Case Management Chief I

Montgomery County•Norristown, PA

4d•Onsite

About The Position

The Case Management Chief is responsible for overseeing a team of assistant public defenders assigned to a specific individual unit or judge. As liaison with the judge, and assistant to the unit chief, this individual is responsible for managing cases which may include: case assignments, preliminary hearings, detention hearings, pretrial motions, probation/parole violation hearings, trials, permanency, adjudicatory, dispositional or emergency hearings and other types of criminal, delinquent or dependency matters. This individual drafts initial requests for pretrial motions, investigations, and social service referrals to represent the client, if applicable, and monitors attorney performance and provides training, counseling and mentoring as needed as an assistant to the Unit Chief. The Case Management Chief is also expected to handle the most serious, complicated or high-profile cases or client matters assigned to the court or unit.

Requirements

Juris doctorate from an ABA accredited law school.
Active bar license in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Minimum of five years relevant legal experience preferred.
Must have relevant trial experience, having tried multiple cases to verdict.
Must be knowledgeable of the applicable law and the justice and/or family court system.
Must have excellent communication (oral and written) skills.
Must be able to do legal research and writing.
Must be familiar with Microsoft Office 365 and/or general data entry.

Nice To Haves

Prior supervisory and management experience is highly preferred, but not required.
Fluency in Spanish preferred, but not required.

Responsibilities

Take inventory of new cases, assigning cases to most qualified attorney in the team for most effective representation.
Drafts initial pretrial motions, and requests initial investigation, social service referrals, reviews caseloads and productivity of caseloads with individual attorneys, and acts as liaison with individually assigned court judge for entire team during day-to-day operations of that court.
Review case files, interview clients and other pertinent witnesses.
Make in-depth referrals to the investigations and social services units.
Provide supervision and support to the assistant public defenders assigned to their team and will participate in annual evaluations as required.
Perform additional duties as specified by the Chief Public Defender.
Manage the Orphan’s Court schedule which runs parallel to the Juvenile Court schedule.
Provide the rest of the team with updates on appellate case law.
Work collaboratively with the District Attorney’s Office in Child Abuse Prosecutions and with the Solicitors office in Child Abuse Hearings and Termination of Parental Rights Trials.
Responsible for vertical representation of clients in Termination of Parental Rights matters in the Orphan’s Court, complex child abuse cases, and complex dependency matters and representation of multiple clients that are victims of child abuse and/or neglect and possibly subject to Termination of Parental Rights proceedings.