Career Opportunity

Law Fellow - 2025/2026 - City Attorney's Office (8175)

Recruitment: RTF0151968-01155433

Published: October 28, 2024

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About:

Appointment Type: Temporary Exempt (TEX) position; individuals who are appointed to Exempt Positions are appointed at the pleasure of their appointing officer and are considered to be "at-will." The duration of this position is expected to be approximately one year.

• Application Opening: October 8, 2024
• Application Deadline: Extended to November 1, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. (was October 29, 2024)
• Compensation Range: $133,146 - $140,530
  • The Law Fellow position has a 2-step salary scale, with a current step 1 salary of $133,146 and a step 2 salary of $140,530. The successful applicant is appointed to salary step 1 if they are not admitted to practice law in California, and step 2 if they are admitted to practice law in California. A fellow appointed at step 1 will move to step 2 when they are admitted to practice law in California, if that occurs during the fellowship year.
• Recruitment ID: RTF0151968-01155433

About the Office

The 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 nearly 350 talented and dedicated employees, we provide 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 well-being 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/

Role description

The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office (Office) Law Fellow Program offers a unique and rewarding one-year professional opportunity for a recent law school graduate to gain direct experience in a specific aspect of municipal law practice. The Office has one position for the year. The successful applicant must be available for full-time work beginning September/October 2025 and the fellowship position ends after approximately one year (specific dates to be determined based on the successful applicant’s schedule and the Law Fellow Program annual cycle).

The Law Fellow position is open to the following individuals (eligibility criteria):

• Recent graduates of a law school at an HBCU (Historically Black College and University).
• Recent graduates of the Legal Education Opportunity Program (LEOP) offered at UC Law San Francisco.
• Recent graduates of the University of San Francisco School of Law Academic Support Program.
• Recent law school graduates who come from disadvantaged educational, economic, social, or physical backgrounds, as established through a personal background statement.
• Those who became eligible to practice law by completing the State Bar of California’s Law Office Study Program in 2024 or 2025.
• The term “recent graduate” means someone who graduated from law school in 2024 or who will graduate by June 2025. An applicant selected for the position who expects to graduate by June 2025 must successfully graduate to be appointed.
• An applicant does not need to be admitted to practice law in California to apply for or be appointed to the Law Fellow position.

Our Law Fellow will receive on-the-job training, a direct role in legal research, writing, and other aspects of the specific practice area, career development programming, and mentorship advice from experienced deputies in our Office.

Applicants can propose a fellowship on the following legal teams: Dependency & Mental Health; Complex & Affirmative Litigation; Energy & Telecommunications; Government & Government Litigation; and Land Use. The selected applicant will spend the full year with the team to which they applied. Applicants can learn more about these teams and our other teams here: https://www.sfcityattorney.org/aboutus/legal-teams/

How to qualify

An applicant must be available for full-time work beginning September/October 2025. An applicant does not need to be admitted to practice law in California to apply for or be appointed to the Law Fellow position.

Desired Qualifications

• Demonstrated interest in public service,
• Demonstrated interest in the specific practice area for which the applicant has applied,
• Strong writing skills, and
• Commitment to valuing diversity and contributing to an inclusive working and learning environment.

Application

To apply for this position, interested applicants must submit the following materials:

• Resume,
• Cover letter not to exceed two pages, which should cover:
  • the team in which the applicant is interested;
  • the basis for the applicant’s interest in that practice area and the Law Fellow position generally, and
  • information about the applicant as it relates to the desired qualifications for the position, above, and the selection criteria, below.
• At least one writing sample,
• Law school transcript and for applicants who have graduated from law school or the State Bar’s Law Office Study Program, proof of graduation,
• At least one letter of recommendation or a reference the Office can contact, and
• Documentation establishing eligibility for the Law Fellow position, based on the criteria in this announcement. If applying as a recent law school graduate who comes from a disadvantaged educational, economic, social, or physical background, please submit a personal background statement not to exceed two pages. See below for content of this statement.

Completed applications and all required documents must be received by October 29, 2024, at 5:00pm for the applicant to be considered. We will not consider late or incomplete applications.

Selection Considerations

The Office will select the successful candidate based on all aspects of an applicant’s background, including:

• Demonstrated commitment to or interest in public service and the specific practice area for which the applicant has applied;
• A record of accomplishment, such as: academic achievement; leadership positions; law journal experience or other publications; or achievement in moot court or mock trial;
• Strong writing skills, including clarity, content, and skill of presentation in their written submissions;
• Past employment or other relevant experience, including internships and externships; clinical experience; or extracurricular activities that relate to public service or municipal law; and
• Any other work or life experiences that could bring a unique perspective to the work of the Office.

Content of Personal Background Statement

For recent law school graduates applying because they meet the eligibility requirement of coming from a disadvantaged educational, economic, social, or physical background, your personal background statement (not to exceed two pages) can cover the following topics.

1. Your early educational experiences through high school, including the expectation level of and support for educational and career achievement in your family and community, and the impact, if any, those expectations had on your education.
2. The occupation(s) and educational background(s) of the person(s) who raised you.
3. Your family’s financial situation through law school/State Bar program entry.
4. Your source(s) of financial support through law school/State Bar program entry, including family, employment, loans, grants/scholarships, or other assistance.
5. The community(ies) with which you identify and/or in which you resided from birth to age of college entry. Describe any biases you faced as a member of such community(ies) and explain what impact, if any, they had on your academic performance.
6. Whether you are an immigrant or the child of immigrant parents, and if so, what impact, if any, that had on your academic performance.
7. Whether you had any learning or physical disability and what impact, if any, that had on your academic performance.

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.

What else should I know?

Salary and Benefits

The Law Fellow position has a 2-step salary scale, with a current step 1 salary of $133,146 and a step 2 salary of $140,530. The successful applicant is appointed to salary step 1 if they are not admitted to practice law in California, and step 2 if they are admitted to practice law in California. A fellow appointed at step 1 will move to step 2 when they are admitted to practice law in California, if that occurs during the fellowship year. The City offers robust health, retirement, and other benefits. For more information please visit: https://sfdhr.org/benefits-overview. Law fellows are represented by the Municipal Attorneys Association. Information about compensation and benefits is available by entering Classification Code 8175 at https://careers.sf.gov/classifications/.

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 asa.nojd@sfcityatty.org.

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.