduct automated searches to prepare for depositions, hearings and trials.
• Proficient using Text Pad and Microsoft Excel to manage and manipulate data files.
• Manage City Attorney Opinion Database.
• Additional responsibilities as assigned.

How to qualify

Minimum Qualifications

• 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

• One year of litigation experience as a legal assistant or paralegal, or five or more years as a legal secretary providing proof of performing high-level duties as described under Responsibilities section above
• Excellent verbal and written communication
• Able to communicate effectively and tactfully with attorneys, office personnel, court personnel, vendors and representatives of other governmental departments/entities and the general public; and to accept and implement written and oral instructions
• 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, and prioritize and complete multiple assignments
• 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, IPRO Eclipse, CaseMap, Trial Director, or other similar software.  Experience with Relativity a plus
• 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

Salary and Benefits

The position has a five-step salary scale ranging from $90,636 - $110,110.  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, which has a Memorandum of Understanding with the City that can be found at MOU.

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.

COVID-19 Vaccination Required as a Condition of Employment

The City and the Office are committed to the health and safety of our employees.  Under the City’s Vaccination Policy, 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 this condition applies to your employment, please click here.

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.

What else should I know?

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.

Questions: If you have any questions regarding this recruitment or application process, please contact Nikki.Chew@sfcityatty.org or Jacob Mast at Jacob.Mast@sfcityatty.org.

CONDITION OF EMPLOYMENT:  All City and County of San Francisco employees are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment. Someone is fully vaccinated when 14 days have passed since they received the final dose of a two-shot vaccine or a dose of a one-shot vaccine. Any new hire must present proof of full vaccination status to be appointed. Any new hire who will be routinely assigned or occasionally enter High-Risk Settings, must provide proof of having received a COVID-19 booster vaccine by March 1, 2022, or once eligible.

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.