Temporary Affirmative Housing Paralegal

Open Door Legal • San Francisco, CA

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

Open Door Legal is hiring a Temporary Affirmative Housing Paralegal to support its Affirmative Housing team and help San Francisco low-income residents protect their rights to safe and healthy homes. The team handles matters including housing discrimination, illegal rent increases, landlord harassment, Rent Board petitions, constructive and wrongful evictions, habitability, and unlawful-detainer restrictions. The role involves working collaboratively with attorneys and clients in a holistic, trauma-informed legal aid setting. The position reports directly to the Senior Affirmative Housing Attorney and is hybrid, with a minimum of three days per week in the office. The paralegal must be able to commute among Open Door Legal offices for in-person intakes, meetings, and team needs.

Under attorney supervision, the paralegal provides individualized client and case support, performs administrative and advocacy tasks, and helps increase team capacity. Duties include preparing court forms and other filings, drafting rent-board petitions and litigation documents, organizing evidence, coordinating service of process, communicating with court clerks, and supporting fact-gathering, discovery, and client intakes. The role also requires weekly trips to San Francisco Superior Court and timely, accurate filing and case-file maintenance.

This temporary position is listed as full-time and exempt. Starting compensation is $70,500–$86,500 for a legal assistant or $72,500–$88,500 for a paralegal, based on experience.

Requirements

• At least an associate degree or equivalent; a paralegal certificate is acceptable.
• At least one year of experience as a paralegal, legal assistant, legal secretary, tenant organizer, or client advocate.
• Ability to commute to Open Door Legal offices at least three days per week for in-person intakes, meetings, and team needs.
• Strong time-management and organizational skills, including the ability to manage diverse activities and meet critical deadlines with minimal supervision.
• Comfort learning and using technology and cloud-based case-management systems; the organization uses Salesforce, Dropbox, and Google Suite.
• Genuine motivation to work with low-income clients and ability to work competently with clients affected by emotional, mental, or physical trauma, including people at risk of homelessness or currently unhoused.
• Demonstrated cultural humility and sensitivity to barriers low-income residents face in accessing the justice system.
• Legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship.

Nice To Haves

• Paralegal certificate.
• Ability to translate and interpret legal information between English and Spanish without assistance, and to perform client-support and paralegal or legal-assistant tasks in Spanish.
• Basic knowledge of California and/or San Francisco housing law.
• Experience filing and interacting with San Francisco Superior Court.
• Experience working with low-income and vulnerable populations.
• Experience in a high-volume direct-services legal aid or similar environment.
• A significant personal connection to San Francisco, particularly the Bayview/Hunters Point, Excelsior, Sunset, Western Addition, Tenderloin, or Mission neighborhoods.

Responsibilities

• Embody the organization’s mission of universal access to civil legal aid and help ensure housing needs of clients in the service area are met.
• Help clients understand their rights, navigate San Francisco Superior Court, protect themselves and their loved ones, and resolve affirmative housing matters with or without court intervention.
• Provide individualized client and case support and assist the team with administrative and advocacy work that does not require a law license, under attorney supervision.
• Develop competency in paralegal administrative tasks, housing-law basics, direct-services legal advocacy, client management, and time management.
• Prepare court forms and filings, including fee waivers, proofs of service, substitutions of attorney, and other filings relevant to the team.
• Draft Rent Board petitions and work with clients to obtain supporting evidence.
• Complete accurate, timely, high-quality filings and mailings within deadlines.
• Communicate with court clerks about scheduling and filing issues for team cases.
• Go to San Francisco Superior Court weekly to file documents, deliver courtesy copies, pick up orders, and e-file as needed.
• Save filed documents in the Dropbox case file.
• Oversee timely personal, substitute, and mail service of process; apply knowledge of civil procedure, locate and serve evasive defendants using creative methods, and coordinate with sheriffs or private process servers.
• Assist attorneys and clients with case fact-gathering using information technology and by contacting potential witnesses, businesses, and government agencies.
• Under attorney supervision, draft pleadings, motions, complaints, and petitions, and propound and respond to discovery.
• Support in-person and virtual intakes across Open Door Legal locations.
• Embody the organization’s values of teamwork, grit, caring, passion, and dynamism.

Benefits

• Conditional loan repayment assistance for staff pursuing 10-year public-interest debt forgiveness; the organization pays minimum payments on qualifying loans.
• Medical, dental, and vision plan offerings with 100% coverage.
• Four weeks of vacation and two weeks of sick/care paid time off.
• Flexible work hours.
• Paid parental leave.
• 401(k)/retirement account.
• Financial investment in individual professional development, including possible mentorship, coaching, conferences, workshops, and other learning opportunities.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Associate degree