Open Door Legal
Temporary Family Law Paralegal
Open Door Legal, San Francisco, California, United States, 94199
Temporary Family Law Paralegal (approximately four months)
Full-Time, Exempt
Hybrid (two to four days in-person minimum)
About Us:
We believe that even the biggest problems can be broken down into small, achievable steps. Poverty and access to justice are part of the same problem. At Open Door Legal (ODL), we’re pioneering the country’s first system of universal access to civil legal representation to dramatically reduce poverty and prove that the law really can belong to all of us. To achieve this ambitious goal, we’ve created an award-winning legal aid organization full of passionate, motivated, gritty, thoughtful, and team-oriented people.
We believe that injustice is the heart of poverty and we're looking for someone to join us in having a systemic impact on how we, as a society, ensure justice for all.
Overview of Position:
As the Temporary Family Law Paralegal, you will provide critical support to our family law team by ensuring all of our family law clients receive excellent legal services. Our family practice team helps to heal families and communities, reduce conflict, and set our clients (and their children) up for future success. Our unique model of practice involves advising and representing clients in all areas of family law and victim’s rights, including child custody and visitation, child support and parentage, divorce, Domestic Violence Restraining Orders, guardianship, adoption, victim compensation, and protection of rights pursuant to Marsy’s Law.
Day-to-day tasks include: providing basic rights advice (with attorney supervision), conducting intakes, completing court forms for clients’ cases, triaging potential clients, coordinating service of process, physically filing documents at SF Superior Court, communicating case progress to clients, and follow-up communications with clients including drafting letters and other correspondence. You will be the paralegal for the entire family law practice and will be working with multiple attorneys and providing support for the entire practice’s caseload. The work is fast-paced and will require you to be organized, think critically, and demonstrate empathy and awareness in understanding the needs of our community.
Responsibilities:
Embrace and embody our mission of universal access to civil legal aid and ensure that everyone in our service area with a viable family law issue gets appropriate help.
Support our Family Law team (currently one managing attorney and three staff attorneys) and interns/fellows/volunteers.
Execute timely filings (including drafting and compiling forms to file in court) and mailings, ensuring they are high-quality and within the deadline.
Oversee service of process (personal, substitute, and mail) and coordinate with the sheriffs or private process servers.
Assist with discovery requests and fact-gathering for the client’s case using information technologies.
Review documents with clients and obtain their informed signatures.
Provide clients’ rights counseling and case management, including maintaining necessary follow-up with clients.
Commit to leading the office in representing our mission and values externally and internally.
Provide services and support to our low-income clients with humility and awareness of cultural, socio-economic, and disability differences.
Requirements:
At least an associate’s degree or equivalent work experience. A paralegal certificate or declaration is required for a paralegal designation.
Strong time management skills and the ability to handle quick timelines and manage diverse activities.
Must actively demonstrate cultural humility and sensitivity to barriers low-income residents face.
Authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship.
Demonstrated understanding of how to effectively provide trauma-informed advocacy for clients in crisis.
Hybrid position: minimum of two days in-office in one or more of our Open Door Legal office locations.
Comfort with learning and using technology and cloud-based case management systems.
Bonus Points:
Comfortable translating and interpreting legal information from English to Spanish and vice versa.
Previous experience working with family law issues.
Previous experience as a paralegal, legal assistant, or client advocate.
Experience with filing and interacting within the San Francisco Superior Court.
Experience working with low-income and vulnerable populations.
Experience working in a high-volume direct services legal aid environment.
Having lived a significant period of your life in San Francisco proper.
Starting compensation (annually) for a legal assistant is $70,500-$86,500; for a paralegal, it's $72,500-$88,500.
Benefits:
Loan Repayment Assistance for staff pursuing public interest debt forgiveness.
Medical/Dental/Vision Plan offerings at 100% coverage.
Paid mental health benefit.
Generous paid time off (four weeks vacation and two weeks sick/care).
Flexible work hours.
Generous paid parental leave.
401K/Retirement Account.
Investment in individual professional development and mentorship opportunities.
Applications submitted prior to September 12, 2024 will receive priority consideration.
Ideal Start Date: October 2024
Open Door Legal is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or any other applicable legally protected characteristics.
