Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS) is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity/ Accessible Employer and strives to ensure that our staff members reflect the diversity of the communities we serve.
GBLS provides free legal services and representation to clients in the greater Boston area who cannot afford private legal representation.
GBLS seeks applicants for a permanent attorney position, which initially will be focused on our Welfare Law Unit (WLU) Tax Benefits Project, involving COVID tax benefits and related tax matters for families and individuals living in deep poverty who have barriers to navigating the tax system. Once the project is completed, the attorney may be transferred to other work at GBLS based on need at that time.
The WLU handles advocacy work for certain tax/guaranteed income issues, welfare benefits, and subsidized child care benefits through: (1) direct representation of individual clients and their families; (2) systemic administrative advocacy directed at targeted state and federal agencies; (3) class action and other impact lawsuits and; (4) legislative advocacy campaigns to expand, improve, defend, and create income, food, and child care programs.
Core Responsibilities for the Position:
· Transition into the role of overseeing the Tax Benefits Project.
· Supervise, as appropriate, and co-counsel with paralegal advocates to handle a range of tax cases for very low-income clients who did not receive the COVID 2020 and 2021 stimulus payments and/or special 2021 Child Tax Credit, including representation with IRS and, with Tax Court and/or Fed. Dist. Court, if needed.
· Provide high quality representation in all aspects of this work, including written and oral advocacy, legal and other research, effective and sensitive work with clients, writing in plain language to clients and in other materials, attention to detail, and documenting all case work in the client's case record in GBLS's case management system.
· Engage in systemic advocacy with national organizations concerning access barriers to filing taxes, obtaining refundable tax credits, and resolving disputes with the IRS, leveraging information and experience gained from working with clients and community and provider organizations.
· Engage in systemic advocacy with national organizations working toward a permanent fully refundable Child Tax Credit, with no work requirement and no restrictions barring children based on immigrant status.
GBLS offers a generous benefits package, retirement contribution, and generous paid-time-off. The position is covered by the collective bargaining agreement between GBLS and the Attorney Union, which governs salary and benefits.
GBLS values diversity and encourages applicants from a broad range of backgrounds.
Qualifications:
· Bar admission in any state obtained or soon to be obtained.
· Experience with tax law and practice affecting low-income clients, although graduates of law school low-income tax clinics will be considered.
· Desire to work with clients with significant barriers to employment and navigating bureaucracies.
· Ability to work effectively with diverse clients.
· Strong written and oral communication skills.
· Ability to perform careful, detailed work.
· Demonstrated capacity to analyze and work with complex materials.
· A plus, but not required: fluency in Spanish or another language prevalent among our clients.
Candidates should submit a letter of interest, resume, and writing sample to the Human Resources Team via e-mail at [email protected]. Please refer to Job Code: WLU-ATTY when applying for this position. The deadline for applying is September 1, 2023, or until the position is filled.