Paralegal

Job Overview:
The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah seeks to hire an organized and efficient Paralegal within its Legal Department. The ACLU of Utah’s Legal Department litigates in trial and appellate courts at the state and federal levels to protect the civil rights and civil liberties of all individuals in Utah. The Legal Department maintains an active litigation caseload across a variety of issues and engages in other forms of legal advocacy outside of the courtroom. 

The Paralegal is a full-time, salaried, non-exempt position reporting to the Legal Director. The Paralegal will be responsible for providing litigation and administrative support to the attorneys in the Legal Department. This includes, but is not limited to, preparing litigation documents for filing, maintaining files and records, client management, and managing the legal calendar.. 

Responsibilities 

• Organize and maintain electronic and hard copy legal case files, including legal filings, discovery documents, attorney correspondence, client-related files, and other case-related documents. 

• Actively and accurately maintain a calendar of legal filing deadlines, discovery deadlines, and other case-related events. 

• Assist members of the Legal Department to set and meet internal and external task deadlines; and log and track time records by effectively using case management software. 

• Lead weekly department meeting to ensure internal and external deadlines are clearly communicated, documented, and met. 

• Assist in preparing and filing legal documents, which includes checking citations, proofreading, creating tables, and formatting. 

• Assist in scheduling depositions; arranging for service of legal documents; preparing and serving discovery documents; preparing internal status reports; and preparing deposition summaries. 

• Assist legal staff in preparing materials for court hearings, depositions, or client meetings. 

• Assist legal staff in coordinating litigation team meetings, taking meeting notes, and maintaining task lists with deadlines. 

• Maintain working knowledge of current federal and state court rules and procedures; and, as needed, communicate with court staff to resolve filing and clerical issues. 

• Handle general administrative duties including processing litigation invoices; tracking litigation expenses and case costs; and coordinating the scheduling of litigation events (depositions, mediations, etc.) with legal staff, clients, co-counsel, opposing counsel, and court reporters. 

• Assist with additional administrative support tasks as needed such as venue or meal coordination for meetings or events.  

• Create and manage calendar of quarterly Legal Panel meetings; communicate with legal panel members, record attendance and participation in Panel Meetings,; arrange logistics of Legal Panel meetings. 

• As needed, serve as liaison with co-counsel, clients, opposing counsel, and court staff including but not limited to responding to calls, drafting emails, and letters, and ensuring timely receipt or delivery of records and file documents. 

• Coordinate with colleagues from the campaigns, administrative and communications teams as needed to facilitate logistics for relevant legal cases, policy issues, meetings or events. 

Qualifications 

Qualified Candidates Will Have: 

• Ability to take professional initiative; excellent organizational and time-management skills; multi-tasking ability.  

• Exceptional attention to detail. 

• Strong research and writing abilities. 

• Excellent oral and verbal interpersonal communication skills. 

• Ability to work independently as well as with a team while maintaining a high level of efficiency and respect towards others in difficult situations. 

• Strong computer skills, including Microsoft Office Suite, Excel, and ability to learn new computer platforms. 

• Strict adherence to confidentiality duties and guidelines. 

• Associate’s degree or two years of related administrative experience. 

• A strong understanding of and commitment to the concepts of Diversity and Inclusion in a team setting, executed in the ability to respect and value the differences in experience and belief of others. A personal approach that values the individual and respects differences of race, ethnicity, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, religion, ability, involvement with the criminal justice system, and socio-economic circumstance. 

• Ability to come in-person to the office on a regular basis to carry out tasks including printing, filing, mail processing, and so on.   

Strong Candidates Will Have: 

• Two years or more experience with litigation or legal administrative support. 

• Fluency in Spanish or other relevant foreign languages (written and spoken). 

• Familiarity with Utah state or federal court systems or other comparative government agencies. 

• Basic knowledge of Westlaw, PACER, GreenFiling, Adobe Acrobat, BlueBook, and Everlaw. 

• Experience working with case management software and databases. 

• Experience creating tables of contents, tables of authorities, mail merges, organizing data into spreadsheets, and creating pivot tables, etc. 

Work Environment:  

Hybrid work requirement consisting of approximately a 40-hour work week with work from home permitted when work responsibility permits. This position does have some in-person responsibilities that must occur at the office, see above. 

Salary & Benefits: 

The salary range for this position is $64,000 to $74,000 depending on experience. Excellent benefits include: generous paid time off, medical, vision, and dental insurance, and a 401(k) plan with employer matching contribution that vests immediately. 

TO APPLY: 

Apply with a resume and cover letter in PDF format. Application review will be on a rolling basis until the position is filled.. 

The ACLU of Utah is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual with a disability and need assistance applying online, please e-mail HR at [email protected]. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.

The ACLU of Utah is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual with a disability and need assistance applying online, please e-mail HR at [email protected]. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.