Litigation Paralegal

Internal Candidates must apply through Jobs Hub in Workday.

All positions close Friday morning at 12:01am.

Apply to join our team today! The City of Arvada promotes Equal Pay for Equal Work.  Starting salary will be determined by the applicant's education, experience, knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as internal equity. The range listed reflects the entire range and typical placement is entry to mid range. 

Pay Range: $37.23-$50.91 Hourly

The City of Arvada is seeking an experienced Litigation Paralegal to join our City Attorney’s Office and provide advanced legal and litigation support on a variety of complex municipal legal matters. This role works closely with attorneys and City staff on cases involving civil rights, governmental immunity, contracts, employment, property, land use, construction, and other litigation matters.

If you’re organized, detail-oriented, and ready to put your litigation expertise to work in meaningful public service, we’d love to hear from you!

** Preference will be given to candidates who currently possess a paralegal certification.

Essential Job Functions

• Maintains expert working knowledge of all facets of applicable rules governing cases at the municipal, county, state, and federal levels (including appellate courts) and administrative cases involving PUC, Department of Revenue, DORA, EEOC, and Unemployment. Ensures that all filings meet specific rules of the assigned judges.
• Performs advanced legal research of case law, statutory law, City codes, and the Model Traffic Code for administrative litigation and municipal prosecution, and verifies that cited authorities remain current and controlling.
• Drafts legal pleadings and related litigation documents, including entries of appearance, answers, proposed orders, disclosures, interrogatories, requests for production, requests for admission, and other filings for litigation and administrative matters, as well as correspondence and memoranda to experts, opposing counsel, and other parties as required.
• Proofreads litigation pleadings, motions, briefs, and correspondence for accuracy of factual information and quotes, ensures cite forms are accurate according to Bluebook and formatting is in accordance to court rules. Reviews, assembles, and attaches all exhibits.
• Files legal pleadings and motions for litigation cases in the appropriate court by established deadlines and ensures that legal documents such as initial and supplemental disclosures, interrogatories, requests for production, requests for admission, are served and distributed upon the appropriate parties as set forth by court rules and deadlines.
• Locates required documents and information needed during the trial, takes notes at all stages of the trial, compiles juror information and juror reaction to testimony, and provides other support as needed.
• Assists with trial preparation of witnesses, exhibits, and notebooks to ensure optimal organization during trial. Assists in the preparation of witnesses as well as documents and evidence for depositions. Regularly attends witness depositions.
• Maintains and updates all paper and electronic litigation files stored in the litigator’s directory and/or within the document management system.
• Conducts witness interviews to obtain factual knowledge for pending lawsuits, claims, and personnel matters and reports information to litigation attorney.
• Maintains calendar of all litigation meetings and deadlines, both internal and court related. Manages litigator’s calendar including scheduling meetings and deadlines. Monitors the status of upcoming litigation deadlines on each litigation matter and keeps litigators informed and reminded of all upcoming deadlines as set by the courts and statutes.
• Assists in initial investigations of claims that may result in litigation by obtaining documentation, conducting interviews, observing incident locations. Handles administrative processing of claims and legal cases to ensure that appropriate city employees are kept informed of litigation matters.
• Attends and schedules litigation meetings, court hearings, and other events. Takes notes and summarizes the meeting or hearing for the litigation attorney.
• Tracks litigation expenses, records attorney time and paralegal time expended on each litigation case. Prepares, with litigation, a litigation status report due to the City Attorney monthly and to the City Council on a quarterly basis.
• Communicates with courts, opposing counsel, witnesses, City employee clients, and other relevant parties to coordinate hearings, depositions, meetings, and filing deadlines; provides case status updates; and serves as a liaison between clients and litigation attorneys as needed. Reviews and analyzes case related materials, including police reports, medical records, contracts, and reports findings back to litigation attorney.
• Works with process servers to ensure service of summons, complaints, and subpoenas in litigation cases.
• Attend CLEs to further education on pertinent litigation topics.
• Arranges travel plans for litigation attorney if needed, for attendance at CLEs, depositions, etc.
• Research City Code and Model Traffic Code for prosecution of municipal court cases.
• Assists in obtaining relevant documents for Subpoenas Duces Tecum received by City employees, i.e. police officers.
• Conducts research including comparing city code, policies, and procedures with other cities, etc.
• Searches employee emails as necessary for litigation hold purposes, as well as provide backup for Law Office Administrator who searches emails for CORA requests and personnel matters.
• Drafts and prepares city documents, including ordinances, resolutions, agreements, and correspondence.
• Exercises discretion and maintains the highest level of confidentiality.
• Travels to and attends team and organizational meetings, training, events and activities and appropriately and professionally represents the department.

Other Job Functions

• Performs as back-up to Law Office Administrator, Legal Assistant and Legal Secretary.
• Documents personal-business related expenditures.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Knowledge Skills and Abilities

• Ability to create PowerPoint and other presentations from attorneys’ notes and outlines.
• Monitors office equipment (printers, copy machines, staplers, etc.) to ensure proper supply levels.
• Working knowledge of municipal accounting, financial and budgeting principles and systems.
• Ability to type 40 words per minute.
• Strong organizational skills.
• Strong computer skills.
• Strong research skills.
• Ability to use solution-oriented approaches to drive process or procedure improvements in ways that benefit the office and the organization.
• Ability to effectively communicate information, both verbally and in writing, to support organizational objectives and interact with all levels of personnel within the city in a positive and cooperative manner.

Knowledge Skills Abilities Preferred


License & Certification

• Paralegal certification

Education Degree

• High School/GED

Education Major


Education Required

• An equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered.

Work Experience Related

• Five (5) or more years of paralegal work experience.
• Experience in all facets of office administrative practices including word processing, scanning, data entry, data publishing, and spreadsheets.

Work Experience Preferred

• Experience in governmental law practice.

Other Qualifications

• Must obtain and maintain a Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Certification.
• Must pass a criminal background check and a driving record check, if required by the position.

Physical Demands

• Minimal physical effort typically found in clerical work. Primarily sedentary, may occasionally lift and carry light objects. Walking and/or standing as needed and minimal.

Hazards

• Minimal exposure to hazards are typically found in general office environment where there is rarely to no exposure to injury or accident.

Work Environment

• Exposure to routine office noise and equipment.

The City of Arvada offers a robust Total Rewards package. To find out more details, select here.

Vision: We Dream Big and Deliver

Mission:  We are dedicated to delivering superior services to enhance the lives of everyone in our community.

Values:

• Innovation: We excel in creativity, flexibility and the use of best practices while valuing diverse backgrounds, ideas and perspectives. 

• Passion: We are a high performing, inclusive team inspiring each other to pursue excellence.

• Opportunity: We value our diversity, embrace possibilities, face challenges, persevere and take action to deliver quality results.

The City’s Core values are in every employee’s individual Performance Plan which helps us to reinforce our expectations for living and working by our Core Values. 

Every City employee is expected to perform his/her job to the highest professional standards.  This includes upholding the City’s values with integrity and accountability, acting in a manner that is respectful and inclusive towards others, and adhering to the City’s policy on employee conduct as detailed in the personnel rules sec. 70-143. 

The City is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer.