Litigation Assistant - New York, United States - The Legal Aid Society

The Legal Aid Society
The Legal Aid Society
Verified Company
New York, United States

3 weeks ago

Mark Lane

Posted by:

Mark Lane

beBee recruiter
Description

The Legal Aid Society, the nation's oldest and largest social justice legal services organization, has immediate openings for dedicated, passionate Litigation Assistants in the Criminal Defense Practice throughout the city as part of a newly organized Paralegal Services Unit.

The Criminal Practice is the primary public defender in New York City, providing holistic, client-centered representation to over 200,000 people facing misdemeanor, felony, and homicide charges.

The Litigation Assistant (LA) provides critical support to attorneys and clients as a member of the defense team.

Working closely with the Discovery Unit, counsel and defense team, Litigation Assistants will gather, organize, and analyze discovery, investigations, and other pertinent materials to prepare for mitigation and/or litigation.

Litigation Assistants will also help prepare and subpoena witnesses, prepare documents, videos and other materials for hearings or trials.

Litigation Assistants will provide in-litigation support and input from pre-trial motions, jury selection, presentation of evidence, through notice of appeal, if any.

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ESSENTIAL DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Manage and organize discovery, investigation, and other case materials into case file using applicable data management platform. Convert files into OCR PDF files or other formats. Build trial or case notebooks, create bookmarks and indexes to assist attorney and team.
  • Create spreadsheets or other logs to aid in managing and organizing digital files and case information. Identify matters of significance in communication with counsel and team
  • Organize and analyze discovery from prosecutors and provide indepth analysis of the evidence to assigned attorneys identifying fact and law issues, including compliance with discovery law.
  • Review discovery to locate potential sources of other evidence that needs to be gathered and preserved and provide notification to attorneys and staff.
  • Understand New York State discovery laws and developing case law to assist attorneys in filing challenges to prosecutors' certificates of compliance and in defense compliance. Review certificates of compliance and create a list of any potentially missing discovery for attorneys. Draft letters with counsel supervision to prosecutors regarding missing discovery for staff attorneys to review.
  • Provide insight, analysis, and assistance in litigation and/or mitigation strategy
  • Assist attorneys and team in accessing case materials
  • Assist attorneys in conducting legal research and drafting documents, including subpoenas, letters, motions, and other legal documents for attorney review.
  • Liaison between attorneys, clients and other parties to provide updates and address questions, without providing legal advice
  • Ensure that cases are trial ready by coordinating witnesses, including subpoenas, and assist counsel in preparing witnesses for mitigation or litigation
  • Oversee the retaining and payment of expert witnesses and coordinate travel and other logistics for inperson testimony at hearing or trial
  • Assist attorneys in hearing and trial preparation, including trial or case notebooks, gathering documents for possible trial evidence, and assist in using platforms to aid in presenting evidence (PowerPoint, etc)
  • Accompany attorneys to court and assist in litigation support during hearings and trials, including all phases of trial through notice of appeal, if any. Assist in jury selection and juror research, tracking witnesses and exhibits, document events to assist counsel, coordinate trial materials, including presentation of evidence and digital files
  • Update case management system as needed
  • Perform functions in the Paralegal 2 title, only as necessary and on a temporary basis
  • Other duties as assigned
  • Bachelor's degree preferred. Will also consider applicants with paralegal certificates from an ABA accredited school, or applicants with 5+ years of applicable legal experience and satisfactory completion of a comprehensive inhouse training course
  • Experience in and/or commitment to advocacy on behalf of lowincome people is strongly desired
  • Excellent writing, verbal, and organizational skills
  • Advanced user of Outlook, OneDrive, Teams, PowerPoint, and SharePoint for document management, collaboration, and workflow automation
  • Proficiency in legal research and developing legal arguments with counsel supervision
  • Proficiency in computer, electronic data management and file sharing platforms, ediscovery platforms and Microsoft Suite
  • Efiling experience desirable
  • Ediscovery experience desirable
  • Ability to work independently and in a team setting
  • Ability to multitask
  • Some knowledge of New York criminal law and criminal procedures is desirable
  • Proficiency in languages other than English is desirable, but not required

SALARY TRANSPARENCY

Salary Range/ Salary:
$60,000 to $86,577**
SALARY AND BENEFITS
The leadership of The Legal Aid Society believe
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