In December of 2021, the Heartland Center played a pivotal role in winning Right to Counsel for all Kansas City tenants facing eviction. Now, we are expanding our team of attorneys to help carry out the work. We started doing eviction work in 2017 and have been on the frontlines of the eviction crisis ever since. We are finally seeing some real relief for tenants, who were previously evicted swiftly and en masse. We have stopped nearly 500 evictions from occurring since 2020 and have helped other organizations stop many more.
If you want to develop strong courtroom advocacy skills while doing deeply meaningful work, consider applying for this position. If hired, you will work with a talented team of housing rights advocates doing cutting-edge legal work. A brief overview of the position and duties is as follows:
- Defend tenants against eviction lawsuits by asserting defenses, negotiating settlement agreements, and connecting tenants to resources that will keep them safe and housed.
- Try cases in court, craft legal pleadings, work to establish pro-tenant legal precedents.
- Collaborate with other legal aid organizations defending tenants and attend monthly trainings to develop rigorous legal skills.
- Collaborate with interns, volunteers and fellow staffers.
Attorney will need to be licensed in Missouri, be able to work with diverse populations in crisis, and manage a fast-moving caseload. This job requires grit, skill, ambition and tenacity and is also very exciting and rewarding. Experience and/or a second language proficiency is a major plus but not required.
For more information about Kansas City's transformational Right to Counsel law, please see this KCUR article: https://www.kcur.org/housing-development-section/2022-10-03/in-three-mon...
For those unfamiliar with this area: Kansas City is an extremely diverse, liberal city with a lively art, theater, food and music scene. We have a rich history of worker and tenant organizing. Because the Midwest and South play such an important role in determining the direction of our nation this is also an extremely important and impactful place to do social justice work.
Job Type: Full-time, in person at our office located in Midtown Kansas City.
Benefits:
We offer health insurance, dental insurance, and vision insurance. Staff start at 15 days of vacation, 10 days of sick time, 2 personal days, and 13 paid holidays. We offer retirement accounts with an employer match.
Licensed or eligibility to be licensed in Missouri.
To apply, please email resume and cover letter to [email protected] and [email protected].