We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability, please let us know at whitney [at] opendoorlegal [dot] org.
#J-18808-Ljbffr
Full-Time, Exempt
Hybrid (two to four days in-person minimum)
About Us:
We believe that even the biggest problems can be broken down into small, achievable steps. Poverty and access to justice are part of the same problem. At Open Door Legal (ODL), we’re pioneering the country’s first system of universal access to civil legal representation to dramatically reduce poverty and prove that the law really can belong to all of us. To achieve this ambitious goal, we’ve created an award-winning legal aid organization full of passionate, motivated, gritty, thoughtful, and team-oriented people.
We believe that injustice is the heart of poverty and we're looking for someone to join us in having a systemic impact on how we, as a society, ensure justice for all.
Overview of Position:
As the Temporary Family Law Paralegal, you will provide critical support to our family law team by ensuring all of our family law clients receive excellent legal services. Our family practice team helps to heal families and communities, reduce conflict, and set our clients (and their children) up for future success. Our unique model of practice involves advising and representing clients in all areas of family law and victim’s rights, including child custody and visitation, child support and parentage, divorce, Domestic Violence Restraining Orders, guardianship, adoption, victim compensation, and protection of rights pursuant to Marsy’s Law.
Day-to-day tasks include: providing basic rights advice (with attorney supervision), conducting intakes, completing court forms for clients’ cases, triaging potential clients, coordinating service of process, physically filing documents at SF Superior Court, communicating case progress to clients, and follow-up communications with clients including drafting letters and other correspondence. You will be the paralegal for the entire family law practice and will be working with multiple attorneys and providing support for the entire practice’s caseload. The work is fast-paced and will require you to be organized, think critically, and demonstrate empathy and awareness in understanding the needs of our community.
Responsibilities:
Embrace and embody our mission of universal access to civil legal aid and ensure that everyone in our service area with a viable family law issue gets appropriate help.
Support our Family Law team (currently one managing attorney and three staff attorneys) and interns/fellows/volunteers.
Execute timely filings (including drafting and compiling forms to file in court) and mailings, ensuring they are high-quality and within the deadline.
Oversee service of process (personal, substitute, and mail) and coordinate with the sheriffs or private process servers.
Assist with discovery requests and fact-gathering for the client’s case using information technologies.
Review documents with clients and obtain their informed signatures.
Provide clients’ rights counseling and case management, including maintaining necessary follow-up with clients.
Commit to leading the office in representing our mission and values externally and internally.
Provide services and support to our low-income clients with humility and awareness of cultural, socio-economic, and disability differences.
Requirements:
At least an associate’s degree or equivalent work experience. A paralegal certificate or declaration is required for a paralegal designation.
Strong time management skills and the ability to handle quick timelines and manage diverse activities.
Must actively demonstrate cultural humility and sensitivity to barriers low-income residents face.
Authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship.
Demonstrated understanding of how to effectively provide trauma-informed advocacy for clients in crisis.
Hybrid position: minimum of two days in-office in one or more of our Open Door Legal office locations.
Comfort with learning and using technology and cloud-based case management systems.
Bonus Points:
Comfortable translating and interpreting legal information from English to Spanish and vice versa.
Previous experience working with family law issues.
Previous experience as a paralegal, legal assistant, or client advocate.
Experience with filing and interacting within the San Francisco Superior Court.
Experience working with low-income and vulnerable populations.
Experience working in a high-volume direct services legal aid environment.
Having lived a significant period of your life in San Francisco proper.
Starting compensation (annually) for a legal assistant is $70,500-$86,500; for a paralegal, it's $72,500-$88,500.
Benefits:
Loan Repayment Assistance for staff pursuing public interest debt forgiveness.
Medical/Dental/Vision Plan offerings at 100% coverage.
Paid mental health benefit.
Generous paid time off (four weeks vacation and two weeks sick/care).
Flexible work hours.
Generous paid parental leave.
401K/Retirement Account.
Investment in individual professional development and mentorship opportunities.
Applications submitted prior to September 12, 2024 will receive priority consideration.
Ideal Start Date: October 2024
Open Door Legal is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or any other applicable legally protected characteristics.
We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability, please let us know at whitney [at] opendoorlegal [dot] org.
#J-18808-Ljbffr