Senior Litigation Paralegal

City of Santa Barbara•Santa Barbara, CA

About The Position

The City Attorney's Office is seeking an experienced and highly skilled Litigation Paralegal III to provide advanced paralegal support for complex administrative, civil, and criminal matters. The Litigation Paralegal III is the advanced journey-level classification in the Paralegal series. The successful candidate will exercise a high degree of independent judgment and perform the most complex and difficult paralegal assignments requiring extensive legal knowledge, proficiency, and skill. The position assists attorneys with the preparation, coordination, and management of all stages of litigation and transactional work. Responsibilities include legal research, discovery coordination, document preparation, case management, witness coordination, and trial preparation. The Litigation Paralegal III may act as a project lead and provide task-related direction, procedural guidance, and coordination to lower-level paralegal and support staff. This classification is distinguished from the Paralegal I and Paralegal II classifications by its technical specialization, lead responsibilities, independent judgment, and the complexity and scope of assignments performed.

Requirements

Active membership in good standing with the State Bar of California
Juris Doctor degree from an accredited law school
Minimum of twelve (12) years of litigation experience
Extensive experience handling complex litigation in federal court
Significant experience defending claims brought under 42 U.S.C. §1983
Demonstrated experience serving as lead counsel in jury trials
Strong motion practice experience, including summary judgment and qualified immunity motions
Excellent legal writing, research, and oral advocacy skills
Ability to independently manage complex litigation while working collaboratively with attorneys and City departments.

Nice To Haves

Experience representing public entities, law enforcement agencies, or large institutional clients is highly desirable.

Responsibilities

Assisting attorneys with the preparation and coordination of complex and highly sensitive cases through all phases of litigation
Coordinating and implementing case-management and discovery-related assignments
Conducting complex legal research involving issues that are not readily defined and require the use of multiple legal references
Drafting complex legal documents, pleadings, correspondence, memoranda, and reports requiring substantial original writing
Reviewing, analyzing, organizing, and summarizing legal, technical, and evidentiary information
Interviewing clients and witnesses and gathering facts and information relevant to legal matters
Preparing for depositions, arbitrations, administrative hearings, and trials
Preparing affidavits and maintaining case files, discovery materials, exhibits, and other legal records
Filing pleadings and other legal documents with courts and administrative agencies
Investigating the status of cases and locating witnesses, defendants, interested parties, or relevant records
Scheduling and preparing witnesses for trials, hearings, depositions, and other legal proceedings
Preparing case files, exhibits, documents, and information for attorney use in court
Assisting attorneys during trials, hearings, depositions, and other legal proceedings
Communicating with clients, opposing counsel, court personnel, City staff, witnesses, and members of the public
Establishing internal procedures to improve the organization, processing, and efficiency of legal work
Providing lead direction, procedural guidance, and coordination to subordinate staff to ensure case priorities and deadlines are met
Providing exemplary customer service by being attentive, responsive, fair, courteous, and respectful
Performing other related duties as assigned