Senior Probate Attorney

Full time, Exempt

Hybrid (3 days/week in office minimum)

About Us:

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” - Nelson Mandela

We believe that even the biggest problems can be broken down into small, achievable steps. Poverty and access to justice are part of the same problem. And we’re solving this problem together. At Open Door Legal (ODL), we’re pioneering the country’s first system of universal access to civil legal representation to dramatically reduce poverty and prove that the law really can belong to all of us. We’ve grown 150x in 10 years, and in the next 2 years, we hope to finish scaling across San Francisco. To achieve this goal, we’ve created an award-winning and best-in-class legal aid organization full of passionate, motivated, gritty, thoughtful, and team-oriented people. We believe that injustice is the heart of poverty, and we're looking for someone to join us in ensuring justice for all.

Overview of Position

We have seen many members of our community threatened with homelessness and housing uncertainty because of issues around the estate of a deceased family member. Private attorneys take a percentage of the estate; thus, many times a home has to be sold to pay the attorney and court fees. We’re hiring a Senior Probate Law Attorney for the Probate Law Team who will help us keep long-standing families in the community. We are assisting people whose homeownership status is in flux. Probate court in San Francisco has so many procedural rules that make navigating it impossible for the pro per client. Open Door Legal provides an invaluable service to the local community by navigating SF probate court for families and elders who are the stewards of a community’s wealth and legacy.

In addition to estate planning, probate, and trust administration, The Probate Law team also represents clients in conservatorships and elder abuse restraining orders. The work is fast-paced and will require you to be organized, think critically and dynamically, and demonstrate empathy and awareness in understanding the needs of our community. If you want to make a difference in clients’ lives with us, we encourage you to apply!

Overall, this position is intended to be a challenging and rewarding experience for someone looking to grow in their substantive and strategic leadership and help us dramatically reduce poverty. You should approach problems with curiosity and enthusiasm. Your leadership is demonstrated in the quality of the people you’ve led AND the work you’ve produced together. Cultural humility is not just conceptual to you, you embody it and commit to growth. Success in this role requires grit, dynamism, teamwork, care, and passion (also our team’s five values). You will report directly to the Managing Attorney and directly supervise the Probate Paralegal.

Responsibilities

• Embody our mission of universal access to civil legal aid and use leadership to make sure that the probate needs of all clients in our service area are met by ourselves or others and Open Door Legal gets good legal outcomes and maintains high client satisfaction.  
• Directly represent probate clients and take on the more complex cases. Personally own as many probate cases as per team needs. Conduct/facilitate intakes in-person and virtually across multiple physical Open Door Legal locations.
• Balance individual casework with your increasing management and leadership responsibilities.
• Ensure you have mastery in legal advocacy and the relevant practice areas to mentor your team and oversee the legal advice and representation provided by your team to our guests and clients.
• Hire, train, support, mentor, and manage all Probate Team staff, interns, fellows, and volunteers in collaboration with the Director of Talent and Culture. This includes performance management, professional development, and building a cohesive team culture.
• Develop and maintain public relations with legal service organizations, social service organizations, and private attorneys serving probate clients’ needs as referral resources.
• Obtain and maintain expertise (via casework, trainings, and mentorships) in areas that successors-in-interest and the elderly need assistance with. This includes, but is not limited to: Probate Petitions, Trust Admin, Estate Planning, Conservatorships, Guardianships, contested probate matters, and Elder Abuse (EAROs), Property Taxes (specifically property tax reassessment exemptions upon transfer of ownership), and some real property knowledge.
• Obtain and maintain expertise in areas relating to litigation, including legal strategy, negotiating with opposing parties/opposing party counsel, mediations, trial and deposition skills, civil procedure (including SOLs and local and court rules), and discovery and motion practice.
• Use creative strategies and data to ensure that your team is working smarter, not harder, in order to increase the capacity of the department and reach the collective strategic vision for your department.
• Lead the knowledge management of all areas of civil law and civil procedure that your team handles. This includes knowledge and tips around client management and familiarity with any diminished capacity issues (substance use, mental health or mental impairment, physical disability).
• Drive the creation of uniform systems, checklists, and templates to increase the capacity of all team members to deliver consistently high-quality work products with minimal supervision, and ensure you and your team are following best practices.
• Along with team members, bring and develop innovative solutions to tricky issues around case capacity concerns, intake distribution, case opening standards, department success criteria, verification of quality control, and onboarding new attorneys.
• Provide and ensure your team is providing services and support to our low-income clients with sensitivity and awareness to cultural, socio-economic, and disability barriers to service and can skillfully navigate difficult or tense situations. Ensure that the probate department’s client feedback rating continues to be positive. 
• Embrace and embody our values of teamwork, grit, caring, passion, and dynamism. 

Requirements:

Applicants who are members in good standing with the State Bar of California, or licensed in good standing with another state bar, may be considered. However, those without a license are encouraged to apply to volunteer with us at opendoorlegal.org/volunteer.

• At least six (6) years of relevant professional experience.
• At least two (2) years of probate and elder law experience.
• Experience directly supervising paid staff attorneys. Must be able to provide references from attorneys supervised.
• California civil law and superior court civil procedure knowledge.
• Must genuinely enjoy and be motivated by working with low-income clients, many of whom are people of color, and be able to work effectively with clients impacted by trauma (emotional, mental, and physical). 
• Strong time management skills to effectively supervise and perform legal work in a fast-paced environment and high-volume practice. 
• Show an enthusiasm for and commitment to self-learning and professional development.
• Excellent writing, editing, and proofreading skills, with the ability to be detail-oriented. 
• Excellent interpersonal and diplomacy skills to excel in providing constructive feedback to people you supervise and in building relationships with other organizations and agencies as ODL's ambassador.
• Must be able and willing to work out of one or more of our office locations at least three (3) days/week.
• High level of comfortability learning and using technology and case management systems. We use Salesforce, Dropbox, and the Google Suite.  
• Active demonstration of cultural humility and sensitivity to barriers low-income San Franciscans face when attempting to access the justice system.
• Demonstrated understanding of how to effectively provide trauma-informed advocacy for clients in crisis.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the U.S without sponsorship.

Bonus Points

• Comfort translating and interpreting from English to Spanish or Cantonese and vice versa legal information without assistance (this comes with a slight compensation increase).
• Experience practicing in San Francisco Probate Court.
• Experience working with low-income and vulnerable populations.
• Experience working in a high-volume direct services legal aid or similar environment.
• Having lived a significant period of your life in San Francisco proper, specifically, a connection to the Bayview/Hunters Point, Excelsior, Sunset, Western Addition, Tenderloin, or Mission neighborhoods. 

Starting compensation is $89,500-$111,500 annually, based on experience.

Benefits:

• Loan Repayment Assistance - for staff pursuing 10-year public interest debt forgiveness, we will pay the minimum payment on all qualifying loans so that you don’t need to worry about student loan debt (this is a conditional benefit).
• Medical/Dental/Vision Plan offerings at 100% coverage
• Generous paid time off (four weeks vacation and two weeks sick/care)
• Flexible work hours
• Generous paid parental leave
• 401K/Retirement Account
• We believe everyone is always learning. We financially invest in individual professional development for each staff member which can include mentorships, coaching, and learning opportunities (conferences, workshops, etc.).
• We are a fun and hard-working office with best-in-class technology solutions for anyone who’s passionate about making a meaningful and measurable difference.