Volunteer Lawyers Project
Staff Attorney: Removing Barriers to Employment
(Technical College Legal Aid Project and LIFT Dane)
Legal Action of Wisconsin’s Volunteer Lawyers Project (VLP) is hiring a full-time staff attorney to staff two projects in our Madison office:
Legal Action’s new Legal Aid Project for Technical College Students.
In this project, pro bono attorneys will help low-income technical college students solve civil legal problems that affect their educational and career path, especially with expunging past arrest and criminal background records and recovering driver’s licenses when they are suspended or revoked. By solving these civil legal problems, the pro bono attorneys and the project will help students make the most of their education opportunities at technical college and increase the probability students will successfully graduate. This staff attorney position will recruit, train, and support those pro bono attorneys as they serve our clients and will deliver those services as well. (50% of the position’s time)
A new technology-driven collaboration Legal Interventions for Transforming Dane (LIFT Dane).
LIFT Dane’s mission is to provide efficient, technology-driven legal assistance to clear civil legal barriers to economic prosperity for Dane County families; to transform legal and court systems to prevent economic drags; and to contribute to national reform movements to improve access to civil legal justice. LIFT Dane is a new collaboration between the Economic Justice Institute, Inc., Legal Action of Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin Law School’s civil legal clinics, the Center for Patient Partnerships, and Employment and Training Association (EATA) of Dane County. We are creating a web-based application that will offer a Legal “Tune-Up” and use existing public data to find residents in need of legal services and auto-populate legal forms. This staff attorney position will serve as a Legal Services Coordinator. They will coordinate outreach, legal evaluations, education, and services at community and employer locations. This will include recruiting, training, and supporting pro bono attorneys and service delivery. Areas of law will include: suspended driver’s licenses, consumer debt, child support arrears, and criminal records. (50% of the position’s time)
This attorney will be based in Legal Action’s Madison Office. The attorney will spend a substantial amount of time at the Madison College Goodman South Campus and at various community sites in Madison and Dane County. Madison College’s Truax Campus may be added as well.
We seek a staff attorney to start as soon as possible.
We value a diverse staff and work environment. We strongly encourage applications from women, people of color, people who identify as LGBTQIA, people with disabilities, and people with life experiences or education that add to our diversity and our capacity to provide high-quality legal aid to our clients. We encourage applicants to include a statement about the ways that their unique background and personal, professional, and life experiences contribute to the diversity, cultural vitality, and perspective of our staff and our law firm’s mission along with their other application materials.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
This position will work closely with Legal Action’s VLP Coordinator and the Technical College Legal Aid Project Coordinator, who are based in Milwaukee, to:
• Develop and coordinate a legal aid project on Madison College’s South Goodman Campus. Madison College’s Truax Campus may be added as well. This project will use pro bono attorneys, law students, and paralegal students to provide legal aid for low-income students who need record or conviction expungement or driver’s license recovery so that their pathway at Madison College is clear and the student can graduate with a useful degree.
• Ensure that students can easily identify and access legal aid to solve other civil legal problems with help from other collaborating providers. The Attorney will work closely with project partners, including the technical colleges, other legal aid providers, other community organizations, and court staff to implement and oversee the day-to-day operations of the Madison project.
• Coordinate mobile legal clinics at area job sites, community health centers, food pantries, and service agencies to offer Legal Tune-ups, education, and legal services using a new online application. The position will work with Legal Action’s LIFT Dane partners to recruit, train, support, and coordinate LIFT Dane’s pro bono attorneys who will be providing legal aid that helps clients get and keep jobs, and train other community service providers to educate Dane County residents about the LIFT Dane tool.
The Attorney’s primary duties include the following:
For the Technical College Project –
• Assist the Technical College Project Coordinator in developing and coordinating a centralized legal aid project at Madison College’s South Goodman Campus and at the Truax Campus, if feasible;
• Oversee the day to day operations of the project onsite at Madison College, including the regularly scheduled pro bono clinics for expungement and driver’s license recovery;
• Recruit, schedule, and coordinate volunteer attorneys to staff the project’s clinics;
• Provide client case management for Madison College project clients, including referring project clients to staff and volunteer attorneys, when necessary, and providing necessary follow-up on cases;
• Work with technical college faculty and staff and other Legal Action staff at the colleges to identify students who are facing barriers to employment and to develop referral processes for the project;
• Work with the Madison College paralegal degree program, other degree program and administrative staff at Madison College, and other Legal Action staff to incorporate students into the operations of the project as a practical learning opportunity as part of their curriculum;
• Develop and maintain a forms bank for volunteers to easily prepare cases at the project (pleadings, motions, stipulations, etc.);
• Create training materials and plan and implement training of pro bono attorneys, including on-demand video trainings and other digital materials;
• Develop a system for a legal needs check-up and work with other legal aid providers to ensure smooth referrals for students with needs outside the project scope;
• Provide some representation in local Municipal and Circuit Courts for project clients; and
• Assist in growing the project’s capacity and funding.
For LIFT Dane –
• Recruit, train, support, and coordinate pro bono attorneys to provide LIFT Dane’s employment-based legal aid. Working with LIFT Dane partner organizations, develop and then implement the use of pro bono attorneys to further the project’s goals;
• Train community service providers and human resources personnel about legal rights and basic processes;
• Create training materials and plan and implement training of pro bono attorneys and community service providers/Human Resources personnel, including on-demand video trainings and other digital materials;
• Collaborate with LIFT Dane’s Outreach Specialist to offer community and employer-based mobile clinics (“pop-up”) events;
• Provide legal “Tune-Ups” and legal services at clinics; and
• Participate in and contribute to LIFT Dane’s overall program planning and implementation.
• J.D. Required, licensed in Wisconsin upon hire;
• Minimum of two years legal practice experience preferred;
• Strong communication skills to engage key stakeholders, clients, and pro bono attorneys;
• Ability to manage a high volume, fast-paced project;
• Ability to prioritize and organize resources while maintaining quality and attention to detail;
• Ability to work harmoniously with others;
• Enthusiasm for civil legal aid and equal justice for and service to our clients;
• Familiarity with courtroom procedure (state and municipal) preferred;
• Experience creating training materials and leading trainings or a willingness to learn;
• Superior skills in case analysis, research, and writing;
• Demonstrated ability to speak and write clearly and persuasively;
• Enthusiasm for arguing motions and representing at trial;
• Self-motivated, diligent, and able to meet strict deadlines while under pressure;
• Possess a valid driver’s license and maintain it throughout employment;
• Commitment to inclusion of all, including our clients’ and our staffs’ race, ethnicity, age, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, ability, and socio-economic circumstances;
• Fluency in a language other than English and cultural affinity for the client community that speaks that language is highly desired;
• Willingness and enthusiasm for staffing and providing clinics during weekends and evenings.
TRAVEL
Daily travel within Madison will be required. Out-of-state, overnight travel (approximately 4 times/year) may also be required. All work-related travel is reimbursed per Legal Action’s travel policies.
OFFICE LOCATION
The attorney will be based at Legal Action’s Madison Office (744 Williamson Street, Suite 200, Madison, WI, 53703) but will spend a substantial amount of time at Madison College’s Goodman South campus and other sites. (Madison College’s Truax campus may be added.)
PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT
This position involves sedentary work, sitting at a desk on a computer for an extended period. Exerting up to 10 pounds of force on a regular basis to lift, carry, push, or otherwise move objects. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand, sit, talk, hear, and use hands and fingers to operate a computer and/or laptop keyboard and use a telephone. Specific vision abilities required for this job include close vision requirements due to computer work. Drives a motor vehicle while seated for periods of time for a duration of less than 1 hour to a maximum of 3 hours. Occasional reaching, bending, kneeling, and stooping involved to retrieve various items and materials. This position works in an environmentally-controlled office environment with moderate noise from phones, printers, and light office traffic. On-campus work environment will involve frequent interruptions when communicating and responding to student inquiries.
SUPERVISION
The position will be supervised by the Madison office Managing Attorney and the Technical College Project Coordinator.
Interested applicants should send the following documents in PDF format to [email protected]:
1. Cover letter, summarizing interest in the position and qualifications
2. Resume
3. Recent writing sample(s)
4. Law school transcript, if recent graduate
5. Optional, but highly encouraged: Statement about the ways that your unique background and personal, professional, and life experiences contribute to the diversity, cultural vitality, and perspective of our staff and our law firm’s mission.
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS
Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. Review of applications will begin at close of business on 9/26/19.