Organization: Bay Area Legal Aid (BayLegal) ensures fairness in the civil justice system for the most vulnerable members of our community. From Silicon Valley to Napa Valley, we help clients protect their livelihoods, their health, and their families. Our clients include the working poor, families with children, foster youth, seniors, immigrants, veterans, and persons with disabilities. Through our regional county offices, our mobile advocacy clinics, and our nationally-recognized Legal Advice Line, BayLegal prevents domestic violence and sexual assault, increases economic stability, protects consumers, expands access to healthcare, and prevents homelessness. For our clients, BayLegal makes the difference between staying in poverty and thriving toward a brighter future.
Position: We seek a culturally humble attorney with a proven track record of social justice advocacy and deep understanding of housing, poverty and racial justice issues in the Bay Area. The Regional Counsel will provide vision, direction and day to day supervision of BayLegal's Tenant’s rights and Fair Housing work across all BayLegal counties and will ensure high standards of advocacy through training initiatives and hands on mentorship of staff housing attorneys and advocates. The Regional Counsel will be a visible participant in community planning and collaboration initiatives and will be vital in helping BayLegal identify emerging trends and leading impact litigation and policy strategies to further our housing justice mission.
Responsibilities: As a member of BayLegal's senior management team, the Housing Law Regional Counsel will report to the Director of Program & Advocacy and will guide the long-term development of the housing unit’s direct services, impact litigation and policy advocacy work. The Regional Counsel will be closely integrated into each regional office and will support the strategic and technical needs of staff and will also help to identify and develop opportunities for impact litigation and systemic policy advocacy. The Regional Counsel will work closely with managing attorneys and staff to implement individual professional development initiatives. This position also leads local relationship building, partnership and collaboration with community agencies and task forces.
Diverse candidates are encouraged to apply.
Compensation and Benefits: Compensation is based on a competitive public interest salary scale. Generous benefits package includes medical, dental, and life insurance; long-term disability; paid holiday, vacation, and sick leave; law school loan repayment; bilingual stipends; and 401k retirement plan.
Skills and abilities:
• Commitment to BayLegal's mission.
• Commitment to promoting and fostering diversity and inclusion in hiring and retention
• Experience and comfort working with marginalized and diverse populations.
• Facility and transparency in communicating important information to staff and ability to motivate commitment to the firm.
• Ability to work well with colleagues and community allies in a variety of settings.
• Ability to develop and articulate a clear vision of priorities and inspire others to maximum effectiveness.
• Ability to communicate clearly, concisely and effectively, both in writing and orally, including in public presentations.
• Ability to organize and supervise the case work and projects of a professional office.
• Ability to work and communicate effectively with funders.
• Ability to track, maintain and report statistics to funders.
Experience and Education: Juris Doctorate Degree, active California Bar membership, and five or more years practice as a licensed housing law attorney.
Diverse candidates are encouraged to apply.
Applications: Bay Area Legal Aid thrives on our diversity and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a culturally diverse workplace and strongly encourage women, persons of color, LGBTQ individuals, veterans, persons with disabilities, and persons from other underrepresented groups to apply. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue on a rolling basis, but applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Please send a cover letter, resume, and list of references to: Human Resources Department, e-mail to [email protected]. Be sure to refer to the “Housing Law Regional Counsel” in the title of your email.
In a separate page from your cover letter, please address the below.
Please note that your response to the prompt below will not be read by your interviewing hiring committee. To reduce potential bias, your name will be removed and your response to this prompt will be read and reviewed separately from the rest of your application. Feedback on your response will then be provided to the interviewing hiring committee for this position. Therefore, if there is any specific information that you would like the interviewing hiring committee to be aware of, please make sure to include that information in your cover letter, even if there is some duplication.
BayLegal’s clients are low- and very low-income members of our communities. They include the working poor, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities. To ensure our organization is best serving these populations, BayLegal strives to promote an evolving set of behaviors and attitudes amongst our staff, as well as policies that enable us to work effectively in all cross-cultural situations, with clients, with our coworkers, and with the community. We see this as a commitment to enhance the provision of our services to all clients; to raise the level of positive client outcomes; and to create an inclusive and respectful workplace in which differences are acknowledged and valued.
How do you think your personal background or experiences, professional or otherwise, have prepared you to contribute to our commitment to cultural humility and diversity amongst our staff? Feel free to think broadly about your response to this question, applying various aspects of your life and personal experiences.