Appellate Paralegal (U)

Business Unit: 21600

Appellate Paralegal (U) #0000077-21600, Full-Time, At-Will in Santa Fe, NM

# of Positions: 1

Opening Date: 12-09-2025 - Close Date: -

Target Pay Range/Rate: $23.785-$47.570 per hour

The New Mexico Supreme Court is recruiting for a full-time, classified, Appellate Paralegal (U) position # 00000077-21600 for the Supreme Court in Santa Fe, New Mexico. IDEAL CANDIDATE: The ideal applicant is highly organized, self-motivated, confident, and will join our team with a love for learning and variety. The applicant will ideally have experience with the rulemaking process, public records requests, responding to self-represented
litigant correspondence, and preparing and reviewing legal documents for accuracy, consistency, and conformity with the Blue Book and general rules of grammar, punctuation, and spelling. GENERAL STATEMENT OF DUTIES:
Acting under the direction of a Court of Appeals Judge, Supreme Court Justice, Supreme Court Chief Clerk, Chief Deputy Clerk of Court, Chief Appellate Attorney, or other designee, coordinate and fulfill the administrative, technical, and clerical requirements of Clerk’s office, with other duties as assigned.
EXAMPLES OF JOB DUTIES:

The Appellate Paralegal (U) is responsible for providing paralegal support to the Court, including ensuring the accuracy, consistency, and conformity with technical standards of appellate court dispositions and other documents and performing other duties as may be assigned.

Preparing, editing, performing technical analysis, and proofreading appellate opinions, decisions, dispositional orders, and other documents.

Reads and reviews the cited cases to ensure that they stand for the proposition and checking record cites to ensure that the facts are accurately represented in appellate court dispositions, records and documents.

Assures all citations are correct and in accordance with the New Mexico Appellate Courts

Technical Handbook, The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, and other reliable style and technical guides.

Performing legal research using a variety of sources, including electronic databases, case law, statutes, Court rules, law journals, and historical documents and annotating case impacts and/or negative subsequent history.

Drafting and docketing legal documents (i.e., memoranda of Court action, orders, and other documents required for review and approval).

Preparing Court files for oral arguments or conferences and circulating or filing appellate dispositions to comply with Court procedures.

Trains and mentors other staff on case information and administrative processes in the Clerk’s Office.

Performs advanced legal research; prepares correspondence and orders; serves as a liaison with other court staff, state agencies, and the public; provides customer service and information to the public; reviews court forms and rules to ensure compliance with New Mexico statutes and court rules; coordinates the timely processing of documents; managing Clerk of the Court/office files; maintains the Official Roll of Attorneys,

including admission of new attorneys, and monitors and processing all attorney status changes; maintains and prepares Supreme Court Rules Committee orders and membership rosters; maintain calendars and prepares statistical reports; and manages administrative minutes.

Assists with the preparation of responses to Inspection of Public Records Act requests.

Coordinates the timely processing of documents.

Manages processes, documents, records, and files as assigned.

Other duties as assigned.

COMPETENCIES/QUALIFICATIONS:
The successful applicant should demonstrate good oral and written communications and a good working knowledge of grammar, punctuation, spelling, and proper sentence structure. The successful applicant should demonstrate proficiency with Microsoft Office and G Suite applications; knowledge and understanding of legal terminology, technical writing, and editing; appellate court dispositions, including without limitation opinions, decisions, memorandum opinions, dispositional orders, and other orders; legal and Court writing styles; legal citation procedures and rules; math and statistics; utilization of pleadings, briefs, and case records; Court
rules, policies, and operations; Court case management systems; legal research, including electronic databases such as Westlaw, Lexis, New Mexico One Source of Law, and other electronic legal databases; legal resources such as the New Mexico Statutes Annotated (NMSA 1978), the New Mexico Rules Annotated (NMRA), law review articles, and legislative materials; be familiar with common legal citation, usage and writing references, such as The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, Garner’s Dictionary of Legal Usage, The Gregg Reference Manual, and Black’s Law Dictionary; rules and filing procedures; hard copy calendaring and case file
scanning; other Court agencies and resources; emergency plans; have a basic understanding of organizational management; conflict resolution.

WORK ENVIRONMENT AND PHYSICAL DEMANDS:
The following functions are representative, but not all-inclusive of the work environment and physical demands an employee may expect to encounter in performing tasks assigned to this job. Work is performed in an office or court setting. A valid driver's license and travel may be required. The assigned work schedule may include nights, weekends, holidays, and overtime. The employee must regularly interact positively and professionally with co-workers, clients, the public, judges, and justices.

This job description is ILLUSTRATIVE ONLY and is not a comprehensive listing of all functions performed

BENEFITS:

Medical/Dental/Vision/Rx, Short, and Long-Term Disability Insurance Programs, employee assistance program (EAP) [http://www.mybenefitsnm.com/]

State paid life insurance, supplemental and dependent life insurance

Optional flexible spending accounts for medical, day-care, and travel expenses

Paid time off, up to eight (8) weeks accrued annually

Paid time off and retirement buyback

Eleven (11) paid holidays annually

Up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave

Deferred Compensation 457(b) plan

Lifetime Defined Benefits Retirement Plan [http://www.nmpera.org/]

Flexible work schedules and alternative work locations*

Free health care, Rx, and lab work at the facility (Stay Well Health Center) in Santa Fe, NM

Bilingual compensation*

Training and career development opportunities

Higher education opportunities, educational leave, and tuition reimbursement

May qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF)

May receive overtime holiday or shift differential pay*

May receive physical fitness leave*

*These benefits vary by job classification or need*

QUALIFICATIONS

• An Appellate Paralegal shall have several qualification options; however, all shall be in accordance with the New Mexico Supreme Court Rules Governing Paralegal Services, Paralegal qualifications, Rule 20-115 NMRA.

• A paralegal shall meet one or more of the following educational, training or work experience qualifications:

• A. graduation from a paralegal program that is: (1) approved by the American Bar Association; (2) an associate degree program; (3) a post-baccalaureate certificate program in paralegal studies; or (4) a bachelor’s degree program;

• B. graduation from a post-secondary legal assistant program which consists of a minimum of sixty (60) semester hours or equivalent, as defined by the American Bar Association guidelines for the Approval of Paralegal Education Programs, of which at least eighteen (18) semester hours or equivalent are general education courses and eighteen (18) semester hours or equivalent are legal specialty courses;

• C. a bachelor’s degree in any field plus two [(2)] years of substantive law-related experience under the supervision of a licensed attorney. Successful completion of at least fifteen (15) semester hours of substantive paralegal courses may be substituted for one year of law-related experience;

• D. graduation from an accredited law school and not disbarred or suspended from the practice of law by the State of New Mexico or any other jurisdiction;

• E. certification by the National Association of Legal Assistants, Incorporated, the National Federation of Paralegal Associations, Incorporated or other equivalent national or state competency examination plus at least one (1) year of substantive law-related experience under the supervision of a licensed attorney; or

• F. a high school diploma or equivalent plus seven (7) years of substantive law-related experience under the supervision of a licensed attorney.

TO APPLY: Submit a New Mexico Judicial Branch Application for Employment, or a Resume and a Resume Supplemental form, and proof of education to:

New Mexico Supreme Court

Attn: Francesca Martinez

237 Don Gaspar

Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501

Email: supfbm@nmcourts.gov

Phone: (505) 946-7296

PROOF OF EDUCATION IS REQUIRED TO BE CONSIDERED FOR EMPLOYMENT.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER