Position Summary

Demonstrated capacity to maintain a large caseload: Screening applicants for eligibility; Interviewing prospective clients; rendering legal advice; attending community meetings; developing positive relationships with our client communities; training advocates; reviewing advocates’ work product and providing corrective action; and training intake staff.

About the Organization

Legal Aid Society of San Diego (LASSD), the largest poverty law firm serving San Diego County since 1953, strengthens our communities by redressing our clients’ legal problems, empowering our clients to access and effectively participate within the legal, governmental, and social systems and encouraging self-empowerment in the fight against poverty and injustice. LASSD continues to be a proud, committed, and compassionate group of people dedicated to providing equal access to justice for San Diegans through aggressive, quality legal services. #justicebeginshere

Essential Functions:

• Interviewing prospective clients; rendering legal advice; preparation of legal documents
• Attending community meetings, community education events, and community workshops
• Developing positive relationships with the client community
• Assisting in the training and supervision of advocates, law students, intake staff and volunteers as appropriate
• Assisting with real-time questions regarding eligibility and appropriate advice
• Developing creative methods, litigious and non-litigious, for dealing with recurring client problems
• Assisting with team productivity reports
• Handling grievance calls
• Compliance with all program and grant requirements

Qualifications:

• Admitted and in Good Standing with the California State Bar
• Demonstrated written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to work independently as well as support team efforts, and to strategize and plan to timely and consistently meet grant deliverables and reporting requirements
• Must have reliable transportation

Desired Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Fluency in written and spoken Spanish preferred
• Demonstrated commitment to serving low-income people
• Ability to work successfully with people from diverse backgrounds

Salary and Benefits:

The Staff Attorney position is a salaried position with an annual salary range of $73,000 - $87,000 per year. LASSD offers a generous benefits package, a 35-hour workweek, paid vacation leave and sick leave and 100% employer-paid medical premium, 50% employer-paid premium for dependents under LASSD health plan, as well as, dental, vision and life benefits. Staff also have the option to participate in a 403(b) retirement plan and dependent and health flex savings accounts (FSA). LASSD has its own loan repayment program, as well as, LASSD is an eligible nonprofit employer for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program. In addition, there is a bilingual pay increase of 2% for passing an oral test and 2% for passing a written test for threshold languages other than English.

LASSD is an equal opportunity employer, we hire without regard to race, color, religion, religious creed (including religious dress and grooming practices), national origin, ancestry, citizenship, physical or mental disability, medical condition (including cancer and genetic characteristics), genetic information, marital status, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions), gender, gender identity, gender expression, age (40 years and over), sexual orientation, veteran and/or military status, domestic violence victim status, political affiliation, and any other status protected by state or federal law.

Hybrid Work Environment:

Legal Aid Society of San Diego (“LASSD”) has adopted a hybrid work environment in which most staff are required to work in the office part of the week and permitted to work remotely for the remainder of the week, provided their job duties allow. All employees are issued LASSD computers and provided appropriate supplies to perform their work. LASSD has implemented and continues to explore additional technologies to make our hybrid working environment as efficient and connected as possible. All employees must be available to travel to LASSD offices and service locations throughout San Diego County as needed and in compliance with public health advisories. Applicants must reside in or near San Diego County or plan to relocate in or near the County prior to their start date and must be able to commute to the physical Legal Aid Society of San Diego office locations or service delivery locations within San Diego County. LASSD’s normal business hours are 9am-5pm, but we are open to providing flexible work schedules to the extent feasible for the position. LASSD reserves the right to change these policies at any time.

Mandatory Vaccination Policy:

LASSD has implemented a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy. We will consider individual requests for exemption from the policy for: (1) medical reasons, and/or (2) based on an applicant or employees sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance. Any applicant or employee requesting an exemption should submit a completed exemption request form to Human Resources. Upon receipt of a completed exemption request form and any supporting documentation, LASSD will engage in an interactive discussion with the applicant or employee to determine whether an exemption is appropriate and can be granted without posing an undue hardship to LASSD or a direct threat to the health or safety of the individual making the request or others at LASSD. Any individual granted an exemption from the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination requirement may be subject to conditions and restrictions (such as being required to use additional personal protective equipment or submit to LASSD-provided COVID-19 testing) to mitigate the risk to the individual and others at LASSD. LASSD will require employees to be up to date on their vaccinations which will include at least one booster.

Diversity and Inclusion:

It is vitally important to LASSD that we represent the community that we serve. LASSD is a signatory to the San Diego County Bar Association’s Diversity Pledge. We pledge to promote diversity and inclusion through hiring and retention, promotion and leadership, engagement of outside counsel, and participation in legal community diversity initiatives. We strongly encourage applicants of diverse backgrounds to apply.