Construction Defect Defense Associate

Distinct | North America; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 225,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off

Parental leave

Job summary

Distinct | North America in Los Angeles seeks a construction defect defense attorney with California Bar licensure. The role blends on-site inspections, depositions, and courtroom drafting in a hybrid work environment.

You’ll handle tender-to-mediation tasks, manage document discovery, and coordinate with experts to build compelling arguments. The firm supports time off and parental leave and values collaboration across the team.

Qualifications

• California Bar license required.
• Experience in construction defect defense preferred.
• Hybrid work arrangement available.

Responsibilities

• Picking up the file at tender and working out who else belongs on the caption.
• Getting through the document discovery, which on a defect case is most of the case.
• Out on site inspections with your expert, then deposing theirs.
• Writing the motions and the mediation brief.
• There's paid time off and parental leave.

Skills

Litigation

Deposition skills

Legal writing

Client communication

Education

California Bar

Tools

Westlaw

LexisNexis

Job description

Construction defect is a team sport with about forty teams on the field at once, and this is a place in one of the bigger squads in Los Angeles.

The pay is $150,000 to $225,000 and it's hybrid, so part of your week is at home. They'll talk to you at two years of construction defect defense and they'll talk to you at ten.

What I like is the number of defect lawyers in the office. Whatever odd thing turns up on your file, a missing subcontractor or an expert who's changed their mind or a scope of repair nobody can agree on, somebody a few doors along has had it before and will tell you what they did. And the mentoring is in the calendar, at least four times a year, by video or phone or sitting down together, so it doesn't depend on a partner remembering you exist.

From tender to the mediation room, you'd be:

• Picking up the file at tender and working out who else belongs on the caption
• Getting through the document discovery, which on a defect case is most of the case
• Out on site inspections with your expert, then deposing theirs
• Writing the motions and the mediation brief

• There's paid time off and parental leave

You’ll need the California Bar.

I'm around early in the Pacific morning and on most weekends, handy if your weekdays go on standing in parking lots at site inspections.