Litigation Associate

de la Peña & Holiday, LLP; California (MO); Hybrid; USD 165,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health plans (PPO/HMO, dental, vision)

Life insurance

401(k) retirement plan

Job summary

de la Peña & Holiday, LLP in San Francisco, CA, is seeking a Civil Litigation Attorney to handle complex multiparty and high-stakes defense matters. The role offers full flexibility: fully remote anywhere in California, hybrid, or in-office.

Requires California Bar admission and 3–20 years of California civil litigation experience, with deposition, motion practice, and standup trial exposure. This is a full-time permanent position with base compensation between $165,000 and $240,000+ depending

Qualifications

• Active California State Bar in good standing.
• 3+ years of California civil litigation experience handling complex, high-exposure matters.
• Experience taking and defending expert and lay depositions, drafting substantive and dispositive motions, and managing day-to-day case strategy.
• Standout courtroom exposure—first- or second-chair trial experience—valued and reflected in compensation.

Responsibilities

• Handle all aspects of complex litigation matters, including multiparty and multimillion-dollar cases.
• Support team with strategy, filings, and communications across remote, hybrid, or in-office settings.

Skills

Deposition experience

Motions drafting

Trial exposure

Complex litigation handling

Job description

Job Title: Civil Litigation Attorney (Multiparty & High-Stakes Defense)

Location: San Francisco, CA | Fully Remote (Anywhere in California), Hybrid, or In-Office Flexible

Employment Type: Full-Time Permanent

Experience Level: 3–20 Years of Experience

Base Compensation: $165,000 – $240,000+ Commensurate with experience

About Our Firm

Our firm is an established, growing full-service law firm headquartered in Downtown San Francisco, specializing in high-stakes litigation and transactional law. We provide deeply personalized service to businesses, insurance companies, and individuals. While we maintain the tight-knit, collaborative culture of a specialized boutique, our bench possesses extensive expertise in complex, multiparty cases involving massive financial exposure and high-profile public relations concerns. We routinely handle matters with regional, national, or global impact—including high-profile litigation resolved for up to $100 million.

Company culture is central to who we are, and we are deeply committed to maintaining a workplace where our team genuinely enjoys working. We strive to just be a nice place to work, free of the firm politics that can easily arise in law firms. We value operational efficiency and mutual professional respect over micromanagement, providing our attorneys with a supportive, sustainable environment to execute top-tier work. We pride ourselves on our technology and see it as an incredibly useful asset that makes the job easier for everyone and allows our employees the ability to work remotely from anywhere. Our tech stack includes software used by larger firms, such as Coyote Analytics, iManage, and CompuLaw.

The Position & The Workspace

We are seeking an Attorney to handle all aspects of complex litigation matters, including multiparty and multimillion-dollar cases. To support our team's diverse needs, this role offers complete workplace flexibility: you may choose to work fully remote (anywhere in California), fully in the office, or in a customized hybrid model. This opening is available as either a stable, permanent position or a contract arrangement, with compensation carefully structured to match your exact level of experience.

Why This Role is Different: Our Tight-Knit Support System

We know why litigation associates burn out: it’s isolation and administrative friction. We have structured our boutique firm to ensure you feel supported every single day:

• Dedicated Staff Support: We maintain a highly supportive ratio of legal assistants to attorneys to handle all secretarial and filing tasks so you can focus strictly on core legal analysis.
• Institutional Continuity: Our dedicated paralegals are assigned directly to cases, not individual attorneys. When you step into a file, you are immediately brought up to speed by a paralegal who holds the institutional history of the case, allowing you to hit the ground running with team backing. They are there to assist our attorneys at every phase of litigation.
• Mentorship & Accessibility: Our partners maintain a true open-door policy. We also hold weekly scheduled meetings to drive strategy, obtain quick decisions on high-risk files, and ensure our associates are constantly learning, growing, and feeling fully supported in their remote or local cases.
• Health & Wellness: Full firm-sponsored PPO/HMO health plans with buy-up options (Kaiser & Blue Shield of California), dental, and vision. NO EMPLOYEE CONTRIBUTION FOR EMPLOYEE BENEFITS.
• Financial Protection: The firm provides a fully sponsored $50,000 life insurance policy to all employees, a benefit we proudly established to ensure our team has continuous peace of mind.
• Retirement: We currently offer a corporate 401(k) retirement plan featuring a 3% Safe Harbor Non-Elective contribution, funded entirely by the firm and 100% immediately vested from Day 1.
• Travel: The job can be 100% remote or hybrid. If you second-chair or assist at a live trial, the firm fully covers all flight, hotel, and travel accommodations.

Requirements

• Active member in good standing with the State Bar of California.
• 3+ years of California civil litigation experience handling complex, high-exposure matters (including habitability, landlord-tenant disputes, construction defect, or personal injury).
• Demonstrated track record taking and defending expert and lay depositions, drafting substantive and dispositive motions, and managing day-to-day case strategy.
• Standout courtroom exposure - such as first- or second-chair trial experience, leading evidentiary hearings, or managing high-exposure files independently from inception through resolution - is highly valued and reflected in compensation.

Our Interview Process

We respect your time and your career. We do not utilize multi-hour partner interview rounds that require repetitive, back-and-forth scheduling. Our streamlined hiring process consists of: