Seeking Legal Assistant

Seeking Part Time Legal Assistant

10 to 15 hours per week / $30 to $50 per hour starting wage, dependent upon experience

About the Law Practice: My dynamic law practice is seeking an all-purpose, part-time assistant. The job can be partially remote but will require at least one day per week in the office in downtown Berkeley. My hope is that as my law practice continues to grow, the position’s hours could increase, if mutually desired. The ideal candidate would be someone who would embrace a mix of duties: some more administrative and some more paralegal-like. I would prefer someone with some substantial legal work experience as a paralegal or legal secretary, but would be open to a candidate with other work experience looking to make a career change. Compensation will be offered according to relevant experience. Above all, I'm seeking someone grounded, fun to work with, detail-oriented, and dependable.

Working at my law practice would mean working in service of fantastic clients, including an array of social justice nonprofits, affordable housing organizations, worker cooperatives, activists, and creative small businesses.

My law practice handles an interesting mix of projects, the following are examples of some:

  • forming nonprofit entities

  • forming cooperatives

  • supporting residents in shared housing with real estate co-ownership legal documents

  • negotiating settlements to resolve various business law disputes

  • miscellaneous civil litigation (which might end in 2024)

  • drafting legislation and consulting around legislative advocacy to support housing affordability

  • helping small businesses comply with securities regulation

  • helping small businesses and nonprofits comply with employment laws

Job Duties may include:

  • drafting, formatting, proofreading legal documents

  • filling out court forms and government forms

  • internet research, including basic legal research

  • running errands (e.g. trips to the post office or a government office)

  • answering phones, scheduling, and other miscellaneous office management tasks

Required qualifications – please apply if you meet all of these.

  • strong attention to detail

  • strong oral and written communication skills, including the ability to compose clear and concise emails and letters with no or minimal spelling/grammatical errors

  • excellent internet research skills and all the basics in computer literacy

  • strong interest in supporting nonprofits, cooperatives, and small businesses

  • motivation to help others

  • ability to navigate and troubleshoot bureaucratic processes with calm persistence

  • ability to be assertive; ask for help when needed and speak up if something doesn’t seem right

  • an unwavering moral compass

Desired qualifications – please apply if you meet just some of these.

  • experience owning or managing a small business or nonprofit

  • legal work experience

  • familiarity with real estate and/or business entity law

  • familiarity with employment law

  • experience with any type of civil litigation

COVID-19: The successful candidate should be prepared to work in Berkeley, California at least one day per week. COVID safety protocol is currently pretty relaxed but is subject to change based on mutual preference, case counts, and other factors. During some recent times, masking in the office has been a requirement.

Benefits: This position will start with only those employee benefits required by law, like paid sick leave. Additional benefits such as paid vacation, bonuses, and possibly others will be negotiable after the first 3 months of employment. As a very small workplace, my goal is to offer great scheduling flexibility and relatively large amounts of paid time off (with additional unpaid time off negotiable) in lieu of things like an employer healthcare plan or 401(k) plan. An additional benefit which can be negotiated would be myself serving as supervising attorney for purposes of the California Bar’s Law Office Study Program (LOSP). [If you are interested in the Law Office Study Program, please read my blog posts (part 1 and part 2) on the subject.]

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS:

Please email a resume and cover letter together in ONE PDF document with your name in the document title to oatfieldlaw@gmail.com. In your cover letter please summarize your qualifications and explain what draws you to this particular work opportunity. NO phone calls, please.

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis and interviews will begin in April.