2024 Opening for a Legal Assistant
in Public Interest Appellate Litigation
Gupta Wessler LLP – Washington, DC or San Francisco
Gupta Wessler LLP is a small, one-of-a-kind law public interest law firm: We specialize in Supreme Court, appellate, and complex litigation on behalf of plaintiffs and public interest clients. Our cases span a wide range of issues, including consumers’ and workers’ rights, class actions, access to the courts, civil rights, and constitutional and administrative law. We are the go-to appellate advocates for trial lawyers nationwide. The firm has offices in Washington, DC; San Francisco, California; and Cambridge, Massachusetts. In addition, the firm’s lawyers serve as instructors in the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic at Harvard Law School.
The position: Gupta Wessler seeks to hire one or more legal assistant/office managers to start as soon as possible. Legal assistants at Gupta Wessler handle a very broad range of administrative and substantive responsibilities for our small but busy law firm and are usually the first point of contact for new clients and cases. One of our former legal assistants has described this job as “an apprenticeship in high-stakes public-interest appellate advocacy.” Although many of the firm’s prior legal assistants have gone on to law school, we’re also interested in considering experienced career paralegals.
Responsibilities include drafting, editing, formatting, and filing legal documents; special research and writing projects relating to cases; tracking court deadlines and ensuring that projects are on track; scheduling and arranging meetings, speaking appearances, moot courts, and travel; administrative tasks, including invoicing, client billing, payment tracking, time-keeping, and tracking telephone calls and emails for the firm’s lawyers; updating our website; planning office events; and office upkeep.
We’re looking for a bright and energetic college graduate—preferably with at least some post-college experience, an interest in the work we do, and strong organizational, interpersonal, and communications skills. Previous paralegal experience in a litigation setting is preferred but not required. You should care about good writing and enjoy editing. You will need to have extraordinary attention to detail, be a quick learner able to regularly familiarize yourself with new cases and rules of different court systems, be creative and flexible in triaging and prioritizing among multiple assignments, and be able to effectively solve problems while remaining calm in deadline-driven situations. You will need to be comfortable with fast-paced work and possess the ability to complete projects independently. This position will be based in either our main office in Washington, DC, or our satellite office in San Francisco. Staff are expected to work from the office every day. A commitment of at least two years is expected.
To apply: Please do not apply over Linkedin. We are only accepting applications sent to recruiting@guptawessler.com. Please send a cover letter with an available start date, a resume, at least one writing sample, and three references to recruiting@guptawessler.com. The writing sample can be anything that exhibits your general writing and analytic ability: a work assignment, college research paper, or an essay or article on any topic. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis and reviewed immediately. No telephone inquiries, please.
