Court Appointment Program Paralegal; part-time

Court Appointment Program Paralegal (part-time)

Direct message the job poster from The Bar Association of San Francisco

The Bar Association’s Indigent Defense Administration (IDA) is expanding its current role of providing robust legal representation through a panel of qualified attorneys in all criminal, juvenile, and post-conviction cases for which there is a conflict of interest with the Public Defender. This expansion includes recruiting, training, and providing a pool of well‑trained paralegals familiar with the demands of a busy criminal defense practitioner.

This new paralegal position is designed to develop a training program and materials needed to educate and train paralegals to serve as dedicated and knowledgeable members of the criminal defense team. This position requires a strong working knowledge of criminal defense organization and strategies and a strong skillset capable of providing efficient and informed assistance to trial attorneys – including but not limited to: efficient collection of community, school, medical, mental health, and/or court records, jail or prison records, the ability to obtain and organize discovery provided by prosecutors in the criminal courts, such as creating usable indexed summaries of large volumes of written discovery, body‑worn camera footage, surveillance footage, cell phone data, and jail calls, as well as legal assistance, research, and support to the court‑appointed counsel.

BASF’s Indigent Defense Criminal Panel is composed of experienced trial attorneys in private practice who accept appointments in the San Francisco Superior Court to undertake this work. This position requires a demonstrated commitment to indigent criminal defense and a sound working knowledge of criminal law and procedures. In addition to recruiting skilled paralegals to assist our panel of attorneys, this position will recruit and supervise interns in paralegal programs by placing and supervising their work with Court‑appointed criminal defense counsel.

Familiarity with or the willingness to become familiar with AI assistance useful for summaries and organization of defense materials is required.

• Work with Attorney Administrators as well as the Director of the Court Programs to determine specific avenues of support for criminal defense practitioners.
• Work with Attorney Administrators as well as the Director of the Court Programs, Operations Manager, and Multidisciplinary Representation Program Coordinator to organize and develop training materials for paralegals and attorneys regarding the benefits and the role of incorporating skilled paralegals into the defense team.
• Familiarity with all aspects of criminal defense protocols in San Francisco, including but not limited to retrieval of all requisite records, retrieval of discovery, and the efficient and thorough ability to summarize and index vast amounts of written or recorded materials.
• Familiarity with supporting criminal defense counsel at trial, including but not limited to useful and clear exhibits, such as PowerPoint presentations, excerpts from written documents, or recorded materials.
• Ability to work as a team member and/or coordinator of materials, data, and research needed for trial or mitigation reports.
• Identify varying protocols for obtaining records and/or files from different offices and/or jurisdictions, including community, school, juvenile, foster care, prison or jail records, or court records of San Francisco or other jurisdictions.
• A strong ability to communicate, recruit, and train others to undertake this important work alongside defense counsel and the defense team.
• Strong organizational skills are an absolute prerequisite to this role, as well as the ability to create and demonstrate efficiencies.
• Meet and advise assigned counsel of case status and needs.
• Create and maintain a database to track and document the creation of this program so those funding the program readily understand the benefits, cost savings, and improvements in skilled legal representation before or at trial.
• Create a brief bank for a host of forms, orders, and declarations, motions, and pleadings utilized in…