Criminal Appellate Attorney (Attorney 3)

Please note qualifications below specific to this position. The remainder of the job bulletin is reflective of a generic Attorney 3 job description at Spokane County. 

• An individual selected for this position will be primarily responsible for drafting and responding to criminal appeals, personal restraint petitions and other collateral attacks, including CrR 7.8 motions in the trial court.  The individual’s responsibilities will also include presenting oral arguments in the trial court, Court of Appeals and Washington State Supreme Court. 
• The ideal candidate for this position will possess a thorough knowledge of Washington criminal law, Washington criminal procedure, and the Washington Rules of Appellate Procedure. 
• The candidate should have strong legal research, writing, and analytical skills.
• The candidate should be familiar with appellate standards of review, error preservation, and other procedural defaults. 
• The ideal candidate must be comfortable with providing legal advice to trial prosecutors as emergent issues arise during trial and with frequent collaboration on novel legal issues. 

• Prosecuting Attorney 3 incumbents may remain assigned to a specific division, or may be transferred to another division within the department, at the discretion of the Elected Prosecutor.

  
  

This position performs advanced professional criminal legal work for the County Prosecutor. The position allocated to this class is responsible for performing advanced criminal legal work with considerable professional independence and expertise.   Positions in this class differ from positions at the Attorney 2 level by the expertise required, variety of legal matters encountered, number of cases assigned and supervisory responsibilities.   Positions function with considerable professional independence, at times, assigning specific cases to lower level attorneys after making decisions to prosecute or provide defense services within established policy.  Work is usually reviewed only at completion.  Professional advice and consultation is provided by these positions to lower level attorney positions.  A position at this level may head the legal activities of a section and provide performance analysis of lower level employees.

As an Attorney on the Felony Team:

• Evaluates the investigative results on alleged crimes and decides whether to charge and if so, with what crime or whether to refer the case back to the investigator for further investigation, or whether to decline criminal prosecution.
• Prepares legal pleading for charging.
• Prepares cases for trial, including interviewing witnesses; sorting evidence; conducting follow-up investigations; preparing issues and instruction; pretrial motions, opening statements, witness questions, trial strategies and final preparation of witnesses.
• Presents the state's case in court on homicide, negligent homicide, fraud, arson, robbery and other felonies.
• Reviews and prepares record on appeal, briefings and arguments in Court of Appeals, Supreme Court and US Supreme Court.
• Performs other related duties as required/assigned.

• Juris Doctorate (J.D.) from an accredited college or university school of law.
• Four (4) years of experience at a level equivalent to Attorney 2 or substituting advanced professional legal training in civil or criminal law and procedure as required by the position for up to one year of the experience.
• Member of the Washington State Bar Association.
• Public Defender and Counsel for Defense Departments only:  if not licensed to practice law in WA State, must meet the requirements under APR 8- Exception for Indigent Representation.  
  • Candidate must be a member in good standing of the bar in another state and have applied and be pending approval by the WSBA under WA Supreme Court APR 3.   

• Knowledge of principles and practices of criminal or civil law as required by the position.
• Knowledge of judicial procedures and rules of evidence.
• Knowledge of effective techniques and the presentation of cases in court.
• Knowledge to include litigation experience in the examples of duties in which the attorney was the lead attorney.
• Skilled in communicating effectively both orally and in writing, sufficient to exchange or convey information and to give and receive work direction.
• Skilled in establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with the general public and parties affected by the court and administration.
• Ability to analyze, evaluate and organize facts, evidence and legal procedures and to present information orally and in writing in a clear and logical form.
• Ability to analyze and prepare a variety of legal documents and instruments.