Job Details

Senior Litigation Paralegal

The City Attorney's Office is seeking an experienced and highly skilled Litigation Paralegal III to provide advanced paralegal support for complex administrative, civil, and criminal matters.

The Litigation Paralegal III is the advanced journey-level classification in the Paralegal series. The successful candidate will exercise a high degree of independent judgment and perform the most complex and difficult paralegal assignments requiring extensive legal knowledge, proficiency, and skill.

The position assists attorneys with the preparation, coordination, and management of all stages of litigation and transactional work. Responsibilities include legal research, discovery coordination, document preparation, case management, witness coordination, and trial preparation.

The Litigation Paralegal III may act as a project lead and provide task-related direction, procedural guidance, and coordination to lower-level paralegal and support staff. This classification is distinguished from the Paralegal I and Paralegal II classifications by its technical specialization, lead responsibilities, independent judgment, and the complexity and scope of assignments performed.

Key responsibilities include assisting attorneys with the preparation and coordination of complex and highly sensitive cases through all phases of litigation, coordinating and implementing case-management and discovery-related assignments, conducting complex legal research, drafting complex legal documents, reviewing, analyzing, organizing, and summarizing legal, technical, and evidentiary information, interviewing clients and witnesses and gathering facts and information relevant to legal matters, preparing for depositions, arbitrations, administrative hearings, and trials, preparing affidavits and maintaining case files, discovery materials, exhibits, and other legal records, filing pleadings and other legal documents with courts and administrative agencies, investigating the status of cases and locating witnesses, defendants, interested parties, or relevant records, scheduling and preparing witnesses for trials, hearings, depositions, and other legal proceedings, preparing case files, exhibits, documents, and information for attorney use in court, assisting attorneys during trials, hearings, depositions, and other legal proceedings, communicating with clients, opposing counsel, court personnel, City staff, witnesses, and members of the public, establishing internal procedures to improve the organization, processing, and efficiency of legal work, providing lead direction, procedural guidance, and coordination to subordinate staff to ensure case priorities and deadlines are met, providing exemplary customer service by being attentive, responsive, fair, courteous, and respectful, and performing other related duties as assigned.

Why join the City Attorney's Office? This position offers a unique opportunity to litigate complex and meaningful cases while serving the public interest. Attorneys in the office enjoy substantial courtroom and trial opportunities, a sophisticated and diverse litigation practice, direct engagement with City leadership and policy makers, a collaborative and supportive legal team, and the opportunity to help shape legal strategy for a dynamic coastal city.

Salary and benefits include CalPERS retirement, medical, dental, and vision insurance, paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays, deferred compensation (457 plan), flexible spending account, life and disability insurance, continuing legal educations and professional development opportunities.

Employment standards require substantial experience defending federal civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. §1983, including cases involving law enforcement use of force, wrongful arrest, and other constitutional claims. Requirements include active membership in good standing with the State Bar of California, Juris Doctor degree from an accredited law school, minimum of twelve (12) years of litigation experience, extensive experience handling complex litigation in federal court, significant experience defending claims brought under 42 U.S.C. §1983, demonstrated experience serving as lead counsel in jury trials, strong motion practice experience, including summary judgment and qualified immunity motions, excellent legal writing, research, and oral advocacy skills, and ability to independently manage complex litigation while working collaboratively with attorneys and City departments. Experience representing public entities, law enforcement agencies, or large institutional clients is highly desirable.

Selection process involves reviewing applications and supplemental questionnaires, inviting the most qualified candidates for an interview, and conducting a background investigation and meeting all pre-employment requirements.