Paralegal Civil Division

Overview

Paralegal | Employment | Civil Division role at Seattle City Attorney's Office
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With more than 200 attorneys and professional staff, the Seattle City Attorney’s Office is one of the largest law offices in Seattle and the third-largest public law office in the state. The office aims to make Seattle a safe, healthy, empowered, and thriving community. The team seeks to address historical injustices in the court system with self-examination and to pursue justice with integrity, creativity, and fairness.

We value transparency, innovation, and collaboration with community partners to achieve outcomes that promote equity, accountability, and healing.

The Seattle City Attorney's Office is seeking a Paralegal to join the Employment Section, which includes three other Paralegals, twelve Assistant City Attorneys, and two Legal Assistants. The Employment Section advises and litigates complex employment matters arising from the City of Seattle’s workforce of over 10,000 employees across City departments. The work is dynamic and fast-paced. We take a collaborative, team-oriented approach to litigation and advice work, aiming to build effective teams and strong relationships with City departments and leadership.

Paralegals in the Employment Section are valued members of our enthusiastic and experienced team.

The Paralegal in this position will support Assistant City Attorneys representing the City in employment-related matters in various forums, including state and federal court lawsuits, administrative cases at PERC and Civil Service Commissions, and labor arbitrations. They will assist in all aspects of representation, including factual investigation, coordinating record collections, managing discovery, and active participation in trials, arbitrations, and civil service proceedings.

Responsibilities of this position include, but are not limited to:

• Assisting attorneys in preparing for, strategizing, and representing the City at trials, hearings, and arbitrations.
• Working closely with attorneys and legal assistants to ensure high-quality work product delivered in a timely manner.
• Performing legal, factual, and records research.
• Drafting and assisting with preparation of documents, including communications, records requests, pleadings, discovery, and requests for information.
• Preparing and organizing documents for responding to discovery requests and for use as exhibits for depositions and motions.
• Providing eDiscovery support, including initiating litigation holds and coordinating collection of physical and electronic records from records custodians across City departments, tracking records collection, preserving metadata, and maintaining chain of custody.
• Conducting Microsoft Purview M365 searches and exports (Outlook, One Drive, Teams, SharePoint).
• Staging documents for ingestion into the Nuix Discover review platform and coordinating document review and production.
• Assisting attorneys in responding to requests from administrative agencies (e.g., EEOC, DOL).
• Assisting attorneys in other duties as assigned to provide effective legal representation.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree and at least five years of paralegal experience, or
• Certification from a nationally accredited paralegal program and three years related experience, or
• Any combination of education, training, and experience that provides an equivalent background required to perform the work.

Desired

Qualifications:

• Litigation expertise, including discovery, deposition and trial preparation in civil litigation.
• Familiarity with eDiscovery processes and platforms (e.g., Nuix Discover, Relativity, Logicull, iPro).
• Working knowledge of state, federal, and appellate court rules.
• Ability to work collaboratively with individuals at all levels of the City.
• Excellent research, writing, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to manage multiple projects in a fast-paced environment with attention to detail.
• Professionalism, integrity, and adherence to City and legal ethics rules.
• Ability to work independently and take direction from multiple attorneys with differing priorities, with strong follow-up and…