CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY
DENNIS J. HERRERA
City Attorney

PARALEGAL – CODE ENFORCEMENT LITIGATION

The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office is looking for a Paralegal to join its Code Enforcement Team, also known as the Neighborhood & Resident Safety Team. This Team investigates and civilly prosecutes property owners and businesses that have violated building, housing, planning, health or other city and state codes, or who are otherwise misusing their property to endanger public health and safety. This includes plaintiff-side lawsuits primarily in San Francisco Superior Court – Civil to combat unpermitted construction, substandard housing, blight, human trafficking, illegal short-term rentals, affordable housing violations and other public nuisances that threaten the character and integrity of city neighborhoods.
The Paralegal works under the direction of attorneys and provides a wide range of paraprofessional legal support for both pre-litigation investigations and litigation. This position requires excellent verbal and writing skills, knowledge and agility with eDiscovery tools, and an ability to communicate effectively with attorneys, investigators, client City departments and agencies, law enforcement, court personnel, vendors, and San Francisco’s diverse residents. The candidate must have the ability to organize and track substantial amounts of documentary evidence, to manage multiple tasks and deadlines, to perform accurate and detailed analytical work, and to exercise excellent judgment.

RESPONSIBILITIES
• Assist with team-wide case and project management. This includes, but is not limited to, coordinating with City department staff regarding ongoing investigations, managing documents from different City departments, and advising attorneys of the status of investigations; managing deadlines, documents, and work flow with attorneys and paraprofessionals on litigation matters; and communicating with the Paralegal Manager and Team Leader regarding the status of projects, including situations requiring judgment about how to use team and office resources most effectively.
• Consult with case team and the Litigation Support Team on design and application of proportional and defensible eDiscovery strategies including data minimization and the application of technology to optimize review.
• Mentor and train legal assistants and paralegal interns. This includes training on legal procedures as well as litigation support software.
• Provide guidance to City departments about how to effectively prepare records of investigations, and to otherwise enable civil litigation to support enforcement efforts.
• Assist with implementing and monitoring litigation holds across various City departments.
• Assist in preparing pleadings by gathering exhibits, ensuring documents are accurate, properly formatted, and filed in a timely manner.
• Assist in drafting and reviewing subpoenas, all forms of discovery documents, legal memoranda and correspondence.
• Assist with discovery, including eDiscovery, and with collecting, managing, reviewing, and organizing documents obtained from litigants and City departments.
• Conduct database searches in IPRO Eclipse, Concordance, CaseMap and TextMap, and review documents within these programs for relevance, responsiveness and privilege.
• Review and comprehend specialized documents relevant to the Code Team’s work, such as property records, administrative enforcement records, police reports, and building plans and reports.
• Organize, review and prepare documents, exhibits, transcripts and other materials for use during investigations, depositions, hearings or trial, including preparing and running Trial Director.
• Assist with other projects and duties as assigned.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
• Paralegal certificate from an ABA-approved program, or other significant work experience
such that statutory requirements are satisfied (Bus. & Prof. Code § 6450 compliant).
• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.
• Minimum 5 years of litigation or transactional experience as a paralegal or legal assistant.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
• Working knowledge of legal procedures, legal terminology and court rules.
• Adept in Microsoft Office Suite.
• Experience working in or with regulatory agencies or criminal law enforcement agencies.
• Strong knowledge of eDiscovery rules and processes, including but not limited to the
predictive coding process.
• Experience with TextMap, Concordance, Eclipse, CaseMap and Trial Director, Adobe
Professional or other similar software.

To apply for this position, please send your resume and cover letter to Colleen
Dietterle, Manager of Legal Support & Administrative Services, at:
colleen.dietterle@sfcityatty.org by February 7, 2020