Legal Action of Wisconsin, Inc. (Legal Action) is seeking a full-time staff attorney to work in its Road to Opportunity Project (RTO) located in its Milwaukee Office. The position is available immediately.
LEGAL ACTION OF WISCONSIN, INC.
Legal Action is a non-profit law firm funded by the federal Legal Services Corporation, the Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation, and other grants.
Since 1968, Legal Action has provided free civil legal aid to those who might otherwise be denied access to justice. We represent individual clients in a wide variety of contexts and forums, advocating for crime victims seeking domestic abuse restraining orders, disabled veterans seeking to avoid homelessness, and young men and women with criminal records seeking to overcome legal barriers to employment. We also litigate cases that have community and state wide impact.
Legal Action serves low-income persons in all of the 39 southern counties of Wisconsin, maintaining physical offices in Milwaukee, Madison, Racine, Oshkosh, Green Bay, and La Crosse. In addition, Legal Action operates a statewide farmworkers project. Legal Action attorneys focus their work on housing, public benefits, family law, consumer and victims rights, and on improving employability for those seeking stable, family-sustaining jobs.
THE RTO PROJECT
The RTO Project is the “umbrella title” for a variety of grant-funded projects that focus on helping individuals overcome barriers to employment both by increasing access to positive employment credentials and by mitigating the impact of such negative credentials as arrest and conviction histories. RTO is seeking a full-time staff attorney to work in one of those grant-funded projects, providing a range of legal services to individuals whose access to a public benefit is conditioned on satisfying a work training/work requirement. The day-to day legal work of the project focuses on helping
individuals obtain job related credentials (including driver’s licenses and occupational licenses), criminal records mitigation and expungement, and providing representation in other areas that limit an individual’s ability to seek and find work. Lawyers in this project work in a small team, but will also have the opportunity to gain experience outside the office, doing intake and outreach work.
Like all attorneys at Legal Action, the attorney hired to fill this position may be reassigned to other legal practice areas and duties as the staffing needs of the firm change.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
• Provide rigorous and high-quality representation in all direct service cases
• Identify new areas of impact litigation and participate in ongoing impact litigation at all levels of the justice system in state and federal court
• Work effectively with clients from a wide range of backgrounds
• Develop expertise in the areas of law that affect employability, and access to employment, including state and federal constitutional law, basic employment law, occupational licensing regulation, employment discrimination, public records and municipal law, and the laws that govern records mitigation
• Participate in community outreach and education when necessary/as requested
• Balance responsibilities for intake and initial client contact with the work involved in managing an active and sometimes significant caseload
• Participate in at least one of Legal Action’s firm-wide Priority Committees
OTHER DUTIES
• May be assigned other duties from time to time
• Current JD or JD expected May 2018
• Admission to Wisconsin Bar by privilege or by passing the first available bar examination
• Superior writing, research, and analytic skills
• Enthusiasm for representing clients in court as well as through motions and other written work
• Self-motivated, diligent, and able to meet deadlines and manage a case load that includes various kinds of cases
• Commitment to serving low-income clients, the Milwaukee Community, and to improving access to justice
• Cultural competence and respect for differences in race, ethnicity, age, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, ability, and socio-economic circumstances
• Prior legal aid or other relevant experience is preferred
• Some experience with federal or state courtroom procedure is helpful
• Ability to travel throughout Legal Action’s service area to meet with clients and to attend court hearings.
• Ability to communicate with persons in the client community who speak a language other than English as their principal language (e.g. Spanish) is also a plus
To apply, please send a) a cover letter, b) a resume, c) a law school transcript, d) the names of three references, and e) a recent legal writing sample or samples. Please submit your materials by email, as PDFs to [email protected] If you cannot submit application electronically, you can call Sheila Sullivan at 414.274.3403 to make other arrangements.
This position will be open until filled but we will review applicants on a rolling basis. To assure early consideration, please submit application materials as soon as possible
Legal Action of Wisconsin, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer