Senior Litigation Paralegal

Job Title: Senior Litigation Paralegal

Job Category: Legal

Time Type: Full time

Minimum Clearance Required to Start: DOJ MBI

Employee Type: Regular

Percentage of Travel Required: Up to 10%

Type of Travel: Continental US

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The Opportunity:

Work with client attorneys and team members to support the DOJ Environment and Natural Resources Division, primarily on Fifth Amendment takings cases, especially Rails to Trails cases.

Responsibilities:

Client facing position supporting the DOJ Environment and Natural Resources division, primarily focused on the Rails to Trails takings liability and valuation trials.

Tasks include but are not limited to:

• Factual and legal research and analysis, including title and deed analysis, case law, statutes, and tax data; mapping or review of the same, identifying parcels on historical maps and assisting GIS contractors
• Travel to NARA in College Park, MD, and potentially other sites to collect and analyze factual information from public resources
• Obtain historical documents, maps, etc. from public sources
• Assisting with brief drafting, cite checking, and generating tables
• General research
• Preparing drafts
• Assisting attorneys with drafting correspondence, briefs, etc., deposition support, pre-trial and trial support, including identifying, preparing, tracking and presenting exhibits; preparing weekly and/or monthly summary reports detailing cases supported, tasks performed, and tasks planned, preparing case specific reports of research and analysis, attending case meetings, analyzing attorney fees submitted by opposing counsel, organizing the data in an Excel spreadsheet, using macros, and compiling or assisting in compiling objections to submissions on behalf of the United States.
• Additional tasks may include the following: compiling, preparing, and summarizing relevant materials for use by attorneys in discovery and in preparation of motions, briefs and other legal documents; summarizing depositions and other transcripts; maintaining case files; performing moderately complex legal research; indexing, tracking and controlling document discovery (including documents produced and received in discovery); production of US discovery; indexing and tracking exhibits and other materials at depositions and at trial; synopsizing transcripts of hearings and oral arguments for attorney use; reviewing case related materials and, for example, identifying potentially conflicting statements or areas requiring further investigation; preparing exhibit cross-references; assisting attorneys in courtroom; reviewing documents for relevance and privilege according to established guidelines and criteria.
• Position requires maintaining files in order to provide written and/or verbal testimony regarding the research performed and conclusions reached in the performance of the above tasks.
• Travel may be required within the United States.

Qualifications:

Required: 

• Must have a paralegal certificate. An equivalent level of legal training may be substituted with the approval of the COR.
• Hands on familiarity with ESI tools and knowledge of e-discovery procedures and resources.
• At least two years of litigation paralegal experience required, including cite checking.
• At least one year of experience in automated litigation support.
• Experience in with Excel, Word, and similar Microsoft software packages
• Requires sound working knowledge of federal and state court systems, frequent legal research, and a thorough knowledge of legal research tools such as LEXIS and Westlaw.
• Must have basic legal knowledge, including knowledge of standard legal citations (bluebook) to cite check legal motions and memorandum.
• Requires excellent written and oral verbal communication skills, thorough knowledge and hands-on familiarity with a variety of computer applications, including word processing, databases (such as document review and file management systems), spreadsheets, imaging, and hardware systems.
• Ability to consistently deliver high quality work under extreme pressure deadline will be very important.
• Excellent organization skills. All project related documents and notes must be maintained in organized systems, r