Job description

Family Law Paralegal/Legal Assistant 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 Paralegal, you will provide critical support to our family law team 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 both men and women in all areas of family law and victim’s rights, including child custody and visitation, child support and parentage, divorce, Domestic Violence Restraining Orders, guardianship, adoption, victim compensation, and protection of rights pursuant to Marsy’s Law. Our clients are incredibly brave and resilient, and we seek to support them when they face an intense or contentious case in court. Day-to-day tasks include: providing basic rights advice (with attorney supervision), conducting intakes, completing court forms for clients’ cases, triaging potential clients, coordinating service of process, physically filing documents at SF Superior Court, e-filing documents, communicating case progress to clients, and communicating with clients, including drafting letters and other correspondence. You will be the paralegal for the entire family law practice and will be working with multiple attorneys. You will be providing support for the entire practice’s caseload and also managing your own individual caseload. The work is fast-paced and will require you to be organized and self-managed, 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 with 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. • Be responsible for your own caseload of clients, with attorney supervision. • Support our growing Family Law team (currently one managing attorney and three staff attorneys) and interns/fellows/volunteers. • Execute 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 the deadline. Communicate with the clerks about scheduling or filing issues. E-file and physically go to SF Superior Court (400 McAllister St.) 1-3 times a week to file, deliver courtesy copies, and/or pick up orders. • 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 the deadline. • Work with the attorney and client to assist with discovery requests, fact-gathering for the client’s case using information technologies, calling possible witnesses, or business or government agencies. • Review documents with clients and obtain their informed signatures. • Provide clients’ rights counseling and case management, including maintaining and providing necessary follow-up with clients. • 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. • Provide services and support to our low-income clients with humility and awareness of cultural, socio-economic, and disability differences. Requirements: • At least an associate’s degree or equivalent work experience. A paralegal certificate or declaration is required for a paralegal designation. • Strong time management skills and the ability to handle quick timelines, manage diverse activities, and meet critical deadlines with minimal supervision. • Strong time-management skills and the ability to organize case tasks, manage diverse activities, and meet critical deadlines with minimal supervision. • Must actively demonstrate cultural humility and sensitivity to barriers low-income residents 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. • Have a 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. Also comfortable performing client support and paralegal/legal assistant tasks in Spanish. • Previous experience working with family law issues (custody and visitation, dissolution, domestic violence). • Previous experience as a paralegal, legal assistant, legal secretary, or client advocate. • 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 legal assistant is $70,500-$86,500; for a paralegal, it's $72,500-$88,500. 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 • Paid mental health benefit • 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. Applications submitted prior to February 23, 2026 will receive priority consideration. Ideal Start Date: March 2026 To apply, submit your cover letter and resume. 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.

Requirements

Must-haves

Family Law Paralegal/Legal Assistant
Full-Time, Exempt
Hybrid (three to four days in-person minimum)
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.
Be responsible for your own caseload of clients, with attorney supervision.
Support our growing Family Law team (currently one managing attorney and three staff attorneys) and interns/fellows/volunteers.
Work with the attorney and client to assist with discovery requests, fact-gathering for the client’s case using information technologies, calling possible witnesses, or business or government agencies.
Review documents with clients and obtain their informed signatures.
Provide clients’ rights counseling and case management, including maintaining and providing necessary follow-up with clients.
Provide services and support to our low-income clients with humility and awareness of cultural, socio-economic, and disability differences.
At least an associate’s degree or equivalent work experience. A paralegal certificate or declaration is required for a paralegal designation.
Strong time management skills and the ability to handle quick timelines, manage diverse activities, and meet critical deadlines with minimal supervision.
Strong time-management skills and the ability to organize case tasks, manage diverse activities, and meet critical deadlines with minimal supervision.
Must actively demonstrate cultural humility and sensitivity to barriers low-income residents 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.

Nice-to-haves

Comfortable translating and interpreting from English to Spanish and vice versa legal information without assistance. Also comfortable performing client support and paralegal/legal assistant tasks in Spanish.
Previous experience working with family law issues (custody and visitation, dissolution, domestic violence).
Previous experience as a paralegal, legal assistant, legal secretary, or client advocate.
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 legal assistant is $70,500-$86,500; for a paralegal, it's $72,500-$88,500.

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Keywords to mirror

Platform: gem
Effort: medium

Benefits

Benefits detected in the listing.

Dental

Vision

401k

Paid Time Off

Parental Leave

Professional Development