Job Details

We understand that compensation isn't a one-time discussion. Please see Compensation for more details on our compensation strategy.

The North Dakota Court System offers employment opportunities that provide a rewarding career in public service working together to deliver justice. The Court System offers an excellent benefits package including employer-paid family health insurance premiums, retirement contributions and generous vacation and sick leave accruals.

If you are drawn to and want to play an integral role in supporting a judge or judicial referee by providing extensive legal research and analysis of legal issues and cases to make recommendations on the proposed disposition of cases, this opportunity may be right for you.

The Ideal Candidate

• Easily engages and communicates with others orally and in writing.
• Enjoys researching, analyzing, and writing.
• Obsesses with detail ensuring accuracy of work.
• Deliberately and thoroughly organizes and analyzes information.
• Demonstrates an ability to provide sound judgment including the ability to think critically, identify, break down, evaluate, and write information in a concise and logical manner.
• Thrives on having a constant workload and organizing, planning, and prioritizing work priorities.
• Finds it rewarding to be highly dependable.
• Seamlessly works as part of the courtroom team in providing necessary trial preparations including court recording.

The Ideal Candidate Minimum Qualifications

• Juris doctor degree from an accredited law school;
• 2 years of related experience conducting legal research, preparing or presenting cases in state courts. Any combination of education, training, or experience which demonstrates the ability to successfully complete the major responsibilities and essential functions may be substituted for the experience requirement.
• North Dakota law license or ability to obtain within one year of job entry.
• Valid driver's license or evidence of equivalent mobility; and
• If assigned recording duties, then requires AAERT (American Association of Electronic Reporters and Transcribers) CER (Certified Electronic Court Reporter) certification or the ability to obtain within six months of job entry. A comparable certification by another state court or federal court may be substituted for the AAERT certification.

Responsibilities

• Conducts in-depth legal research and analysis of legal precedents, statutes, regulations, and legislative history for all judges and judicial referees in the district.
• Edits draft opinions prepared by other law clerk staff, judges, and judicial referees and offers changes in style or content.
• Confers with judges and judicial referees on pending cases.
• Drafts jury instructions and special verdict forms for upcoming trials.
• Assists judges through ongoing complex trials.
• Drafts orders for judges after complex bench trials.
• Attends entire bench trial if requested and analyzes testimony and evidence presented to the assigned judge.
• Accurately records, transcribes, and certifies the record of court and jury trial proceedings.
• Performs clerking duties in courtroom, administers oath, marks documents, maintains logs and other forms, and transfers storage devices, files, and records to the clerk of district court for reference.

Knowledge Requirements

• Extensive knowledge of federal and state constitutional laws, statutory law, and court case precedent.
• General knowledge of court administration and office management policies and procedures.
• Extensive knowledge of court system operations, court procedures, and rules including legal rules of evidence, civil procedures, criminal procedures, and appellate procedures.
• Knowledge of logical legal theorems, their application to legal precedent, rules of legal interpretation, and statutory interpretation.

Skill Requirements

• Skilled in organizing, planning, and prioritizing own work priorities, needs, and projects.
• Skilled in balancing the workload of assignments from all judges in the district and prioritizing matters that are assigned.
• Skilled in learning, understanding, and utilizing the preferences and writing style of all judges in the district.
• Skilled in conducting legal research and the application and interpretation of legal concepts, principles, and legal theorems to the specifics of individual cases.
• Skilled in the use of legal research resources and software (i.e. Westlaw, Lexis Nexis, etc.) and general office support applications (i.e. word processing and other desktop software/applications).
• Skilled in formulating, writing, and drafting legal orders in a clear, concise, and coherent manner in accordance with the requirements of the court.

Physical Requirements

• The essential functions of the job typically require: grasping, walking, sitting, seeing, talking, hearing, feeling, fingering, and some repetitive motions or other reasonable methods that accommodate an individual in completing the essential functions of the job.
• Work is performed in a comfortable office environment.
• Employee is subject to some travel in the performance of the job.