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 are seeking an attorney to join our dynamic Legal Advice Line team, which provides assistance to low-income individuals and families in the areas of housing, family law, public benefits, and consumer law. This particular position will focus on our housing practice, which seeks to preserve fair and affordable housing for residents of San José and throughout the Bay Area.
The primary responsibility will be to provide advice and counsel to clients on the phone through a call center model. The attorney will also have the opportunity to provide advocacy to low-income tenants by drafting pro per documents, including reasonable accommodation and improper notice letters.
The first 6 months of training will occur in Oakland. Thereafter, the position will primarily be housed in our Santa Clara County Regional Office, located in downtown San José, with travel required to the Oakland office 1 day a week.
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.
Core Competencies:
• Candidates that have recently passed the CA Bar, or law school graduates taking the bar exam at the next sitting are welcome to apply
• Bilingual ability required, preference for Spanish or Vietnamese
• Ability to travel between the Santa Clara County local office and the Oakland office is required
• Strong personal work ethic and ability to organize time and manage diverse activities
• Strong interpersonal skills and an ability to work collaboratively with a dynamic team
• Curious and self-directed with an ability to anticipate what needs to be done
• Excellent verbal communications skills and demonstrated ability to convey critical legal advice in a concise and comprehensible manner
• Cultural competency in working with low‐income clients from diverse backgrounds, including clients with physical and mental disabilities, LEP clients, and LGBT clients;
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, writing sample, diversity statement (see BayLegal.org/employment for details) and list of references to: Human Resources Department, e-mail to [email protected]. Be sure to refer to the posting "LAL Attorney- San Jose" in the title of your email.
In a separate page from your cover letter, please address the following:
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.
[Please note that your response to the prompt above 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.]