Trial Defense Attorney

Distinct | North America; California; Remote; USD 250,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Flexible schedule

Job summary

Distinct | North America is seeking a Trial Defense Attorney for a fully remote role based in California. You will lead trial defense, manage depositions, and handle cases from filing to verdict, operating as first chair in many proceedings.

Ideal candidates will be seasoned litigators admitted to the California Bar, with a track record of leading cases across general liability, transportation, premises, and related areas. Salary ranges from $250,000 to $300,000.

Qualifications

• Files you've carried from the complaint to a verdict.
• First chair time or strong backup readiness.
• California Bar admission required.

Responsibilities

• Fact and expert depositions, yours to take and defend.
• Pretrial conferences and trial appearances, first chair.
• The big motions, in limine and dispositive, argued by you.
• A defense caseload that’s yours start to finish.
• Direct communication with clients, carriers and experts.

Skills

First chair experience

Trial litigation

Deposition handling

Case management

Education

California Bar

Job description

Trial Defense Attorney | Fully Remote, California | $250,000 to $300,000

Ten years into litigation, with trial lawyer in their LinkedIn headline, plenty of very good lawyers have stood in front of a jury three times. Cases settle and the system needs them to, but it leaves a lot of people brilliant at trial prep and short on verdicts.

This one's first chair. You argue the motions, you take the depositions, and when the verdict comes back it's on a case you ran from the start. Clients, carriers and experts deal with you directly, and enough of these files go in front of a jury that they want someone who's looking forward to it.

The cases come from eight directions, general liability, transportation, premises, catastrophic injury, construction, habitability, products and trucking, and each one brings its own breed of expert to take apart, from accident reconstructionists to the mold people.

$250,000 to $300,000. Remote, hybrid or flexible, your call, and you only need the suit on court days. There are plenty of people at a national firm to call when a case gets big.

Your calendar, roughly:

• Fact and expert depositions, yours to take and to defend
• Pretrial conferences and trial appearances, first chair
• The big motions, in limine and dispositive, argued by you
• A defense caseload that' s yours start to finish
• Clients, carriers and experts on the phone to you with nobody in between

What gets you in the door:

• Files you've carried from the complaint to a verdict
• First chair time, or second chair time and a hunger for the first chair you can back up
• The California Bar