8177-Attorney (Civil/Criminal)

San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (Sfmta) • San Francisco, CA

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About The Position

The Public Defender's office provides legal representation to persons charged with a crime in San Francisco who do not have the financial means to retain their own counsel. Each year, the office serves approximately 20,000 people. The San Francisco Public Defender's office is a nationally recognized model of public defense. The Public Defender provides legal staffing for each of the misdemeanor and felony preliminary hearing and trial courts, the Mental Health and Youth Defender Unit divisions, the Community Justice Center, Domestic Violence Court, Behavioral Health Court, Veterans' Justice Court, Drug Court, Intensive Supervision court, Parole Court, Young Adult Court, and Extradition. Role description The Clean Slate Unit at the Public Defender's office represents clients on post-conviction expungement matters, including vacatur motions for non-citizens under Penal Code section 1473.7(a)(1). Clean Slate seeks to hire an attorney who will be primarily assigned to represent all our non-citizen clients through each step of the Clean Slate process. Over the 2.5 year project period, the new attorney will be able to field the increase in inquiries coming from the noncitizen community and work on reducing the backlog of noncitizen cases. Role description Under supervision, this position in the Public Defender's Office is responsible for but not limited to:

Requirements

• Active membership in good standing with the State Bar of California.

Nice To Haves

• Bilingual skills: speak, read and write in both English and another language. Note: (Bilingual Candidates moving forward in the selection process will be subject to a language proficiency test given by the City and County of San Francisco)

Responsibilities

• Serves as a counsel to persons arrested for or convicted of crimes who are seeking recording clearing relief and are financially unable to employ counsel; represents such clients in criminal court.
• Represents clients at each stage of the Clean Slate process: reviews initial applications and arrest histories; consults with the Immigration Unit at the Public Defender's office to determine the appropriate record clearing relief; communicates with clients at each stage of the process; interviews clients and witnesses; conducts and/or supervises investigations and writes legal briefs; communicates with outside immigration counsel as needed; negotiates with the assigned Assistant District Attorney to achieve outcomes for clients.
• Prepares and argues motions to vacate convictions pursuant to Penal Code section 1473.7(a)(1) and other record clearing statutes in the Superior Court.
• Performs other related duties as required.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees