About the Role
A boutique family law firm in San Diego is adding a Family Law Associate Attorney to a small, tight-knit team. The firm handles the full range of family law matters including custody, support, property division, and domestic violence cases. The founding attorney is a Certified Family Law Specialist with nearly two decades of experience and has built a practice around reasonable caseloads, genuine work-life balance, and a compensation model that rewards effort directly every single month, not at the end of a quarter or year.
The ideal candidate has at least five years of dedicated, recent family law experience and is ready to own their cases from start to finish. This is not a training seat. It is a real opportunity for someone who may have been doing solid work at a larger firm without ever being trusted to run their own matters. The culture is collaborative without being micromanage-y, the hours are flexible within a ~5 billable hours per workday expectation, and the firm has a firm no-jerks policy that keeps the environment genuinely supportive.
Key Responsibilities
1. Independently manage your own family law caseload from intake through resolution, with support from the principal attorney and team as needed
2. Provide high-quality legal representation across custody, support, property division, and related matters
3. Build and maintain direct client relationships, communicating strategy clearly and keeping clients informed throughout
4. Make strategic case decisions autonomously while knowing when to loop in senior counsel for a second set of eyes
5. Bill a minimum of 110 hours per month (roughly 5 billable hours per workday), with strong incentive to exceed that threshold
6. Maintain accurate billing entries in QuickBooks on a consistent basis
7. Manage deadlines, court calendars, and case documentation with strong attention to detail
Required Skills & Experience- California law license in good standing
- 5 to 15 years of experience, with the bulk of that time dedicated exclusively or primarily to family law
- Recent family law experience, ideally currently practicing family law at time of application
- Ability to independently manage a caseload, or a clear readiness to step into that level of ownership
- Strong organizational skills, detail orientation, and confident written and verbal communication
- Willingness to work five days a week in office in San Diego
- Must be authorized to work in the US without visa sponsorship
Preferred Skills- Certified Family Law Specialist (CFLS) designation
- Experience running your own cases from start to finish at a prior firm
- Background handling high-conflict custody or complex property division matters
- Existing client relationships or referral network in the San Diego legal community