Staff Attorney

$80,000 - $85,000/Yr

Utah Legal Services - Salt Lake City, UT

Full-time - Entry Level

Salt Lake City, UT

51-100 employees

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

About the position

Attorneys at Utah Legal Services provide ethical and skilled legal representation to clients from low-income and disadvantaged communities throughout the state. This role involves advocating for underrepresented members of the community, ensuring access to justice, and working collaboratively in a supportive environment.

Responsibilities

• Communicate with clients to determine eligibility and goals, present legal strategies and possible outcomes to clients to develop legal action plan.
• Educate clients about governing laws, the legal process related to their issue and possible outcomes in order to help set goals, reasonable expectations, and plan case strategies.
• Represent clients, negotiate possible settlements, mitigate consequences to clients, in court and online, during non-evidentiary hearings, case management conferences and pre-trial hearings.
• Collaborate effectively with paralegals to manage and advance a dynamic caseload, ensuring clear communication, task delegation, and adherence to case deadlines.
• Properly prepare, draft, edit and file court documents to implement client goals.
• Prepare pleadings, exhibits, motions, memorandum, discovery documents, motions, responses, administrative letters, briefs, petitions and counter petitions as needed for case progression and resolution.
• Review paralegal prepared documents, declarations and findings of facts; ensure document compliance with grantees and regulatory governing bodies.
• Effectively use case management software (Legal Server) to manage, update, organize and strategically review cases to ensure casework meets compliance requirements.
• Research records using platforms relevant to job responsibilities (e.g. Xchange, Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER), Electronic Records Request (ERE)), and request documents to aid in case progression.
• Participate in and staff a weekly intake shift and provide legal guidance to individuals seeking assistance, ensuring thorough case evaluation and appropriate follow-up actions.
• Attend trainings and Task Force meetings; complete appropriate CLEs.
• Other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in a related field.
• Juris Doctorate degree from an American Bar Association accredited law school.
• Admission and Good Standing within the Utah State Bar Association.
• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk working on a computer.
• Reliable mode of transportation.
• Must be able to lift up to 20 pounds at a time.

Nice-to-haves

• Spanish speaking preferred but not required.

Benefits

• Full-time position (40 hours/week)
• Salary range based on experience: $80,000-$95,000