Senior Appellate Attorney - Criminal Defense

Description

Grand Canyon Law Group does one thing: criminal defense. We help good people accused of a crime take control of their case and save their future, and for many of our clients that fight doesn’t end at the verdict.

The Senior Appellate Attorney leads the firm’s post-conviction practice. You own every matter from the moment sentence is pronounced to the day the mandate issues: direct appeals, Rule 32 and Rule 33 post-conviction relief, special actions, petitions for review, and federal habeas. You find the issues that win, cut the ones that don’t, and write briefs that judges want to read.

You are also our trial team’s in-house appellate strategist. By helping our trial lawyers frame issues, draft instructions, and preserve the record before and during trial, you make sure every case is built to survive an appeal before it ever reaches you.

This is not a research-and-support seat. It is a lead-advocate role for a seasoned criminal appellate lawyer who has written a lot of briefs, stood at the podium, and wants to build an appellate practice at a firm that treats appeals as core work.

Requirements

Essential Duties

1. Appellate & Post-Conviction Advocacy

• Handle direct appeals of felony and misdemeanor convictions and sentences to the Arizona Court of Appeals (Division One and Division Two), and petitions for review to the Arizona Supreme Court.

• Litigate post-conviction relief under Ariz. R. Crim. P. Rule 32 (trial convictions) and Rule 33 (plea and probation-violation cases), including ineffective-assistance, newly-discovered-evidence, and significant-change-in-law claims. This includes investigation, expert coordination, and evidentiary hearings in superior court.

• Bring and defend petitions for special action under the Arizona Rules of Procedure for Special Actions (as amended effective January 1, 2025) for interlocutory relief on issues such as suppression, release conditions, discovery, speedy trial, and victims’ rights disputes.

• Handle limited-jurisdiction appeals (municipal and justice court, including DUI) to superior court.

• Pursue federal habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 in the District of Arizona and appeals to the Ninth Circuit, managing AEDPA limitations, exhaustion, and procedural-default issues.

• Draft and argue post-trial motions (Rule 24 motions for new trial and to vacate judgment) with trial counsel.

• Present oral argument before appellate panels and argue at PCR evidentiary hearings.

2. Record Mastery & Legal Research

• Order, organize, and master the full record: transcripts, exhibits, minute entries, and pleadings. Identify preserved, fundamental, and structural error, and choose the issues most likely to win.

• Conduct deep legal research and track developments from the Arizona appellate courts, the Ninth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Brief the attorney team on decisions that affect active cases.

3. Trial Team Partnership

• Serve as the firm’s appellate consultant on suppression and dispositive motions, jury instructions, objections, offers of proof, and Rule 20 motions. Attend high-stakes trials when needed to protect the record.

• Deliver quarterly issue-preservation training to attorneys and maintain firm checklists for instructions, objections, and sentencing.

• Review sentencing outcomes for appealable issues and make sure every client is advised of appeal and PCR rights and deadlines.

4. Caseload & Deadline Ownership

• Manage a full appellate and PCR caseload from intake to mandate. Every deadline is calendared in Clio and none is missed: Notice of Appeal, PCR notices, briefing schedules, petitions for review, and habeas limitations periods.

• Lead and delegate to paralegals and legal assistants on record indexing, cite-checking, appendices, and filing. Review all work product before it goes out.

• Participate in monthly case reviews with the Managing Attorney.

5. Client & Stakeholder Communication

• Give clients (often in custody) and their families an honest, realistic read on appellate prospects, and keep them informed on a regular cadence. This is Compassion, Honesty, and Results in action.

• Communicate professionally with the courts, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, county attorneys, clerks, and trial counsel.

6. Practice Growth

• Support Sales/CRT on appellate and PCR consultations by evaluating viability, scope, and fee structure, and by writing clear case-evaluation memos.

• Build GCLG’s reputation in appellate work through CLE presentations, bar involvement, and content for firm marketing.

• Bring appellate and post-conviction clients to the firm through your own professional network.

Education & Experience

Required

• Juris Doctor from an ABA-accredited law school.

• Active member in good standing of the State Bar of Arizona. Admitted, or eligible for admission, to the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona and the Ninth Circuit.

• 7+ years of appellate brief-writing experience.

• 5+ years of criminal defense appellate or post-conviction practice (for example, a public defender or legal defender appellate unit, a federal defender, or private criminal appellate practice).

• A substantial portfolio of criminal appellate briefs as lead or primary author, including opening and reply briefs.

• Oral argument experience before a state appellate court or federal circuit court.

• Working command of the Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure (especially Rules 24, 31, 32, and 33), the Rules of Procedure for Special Actions, and AEDPA.

Preferred

• Judicial clerkship with the Arizona Court of Appeals, the Arizona Supreme Court, or a federal court.

• Experience with serious felony appeals (homicide, sex offenses, dangerous and repetitive sentencing) or capital post-conviction work.

• Ninth Circuit briefing or argument experience.

• State Bar of Arizona Board Certified Specialist in Criminal Law.

• Reversals, remands, or published opinions obtained as lead counsel.

• Bilingual in English and Spanish.

Authority

Attorneys are governed by the Arizona Rules of Professional Conduct (Ariz. R. Sup. Ct. 42), the rules of the Arizona Supreme Court and State Bar of Arizona, and the rules of every court before which they appear.

Work Conditions & Physical Demands

Work is performed mainly in an office environment with regulated temperature and typical office noise (phones, equipment, light traffic). The role requires regular travel to courthouses and correctional facilities in Maricopa and Pima Counties and occasional travel elsewhere in Arizona.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee must stand, walk, bend, talk, hear, stoop, kneel, and use hands and fingers to operate computers and phones. The employee must sit for long periods while reviewing records and drafting, and occasionally lift up to 20 pounds (record boxes and binders).