Community Service Legal Assistant/Paralegal

Full-time, Exempt

Hybrid (four days in office)

About Us:

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” - Nelson Mandela

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. And to solve this, we just need to discover what the steps are. 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 and best-in-class 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:

We are hiring a Community Service Legal Assistant/Paralegal to provide critical support for our direct legal services work ensuring that ODL meets our mission of providing free legal representation on all viable civil legal claims or defenses for residents of our service areas, with the desired impact being to reduce poverty. ODL represents low-income community members in over 35 sub-areas of civil law. ODL’s legal departments are civil litigation (includes consumer, bankruptcy, torts, real property, civil harassment restraining orders, and Marsy’s Law rights), elder (estate planning and probate), employment, public benefits, family, housing (unlawful detainer and affirmative), immigration, and other sub-areas including re-entry and small claims cases.

This role will be part of our Frontline Team which currently consists of four Frontline Partners (each staff one of our offices’ front desks), a Senior Frontline Partner, a Guest Support Specialist, and a Managing Frontline Attorney. The Community Service Legal Assistant/Paralegal will focus on administrative and advocacy responsibilities where a law license is not needed, including providing clients with individualized case support, leading intakes to gather information, drafting simple demand letters, and owning limited cases under the supervision of the Managing Frontline Attorney, who focuses on the management, outreach, and legal operations of guest services at ODL.

Overall, this position is intended to be a challenging yet extremely rewarding experience for a legal secretary/paralegal looking to make a direct difference in people’s lives with an innovative, results-oriented, and fast-growing organization. We encourage you to apply if others describe you as versatile, curious, a problem solver, decisive, compassionate, and comfortable with change. Thriving in this role requires grit, dynamism, teamwork, care, and passion (our organization’s five values). A willingness to make a minimum two-year commitment to the organization is strongly preferred.

This position will report directly to our Managing Frontline Attorney and will be in-office four days per week with one work-from-home day.

Responsibilities:

• Embody our universal access mission of guaranteeing free legal representation on all viable civil legal claims or defenses for adult residents of our service areas, with the ultimate goal of reducing poverty.
• Gain a basic knowledge of all the areas of law that ODL handles (see above) and direct services legal advocacy so that you can conduct brief services and emergency intakes, triage legal issues, spot deadlines, give legal information, and do discrete legal work under the supervision of a licensed attorney.
• Support your team with administrative and advocacy responsibilities where a law license is not needed, including providing clients with individualized case support, leading intakes to gather information, drafting simple demand letters, and owning limited cases.
• Assist in providing high-quality, trauma-informed, and competent legal services and maintaining self-care.
• Provide services and support to our low-income clients with sensitivity and awareness to cultural, socio-economic, and disability barriers to service.
• Be physically present at one of ODL’s four offices for a total of four days a week in order to conduct in-person intakes, ensure safety, and provide emergency legal assistance
• Execute timely and error-free filings and mailings. Physically go to SF Superior Court on an as-needed basis to file, deliver courtesy copies and/or pick up orders, and E-file any filings as required.
• Staff the Front Desk on a very limited basis, as needed.

Requirements:

• At least an associate’s degree or equivalent work experience. A paralegal certificate or declaration is required for a paralegal designation.

• Ability to commute to any of ODL’s offices four days a week to support the team’s in-office needs.
• Strong time management skills and the ability to organize time, manage diverse activities, and meet critical deadlines with minimal supervision.
• Have a high level of comfort learning and using technology and cloud-based case management systems. We use Salesforce, Dropbox, and Google Suite.
• Must genuinely enjoy and be motivated by working with low-income clients and be able to work competently with clients impacted by trauma (emotional, mental, and physical), including those at risk of homelessness and currently un-housed.
• Must actively demonstrate cultural humility and sensitivity to barriers low-income residents face when attempting to access the justice system.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship.
• Embrace and embody our values of teamwork, grit, caring, passion, and dynamism.

Bonus Points:

• Comfortable translating and interpreting from English to Spanish or English to Cantonese and vice versa legal information without assistance. Also comfortable performing client support and paralegal/legal assistant tasks in Spanish or Cantonese. (strongly preferred)
• Previous experience as a paralegal, legal assistant, legal secretary, or client advocate.
• A paralegal certificate.
• 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 or similar environment.
• Having lived a significant period of your life in San Francisco proper.

Starting compensation 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 10-year public interest debt forgiveness, we will pay the minimum payment on all qualifying loans so that you don’t need to worry about student loan debt (this is a conditional benefit).
• 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
• Strong organizational culture with an eNPS of 100
• We believe everyone is always learning. We financially invest in individual professional development for each staff member and provide many internal and external mentorships, coaching, and learning opportunities (conferences, workshops, etc.).
• We are a fun and hard-working office with best-in-class technology solutions for anyone who’s passionate about making a meaningful and measurable difference.

Applications submitted prior to August 30, 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 (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or any other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law including the San Francisco Fair chance Ordinance.

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.

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