Contracts Program Attorney

State of Montana • Great Falls, VA

19h

About The Position

The Contracts Program Attorney provides assistance in overseeing contracted services within the Office of State Public Defender (OPD). Duties include assisting the Contracts Program Manager in providing contracted attorney management, contract development and oversight, ensuring contractor compliance with OPD practice standards, providing quality assurance of contractor services, developing and maintaining relationships with OPD contractors and reviewing the case work of contracted attorneys. The Contracts Program Attorney must have a passion, commitment, and willingness to work collaboratively with underprivileged populations to not only ensure that needed services are provided, but also continually advocating and striving to improve the level of services OPD provides to its clients.

Requirements

• Knowledge of legal and court policies, procedures, practices and their application with particular reference to indigent defense.
• Understanding of state and federal laws, rules and regulations and their judicial interpretation, including Titles 40 (Uniform Parentage Act), 41 (Montana Youth Court Act) (Child Abuse and Neglect), 45 (Crimes), 46 (Criminal Procedure), 47 (Access to Legal Services), 53 (Mental Disorder),61 (Motor Vehicles), 87 (Fish and Wildlife), Montana Code Annotated, and the Montana Rules of Evidence, Rules of Civil Procedure, and Rules of Appellate Procedures. Familiarity of methods and tactics employed in the defense of legal actions in courts.
• Understanding of the Montana Rules of Professional Conduct, especially as applicable to indigent defense.
• Ability to understand and be sensitive to cultural differences that may affect the attorney/client relationship and communications.
• Ability to effectively research and analyze legal documents.
• Skilled in use of standard office equipment, programs, and software.
• Strong organization, time management, and oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to learn, understand, and consistently and effectively utilize OPD’s case management system.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective relationships with others.
• Able to maintain professionalism when critiqued.
• Ability to work independently with self-initiative.
• Juris Doctorate degree from an accredited law school
• Active membership with the State Bar of Montana

Nice To Haves

• Experience with legal billing and contract management
• Experience in criminal litigation

Responsibilities

• Review all contractor invoices and related internal communications to assess the service quality and legal reasonableness of hours and costs billed by attorney and non-attorney contractors in order to approve, reject, or modify OPD’s payment of those invoices and keep the Contract Program invoice queue at ten or fewer days.
• Review all pre-approval requests submitted by contract attorneys and related internal communications to assess the legal reasonableness of requests for contract services, such as forensic experts, mental health evaluators, and private investigators, in order to expeditiously approve, reject, or modify OPD’s authorization of such services.
• Review client complaints involving contract attorneys to assess the legal reasonableness of the attorneys’ client representation in order to adjudicate validity of the client complaints, determine whether assignment of new counsel is required, and review the queue of client contractor complaints within 20 days from original filing date.
• Actively communicate with clients regarding client complaints to obtain any additional information necessary for resolution of the complaint and to explain the complaint adjudication decision within 20 days of filing.
• Communicate with contractors daily to resolve questions and concerns regarding invoices, pre-approvals, and client complaints, including obtaining additional information regarding invoice line items, pre-approval requests, and client complaints and explaining OPD billing and preapproval modifications and rejections and adjudications of client complaints.
• Expeditiously review attorney applications to become contract public defender to determine whether the applicant meets minimum qualifications and to assign areas of competency.
• Provide immediate or expeditious legal advice to other Contract Program staff and contractors during scheduled meetings and as needed regarding OPD policies and standards and criminal and civil litigation.
• Review, prepare, modify, explain, and enforce legal documents such as service contracts, memorandums of understanding, and OPD contracting policies.
• Assists with OPD proficiency determinations on all contract attorneys, including providing timely renewal survey assessments of each attorney contractor assigned to appellate or sentence review cases.
• Utilize the Contracts Program case queue and other case management program functions to solicit and assign appropriate contract attorneys to pending appellate and sentence review cases to ensure that all sentence review cases have counsel assigned in sufficient time, which is no less than 2-weeks, for counsel to prepare for the scheduled sentence review hearing and to ensure that all approved contractors who are willing to accept additional appellate cases and who would not be more appropriately assigned to other pending cases have been assigned to those appellate cases.
• Coordinate with other Contracting Program staff to ensure that available attorney contractors are assigned most effectively and efficiently across geographic and practice areas.
• Recruit and maintain relationships with attorney contractors providing appellate or sentence review representation.
• Complete or assist with ad hoc projects, such as coverage of other Contract Program position duties or providing agency training, litigation, or research, as directed by the Contracts Program Manager, Central Services Division Administrator, or OPD Director.

Benefits

• Health coverage
• Retirement plans
• Paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays
• Work/life balance
• Flexible schedules
• Opportunities and room for professional growth
• Telework (when applicable)
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness - Employment with the State of Montana may qualify you to receive public service loan forgiveness – visit the Federal Student Aid website to learn more!

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree