Appellate Paralegal

Washington, DC

Summary

A premier, global law firm seeks an Appellate Paralegal to serve as an integral part of the Legal Professional and Paralegal team. This role provides expertise and support to departmental attorneys in the Litigation & Trial Department, with a focus on the Supreme Court & Appellate Practice Group, while overseeing all logistical and administrative work associated with appellate litigation, including researching and ensuring compliance with court rules, shepardizing, cite checking, and formatting legal briefs, preparing appendices, and interfacing with clerk’s offices at appellate courts. This role is located in the Washington, D.C. office and may be eligible for a flexible working schedule that allows for a hybrid and in-office presence.

Responsibilities

• Prepare templates of legal briefs and motions, properly format legal briefs and motions, cite check legal briefs and motions to ensure consistency with sources cited and proper citation style (e.g., Bluebook or California Style Manual), prepare appendices, and assist with the filing and printing of legal briefs, motions, and other documents
• Interface with clerk’s offices at federal and state appellate courts
• Perform administrative tasks related to the proper functioning of a partner’s litigation and trial practice, including maintaining case calendars, organizing case documents, and ensuring compliance with court procedural rules
• Contribute to and/or manage multiple litigation teams
• Proactively identify and resolve any outstanding issues that arise throughout each case
• Work directly with partners, counsel, associates, appellate paralegals, litigation services, legal secretaries and other support staff, and outside vendors on confidential tasks
• Promote effective work practices, work as a team member, and show respect for co-workers
• Protect and maintain any highly sensitive, confidential, privileged, financial, and/or proprietary information retained by the firm

Qualifications

• High aptitude for reading, cite checking, and editing complex legal briefs, with superb attention to detail
• Good working knowledge of security-related practices and documentation, including but not limited to, state-level and federal-level filing requirements, document management, bluebooking, shepardizing, and cite checking
• Proficient knowledge of applications typically used in a legal office environment, such as billing software and databases
• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university (and signed declaration or paralegal certificate from an ABA-approved paralegal program if located in a California office)
• Prior appellate paralegal experience at a law firm, in government service or equivalent, preferred