Staff Attorney - Appeals Court in Boston

Staff attorneys work on a variety of legal assignments for the Justices of the Appeals Court. Among other work, staff attorneys edit outgoing decisions, and applicants should expect that most of their time will be spent editing. A staff attorney's role in editing outgoing decisions is to conduct a thorough review of the decision to ensure substantive accuracy and compliance with detailed formatting and style conventions. In addition, staff attorneys (1) screen incoming briefs for procedural defects and to help determine which cases should be scheduled for oral argument and (2) assist in drafting decisions. Especially for the screening and writing aspects of the job, staff attorneys spend more of their time working on civil versus criminal cases, and significant experience handling complex civil matters would be helpful. For this position, expertise with or interest in land use, real estate law, or complex business or commercial law would be particularly helpful but not required.