Managing Trial Attorney

Job Description

Job Description

Description:

About US:

Ghidotti | Berger LLP, is a certified WBENC organization specializing in representing secured creditors, banks, lenders, investors, and foreclosure trustees in transactional, litigation, and bankruptcy matters. Our team of experienced attorneys practices in federal and state courts across Arizona, California, Florida, Texas, Oregon, Nevada, Washington, Utah and Illinois! With expertise in commercial litigation, real estate, and default services, we are committed to providing exceptional legal solutions to a diverse client base. Join an organization recognized for its dedication to excellence and its diverse and inclusive workplace culture.

About the Role:

We are hiring a Remote Managing Trial Attorney, who will own the firm's Florida trial docket and lead the attorneys who try its cases, carrying a personal caseload of Florida trial-set matters alongside management of the trial function. Managing the trial function means assigning and supervising the trial team, monitoring and escalating case risk, keeping leadership and clients current on every trial-set matter, and training the next generation of trial attorneys. Trial capacity is a firm asset this role is accountable for building. This is a working manager role: the attorney tries cases and supervises the people who try them.

Responsibilities:

· Carry a designated caseload of litigated matters set for trial in Florida state and federal courts.

· Review each matter at assignment—pleadings, discovery, motion practice, testimony, evidence, rulings, controlling law, and strategy to date—working with the file attorney to understand the facts, procedural history, theories, and positions already on record.

· Determine what further discovery, evidence, witnesses, research, or motion practice is needed, and prepare the case for trial: witness preparation, exhibit development, trial outlines, motions in limine, proposed jury instructions or findings, and evidentiary briefing.

· Appear at pre-trial conferences, hearings, mediations, depositions, and trial as required, traveling within Florida as settings require.

· Identify each file's weaknesses before opposing counsel does—evidentiary gaps, chain-of-assignment issues, business records foundation problems, admissibility limits, discovery deficiencies, and procedural defects—and grade them by likely effect on outcome, ruling risk, and client or fee exposure.

· Build and execute a case-specific trial strategy toward the best available outcome, adjusting it as the record changes, and provide candid written assessments of strengths, weaknesses, and probable outcomes, including recommending resolution over trial where warranted.

· Supervise the Florida trial attorney team, including assignments, coverage, and workload balance, and maintain a current view of every trial-set matter’s date, readiness status, and open items.

· Set and enforce trial readiness standards, run readiness reviews on the firm's cadence, and document results in the case management system.

· Build bench depth so no trial setting depends on a single attorney, manage continuances and coverage decisions, and escalate promptly when a setting cannot be covered.

· Participate in hiring, onboarding, performance review, and development planning for the trial team.

· Monitor case risk under firm procedure, including high-risk flagging and quality control requirements, and present risk file reviews to firm leadership with the issue, exposure, plan, and closing date.

· Escalate legal, financial, and reputational exposure to firm leadership and, where required, to clients, as issues are identified, and track sanctions exposure, fee exposure, and recurring defect patterns to correct upstream causes.

· Support client audit, reporting, and scorecard requirements that apply to trial matters.

· Train and mentor the trial team on trial practice—examination, foundation, exhibits, objections, and courtroom presence—second chair less experienced attorneys, and run post-trial debriefs that feed lessons into training.

· Maintain written trial standards, checklists, and templates, and build development paths for attorneys ready for greater responsibility.

· Report trial docket status and risk exposure to firm leadership on the established cadence, communicate with clients per firm protocol, and keep the file attorney and team informed throughout trial preparation.

· Maintain current knowledge of Florida and federal procedural rules, evidentiary requirements, and substantive law relevant to assigned matters.

Qualifications:

· Juris Doctor from an accredited law school and Active license and good standing in Florida. 

· Extensive civil litigation and trial experience in Florida state courts, including cases taken through verdict or judgment.

· Prior supervisory, team lead, or formal mentoring experience.

· Command of civil procedure, evidence, discovery, motion practice, and trial practice.

· Ability to take on a file with a long procedural history and quickly determine where it stands and what it needs.

· Sound, objective judgment, including a willingness to give an unwelcome assessment, and strong organizational and case management skills across competing deadlines.

· Mortgage foreclosure, creditors' rights, or default servicing litigation experience, plus federal court trial experience and familiarity with servicer and investor requirements and reporting expectations.

· Experience with CaseAware or a comparable case management platform, and building training programs, practice standards, or quality control processes.

Ghidotti Berger, LLP is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex/gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ancestry, national origin, marital status, citizenship status (unless required by the applicable law or government contract), disability or protected veteran status or any other status or characteristic protected by law. Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.