Senior Community Law Attorney

Open Door Legal • San Francisco, CA

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

We’re hiring a Senior Community Law Attorney to help us execute on our mission of universal access by providing legal services in a wide range of subject areas for which consumers and homeowners need assistance. This includes, but is not limited to, the areas of debt collection defense, credit reporting errors, unfair business practices, foreclosure prevention, predatory lending, unfair and deceptive financial services, real property title disputes, home equity protection, and mortgage servicing violations. The United States is the only developed country in the world that doesn’t guarantee civil legal representation, and as a direct result, tens of billions of dollars in assets are expropriated from communities of color each year. We believe that individual representation can change lives and, at scale, be an extremely effective lever for social change. This role is for attorneys interested in solving challenges, learning new things, and making a huge difference in the lives of our neighbors.

You should work well in a fast-paced environment. Others describe you as versatile, gritty, and willing to take appropriate risks. Cultural humility is not just conceptual to you; you embody it and commit to growth. Your trauma-informed lawyering demonstrates how you see clients as whole people who are partners in achieving successful legal outcomes. We are looking for an experienced attorney who is ready to learn quickly and willing to represent clients over a very wide variety of subject areas. Thriving in this role requires grit, dynamism, teamwork, care, and passion (our organization’s five values).

This position will report directly to the Managing Civil Litigation Attorney and support the Civil Litigation practice group.

Requirements

• Membership in good standing with the California State Bar. Applicants without active California bar membership will not be considered. However, those without a license are encouraged to apply to volunteer with us at opendoorlegal.org/volunteer.
• A minimum of three (3) years of experience in legal representation for consumers or homeowners.
• Strong time management skills and the ability to organize time, manage diverse activities, and meet critical deadlines with minimal supervision
• Excellent writing, editing, research, and proofreading skills, with the ability to be detail-oriented.
• 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).
• Must actively demonstrate cultural humility and sensitivity to barriers low-income residents face when attempting to access the justice system.
• Have a high level of comfort learning and using technology and cloud-based case management systems. We use Salesforce, Dropbox, and Google Suite.

Nice To Haves

• Experience supervising staff attorneys.
• Comfortable practicing, translating, and interpreting in Spanish and/or Cantonese (this comes with a slight compensation increase).
• Knowledge of California and federal consumer laws, and civil suits.
• Experience appearing in San Francisco Superior Civil Court.
• Experience working with low-income and vulnerable populations.
• Experience working in a high-volume legal aid or similar environment.
• Having lived a significant period of your life in San Francisco proper.

Responsibilities

• Embrace and embody our mission of universal access to civil legal aid and ensure that everyone in our service area with consumer justice, real property law, and homeownership preservation needs, either by ourselves or others. For the Civil Litigation practice group, this includes assisting with consumer rights issues, including debt and financial matters arising from personal, household, or family use, and preserving homeownership and equity interests.
• Maintain a full caseload (as per team needs) with assistance from other staff attorneys, paralegals, and volunteers, while opening and closing cases in an efficient manner.
• Screen, triage, and facilitate intakes across multiple physical Open Door Legal office locations.
• Hire, train, support, mentor, and manage performance of staff, interns, fellows, and volunteers in collaboration with the Managing Civil Litigation Attorney, balancing individual casework with your management and leadership responsibilities.
• Work with the Managing Civil Litigation Attorney on strategies that benefit your team, drive the creation of uniform systems, best practices, and training materials to increase the capacity of the team, and collaborate with your practice team around tricky issues that may arise.
• Gain and maintain knowledge in the areas of law for which consumers and homeowners need assistance. This includes, but is not limited to, the areas of debt collection defense, credit reporting errors, unfair business practices, foreclosure prevention, predatory lending, unfair and deceptive financial services, real property title disputes, home equity protection, and mortgage servicing violations.
• Gain and maintain expertise relating to pre-litigation advocacy and, to a lesser extent, litigation advocacy.
• Represent clients in San Francisco Superior Court, Federal District Court, arbitration and administrative hearings.
• File, prepare, and ready clients for Small Claims proceedings.
• Draft pleadings, propound and respond to discovery, and draft motions and briefs.
• As part of a team, jump in and take intakes and cases in areas of law that are unfamiliar to you. Work quickly on challenging, intellectually interesting, and interpersonally difficult cases.
• Provide services and support to our low-income clients with sensitivity and awareness to cultural, socio-economic, and disability barriers to service and skillfully navigate difficult or tense situations. Ensure that the Litigation and Economic Justice department’s client feedback rating continues to be positive.
• Efficiently utilize Salesforce, our client management system (CMS), to document case activities, maintain accurate client records, and ensure timely record updates.
• Commit to leading the office in representing our mission and values externally to potential clients, clients, and others as well as internally to all teammates and volunteers. Our values are passion, grit, teamwork, caring, and dynamism.

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
• 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
• 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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed