Job Description

Family Law Attorney

Full-Time, Exempt

Hybrid (three to four days in-person 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 to solve this, we just need to discover what the steps are. 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. To achieve this ambitious 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 having a systemic impact on how we, as a society, ensure justice for all.

Overview of Position:

As the Family Law Staff Attorney, you will provide critical support to our Family Law Team (currently one managing attorney, two staff attorneys, and one paralegal) by ensuring all of our family law clients receive excellent legal services. Our family practice team helps to heal families and communities, reduce conflict, and set our clients (and their children) up for future success. Our unique and innovative model of practice involves advising and representing clients in all areas of family law, including child custody and visitation, child support and parentage, divorce, Domestic Violence Restraining Orders, guardianship, and adoption. Our clients are incredibly brave and resilient, and we seek to support them when they face an intense or contentious case in court.

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. Overall, this position is intended to be a challenging yet extremely rewarding experience for someone looking to make a difference in clients' lives and willing to commit at least two years to an innovative, results-oriented, and fast-growing organization. 

Responsibilities:

• Embrace and embody our mission of universal access to civil legal aid and ensure that everyone in our service area with a viable family law issue gets appropriate help, including legal advice and representation.
• Maintain a full caseload (as per team needs) while opening and closing cases in an efficient manner.
• Facilitate and lead Family Law intakes across multiple physical Open Door Legal office locations.
• Work with clients to assist with discovery requests and information gathering.
• Appear in San Francisco Superior Court to represent litigants in Family Law Cases, as needed.
• Provide clients with case management, including maintaining and providing necessary verbal and written follow-ups with clients. Review documents with clients and obtain their informed signatures. 
• Oversee timely filings (including drafting and compiling forms to file in court, such as fee waivers, proofs of service, and other standard filings) and mailings, ensuring they are high-quality and within deadline. Communicate with court clerks and private vendors about scheduling or filing issues. 
• Oversee service of process (personal, substitute, and mail). Understand the civil procedure behind service. Use creative methods to locate and serve evasive defendants. Coordinate with the sheriffs or private process servers to ensure personal service is completed by deadline.
• Provide services and support to our low-income clients with humility and awareness of cultural, socio-economic, and ability differences. 

• Commit to leading the office in representing our mission and values externally to potential clients, clients, and others as well as internally to all teammates and volunteers. Our values are passion, grit, teamwork, caring, and dynamism. 

Requirements:

• Membership in good standing with the California State Bar
• Strong time management skills and the ability to handle quick timelines, manage diverse activities, organize case tasks, manage diverse activities, and meet critical deadlines with minimal supervision.
• Active demonstration of cultural humility and sensitivity to barriers low-income San Franciscans face when attempting to access the justice system.
• Authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship.
• Demonstrated understanding of how to effectively provide trauma-informed advocacy for clients in crisis, including those experiencing domestic violence.
• Hybrid position: minimum of three days in-office in one or more of our Open Door Legal office locations.
• High level of comfort learning and using technology and cloud-based case management systems. We use Salesforce, Dropbox, and Google Suite.

Bonus Points:

• Comfortable translating and interpreting from English to Spanish and vice versa legal information without assistance.
• Previous experience working with family law issues (custody and visitation, dissolution, domestic violence).
• Previous supervisory experience, including supervising interns or volunteers.
• Experience with filing and interacting within the San Francisco Superior 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.

Starting compensation (annually) for a staff attorney is $83,500-$99,500; for a lead or senior attorney, it's $89,500-$105,500.

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 and provide many internal and external 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.

Ideal Start Date: August 2025

To apply, submit your cover letter and resume. You may type your cover letter into the text box or combine your cover letter and resume into one PDF file for upload.

Applications submitted prior to July 22, 2025 will receive priority consideration.

Open Door Legal is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or any other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law including the San Francisco Fair chance Ordinance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability, please let us know at whitney [at] opendoorlegal [dot] org. 

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