Lenox Hill Neighborhood House (Lenox Hill), widely recognized as one of New York’s premier nonprofit human service organizations, is a 123-year-old settlement house that provides an extensive array of effective and integrated human services which significantly improve the lives of thousands of people in need each year on the East Side of Manhattan. Their clients include older adults, homeless and formerly homeless adults, children and families, recent immigrants, disabled persons, adult learners and thousands more. Lenox Hill is among the oldest settlement houses in the nation, and has long been a leader in addressing issues including affordable housing, health care, hunger, education, poverty, homelessness and long-term care for older adults.
The Legal Advocacy program was created in 2004 to address the lack of general civil legal organizations in the community. The Department, currently consisting of 11 attorneys, 6 advocates, and 2 coordinators, provides free, comprehensive civil legal services to individuals and families on the East Side of Manhattan and Roosevelt Island. It operates through a multidisciplinary approach to legal representation, such that the clients receive assistance not only with their civil legal needs, but also have access to social workers, psychiatrists, care managers, ESOL classes and more within the organization. This synergy of legal advocacy and social services creates a powerful tool to achieve social justice for those in need.
The Legal Advocacy Department now assists more than 3000 low-income individuals and families each year with diverse civil legal issues such as:
• Advance Directives - The Legal Advocacy Department partners with volunteer attorneys to assist low-income older adults seeking legal counseling and assistance with the drafting and execution of one or more of their Advance Directives, including Powers of Attorney, Wills, Health Care Proxies and Living Wills.
• Eviction Prevention - provides free legal services to help individuals and families remain in their homes and avoid eviction.
• Health Care Access Project - helps low-income families, disabled and older adults, and their caregivers, navigate and access critical health care benefits, including Medicaid, Medicare and health insurance on the NY State of Health Marketplace.
• Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption Assistance Project (SCRIE) – helps low-income older adults remain in their homes by exempting them from future rent increases.
• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – a SNAP advocate conducts confidential pre-screenings to determining whether clients are eligible and assists them in submitting their application.
For more information on Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, please visit their website at http://www.lenoxhill.org.
POSITION
Reporting to the Chief Program Officer, an experienced public interest attorney and former director of the Legal Advocacy Department, the Director of Legal Advocacy will lead and manage the diverse activities of a 20 person civil legal services program. The Director will drive towards leading a department that emphasizes the highest quality legal work coupled with a team approach in working with peers throughout the organization. She/he must also serve as a strong manager, able to effectively mentor and guide a committed group of attorneys and legal advocates.
Lenox Hill prides itself on its holistic approach to serving its clients’ myriad needs, which encourages staff to think expansively about service integration as a key part of the solution. The Director of Legal Advocacy will work collaboratively with all of Lenox Hill Neighborhood House’s social and educational programs, including two senior centers, a care management program for homebound older adults, a supportive housing residence for adults with mental illness, a women’s mental health shelter, and an early childhood center.
RESPONSIBILITIES
The Director of Legal Advocacy will have leadership responsibility in the following areas:
• Assume primary responsibility for all departmental operations, including setting priorities, developing program areas, grant reporting and program oversight
• Provide instrumental quality assurance, infrastructure and supervision that is essential to the delivery of high quality legal services.
• Sustain and cultivate relationships and ensure compliance with both government and private sources of funding.
• Recruit, mentor and train attorneys, advocates, and law students.
• Lead efforts to maintain and expand pro bono lawyers and law school partnerships.
• Pro-actively engage with peers in continually developing ways to better serve Lenox Hill Neighborhood House clients.
• Build strategic alliances and develop collaborative approaches to service delivery with other organizations.
The Director of Legal Advocacy must be passionate about providing free legal services to low income individuals, families and communities. A successful candidate will have:
• Supervisory and management experience.
• Significant achievements in public interest law and social justice.
• Excellent leadership, interpersonal communication, and organizational skills.
• Ability to foster constructive, collegial working relationships with a diverse group of employees and partners.
• Creativity and flexibility.
• Commitment to our holistic Settlement House model of service provision.
• A minimum of seven years legal experience, preferably including one or more of the following substantive areas: housing, health care or government benefits.
• Admission to the New York State Bar is required.
Please submit a resume and cover letter to [email protected]