What are the responsibilities and job description for the AI Legal & Administrative Clerk — Plaintiff-Side Civil Litigation (Remote, California-based) position at Jack Fernandes Law, APC?
Jack Fernandes Law, APC is a San Diego solo plaintiff's firm handling civil litigation in employment, property, and business matters. We are a forward-thinking practice. Our drafting, research, and case-management workflow runs through a comprehensive sequence, and we use any and all tools that help us to improve the quality and caliber of the work we produce for clients. This includes AI, not limited to: Claude, Claude Cowork, NotebookLM, Lexis, Perplexity, and GPT — each used for what it does best, and constantly being tweaked to find new synergies. Our current clerk takes matters from intake transcript to final pleading with attorney supervision, review, and as much dialogue, strategy, and correspondence as is necessary for the task. We're hiring a second on the same model.
About the roleYou'll be assigned real matters and expected to figure out the path with support and the tools you need to succeed. Pull the precedent. Build the record. Draft the shell. Verify every citation. Bring the team your initial impressions and the results of the research and evidence you have access to. You work directly with me, not under a layer of associates.
I am reachable by phone and text near 24/7. If you need to ask, ask. The clerk who burns an hour guessing and gets it wrong costs us more time than the clerk who pings me for two minutes and gets it right.
Performance converts the role to paid — the same trajectory our current clerk took.
What you'll actually do- Shell initial complaints, oppositions, discovery, and correspondence using instructions, examples, and a stack of cutting edge tools
- Build case records from scratch — chronologies, exhibit indexes, contradiction spotting
- Pull and verify authorities in Lexis, manually confirming each cited reporter/pincite
- Work on drafts and watch them grow into pleadings that you serve and file after attorney review, save conformed copies in Box, and keep matter folders organized
- Handle the random tasks a solo practice generates — locating an expert, calling a clerk, finding the top three mold inspectors in San Diego — and learn to bring back useful answers, not five paragraphs of caveats
- Being a real contributing teammate for real clients with high stakes matters
- Learning daily, supporting the managing partner, and becoming a close colleague and confidante
- Someone who hears "initial shell of the complaint in the Smith matter" and gets to work
- Real AI fluency — you can route different tools to different tasks and explain why, not just "I've used ChatGPT"
- Citation discipline. Hallucinated authority is the fastest way out
- Closes the loop. Confirms when something is done, flags blockers early, asks before guessing, and doesn't sign off without checking
- Clear written communication and good judgment about when to ask versus when to just do it
- California-based and comfortable with California civil procedure (or willing to learn it quickly in an environment where everyone wants you to succeed)
- Currently in or recently graduated from a JD program preferred; strong undergrads with directly relevant experience considered
- Available for short video check-ins on Teams three times per week and reachable by text or phone otherwise
- Remote, roughly 10-15 hours per week to start
- Unpaid internship structured around your learning and mentorship, with a defined path to a paid role based on performance
- Direct mentorship from the firm's founder on real California civil litigation matters
- A shadowing or observation role
- A Big Law-style structured rotation
- A role for someone who needs every step explained
Email your resume and one to two paragraphs covering (a) your background, (b) what stands out about you, and (c) what this opportunity would mean to you, to info@jackfernandeslaw.com with the subject line "Future JFL AI Wizard." If you read this far, name your favorite AI tool and one specific way you actually use it.