Closing Date: 14th October, 2025

Description:

To be considered for OPD positions, applicants must complete and submit their application online, as well as upload any required application materials. This position may be based out of any OPD Office in the State of Montana.

Our Mission:
To Provide the Most Compassionate and Expert Defense of Clients and the Constitution

Our Vision:
Creating Expert Teams of Advocates for Justice, Bringing Respect and Dignity to our Clients to Achieve Holistic and Equitable Outcomes

Reasons to work for the Office of the Public Defender: Our work changes lives! OPD's work makes a difference for the people in our communities. Public Defenders work for their clients, protect constitutional rights, and ensure the system remains fair. We are proud of the work we do. To find out more about OPD visit our website.

Benefits of working for OPD: The ability to work and play in the beautiful state of Montana is one of the benefits you will love about this opportunity! Montana offers theaters, museums, fairs, rodeos, a high-quality educational system, and many recreational opportunities. Montana's mountains, rivers, and lakes provide year-round opportunities for outdoor enthusiasts. Fishing, hiking, camping, boating, biking, hunting, skiing, and snowmobiling can be accessed throughout our great state.

Other fantastic benefits include:

Health coverage
Retirement plans
Paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays
Work/life balance
Flexible schedules
Opportunities and room for professional growth
Telework (when applicable)
Public Service Loan Forgiveness - Employment with the State of Montana may qualify you to receive public service loan forgiveness – visit the Federal Student Aid website (https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service) to learn more!

Materials Required of Applicants:

Cover Letter
Resume
References: Please provide contact information for (2) current or former supervisors and (1) professional peer.

About this Opportunity!:
Job Overview: The Contracting Attorney provides assistance in overseeing contracted services within the Office of State Public Defender (OPD). Duties include assisting the Contracts Program Manager in providing contracted attorney management, contract development and oversight, ensuring contractor compliance with OPD practice standards, providing quality assurance of contractor services, developing and maintaining relationships with OPD contractors and reviewing the case work of contracted attorneys. The Contracting Attorney must have a passion, commitment, and willingness to work collaboratively with underprivileged populations to, not only, ensure that needed services are provided, but also continually advocating and striving to improve the level of services OPD provides to its clients.

Essential Functions (Major Duties or Responsibilities):
The essential job duties and responsibilities for this position include but are not limited to the following:
Legal review and consultation (80%)

Review all contractor invoices and related internal communications to assess the service quality and legal reasonableness of hours and costs billed by attorney and non-attorney contractors in order to approve, reject, or modify OPD's payment of those invoices and keep the Contract Program invoice queue at ten or fewer days.
Review all pre-approval requests submitted by contract attorneys and related internal communications to assess the legal reasonableness of requests for contract services, such as forensic experts, mental health evaluators, and private investigators, in order to expeditiously approve, reject, or modify OPD's authorization of such services.
Review client complaints involving contract attorneys to assess the legal reasonableness of the attorneys' client representation in order to adjudicate validity of the client complaints, determine whether assignment of new counsel is required, and review the queue of client contractor complaints within 20 days from original filing date.
Actively communicate with clients regarding client complaints to obtain any additional information necessary for resolution of the complaint and to explain the complaint adjudication decision within 20 days of filing.
Communicate with contractors daily to resolve questions and concerns regarding invoices, pre-approvals, and client complaints, including obtaining additional information regarding invoice line items, pre-approval requests, and client complaints and explaining OPD billing and preapproval modifications and rejections and adjudications of client complaints.
Expeditiously review attorney applications to become contract public defender to determine whether the applicant meets minimum qualifications and to assign areas of competency.
Provide immediate or expeditious legal advice to other Contract Program staff and contractors during scheduled meetings and as needed regarding OPD policies and standards and criminal and civil litigation.
Review, prepare, modify, explain, and enforce legal documents such as service contracts, memorandums of understanding, and OPD contracting policies.
Assists with OPD proficiency determinations on all contract attorneys, including providing timely renewal survey assessments of each attorney contractor assigned to appellate or sentence review cases.

Contractor recruitment and assignment (15%)

Utilize the Contracts Program case queue and other case management program functions to solicit and assign appropriate contract attorneys to pending appellate and sentence review cases to ensure that all sentence review cases have counsel assigned in sufficient time, which is no less than 2-weeks, for counsel to prepare for the scheduled sentence review hearing and to ensure that all approved contractors who are willing to accept additional appellate cases and who would not be more appropriately assigned to other pending cases have been assigned to those appellate cases.
Coordinate with other Contracting Program staff to ensure that available attorney contractors are assigned most effectively and efficiently across geographic and practice areas.
Recruit and maintain relationships with attorney contractors providing appellate or sentence review representation.

Other duties as assigned (5%)
Complete or assist with ad hoc projects, such as coverage of other Contract Program position duties or providing agency training, litigation, or research, as directed by the Contracts Program Manager, Central Services Division Administrator, or OPD Director.

Physical and Environmental Demands: This position works in an office or home-office setting with extensive use of electronic communication and collaboration. Fluctuation of workload may require more than a 40-hour work week and requires occasional exposure to stressful situations. Attendance of continuing legal education seminars to meet Montana Bar requirements is necessary. Travel up to 10% is required.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
This position requires:

Knowledge of legal and court policies, procedures, practices and their application with particular reference to indigent defense.
Understanding of state and federal laws, rules and regulations and their judicial interpretation, including Titles 40 (Uniform Parentage Act), 41 (Montana Youth Court Act) (Child Abuse and Neglect), 45 (Crimes), 46 (Criminal Procedure), 47 (Access to Legal Services), 53 (Mental Disorder),61 (Motor Vehicles), 87 (Fish and Wildlife), Montana Code Annotated, and the Montana Rules of Evidence, Rules of Civil Procedure, and Rules of Appellate Procedures. Familiarity of methods and tactics employed in the defense of legal actions in courts.
Understanding of the Montana Rules of Professional Conduct, especially as applicable to indigent defense.
Ability to understand and be sensitive to cultural differences that may affect the attorney/client relationship and communications.
Ability to effectively research and analyze legal documents.
Skilled in use of standard office equipment, programs, and software.
Strong organization, time management, and oral and written communication skills.
Ability to learn, understand, and consistently and effectively utilize OPD's case management system.
Ability to establish and maintain effective relationships with others.
Able to maintain professionalism when critiqued.
Ability to work independently with self-initiative.

Minimum Qualifications (Education and Experience):
This position requires:

Juris Doctorate degree from an accredited law school
Active membership with the State Bar of Montana

Preferred:
Experience with legal billing and contract management

Applicant Pool Statement: If another department vacancy occurs in this job title within six months, the same applicant pool may be used for the selection.

Training Assignment: This agency may use a training assignment. Employees in training assignments may be paid bel