The Texas Children’s Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) is a collaboration between Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) and Houston Volunteer Lawyers (HVL), designed to promote the health of vulnerable, low- income populations by allying lawyers and health care professionals and using legal, policy, and educational interventions/strategies to help low-income people meet their basic needs. The Texas Children’s MLP will focus on three key strategies in pursuit of its mission:
•Direct Legal Assistance: Advocating for low-income patient-families on legal issues that materially impact certain health conditions of Texas Children’s Hospital patients, such as housing and utilities, guardianship, education, and income support (including health coverage, disability-, and nutrition-related benefits). Through this work, identifying opportunities to reform internal (health care delivery) and external (policy) systems.
•Internal Systems Reform: Developing tools, techniques, and approaches to change the practices of medicine and law. Training and educating clinicians on the connections between poverty, legal needs, and health (thereby changing their attitudes and behaviors) is a key component of this work.
•External Systems Reform: Uniting the health and legal professions to jointly pursue systemic changes in rules, policies, procedures, and laws outside clinical boundaries.
Detailed Responsibilities
This staff attorney will be responsible for helping coordinate the Medical-Legal partnership at Texas Children’s Hospital. The staff attorney’s primary role will be to nurture and sustain a successful program at TCH, including supporting Texas Children’s internal and external systems reform efforts in collaboration with Texas Children’s leadership and the MLP supervising attorney at HVL. This position is currently virtual until HVL and TCH determine it is safe to be back onsite. Upon return, the MLP staff attorney will work at the Texas Children’s Main Campus in the Texas Medical Center in Houston.
Direct Legal Assistance
• Meet with and interview patient-clients on a variety of legal issues, including guardianship, estate planning, landlord-
tenant, social security denials, and special education, among others
• Provide direct legal assistance to patient-clients when necessary and prepare cases for referral to pro bono counsel
• Provide substantive mentoring to pro bono volunteers who are providing direct legal assistance to patient-clients
• Maintain timely documentation of all legal assistance activities in central case management database
• Place cases with pro bono attorneys
• Assist as needed with HVL main program staff attorney needs in order to cross train and expand legal practice area
familiarity
Internal Systems Reform
• Build and strengthen relationships with key Texas Children’s administrators, physicians, nurses, and social
workers; maintain visibility within the Texas Children’s community in a variety of ways, including but not limited to on-
site presence and regular attendance at key clinical meetings
• Deliver advocacy trainings to clinical and allied professional audiences
• Develop and update advocacy curricula in coordination with training staff
• Support real-time telephonic/email case consultations with health care staff who have identified a possible legal
need on behalf of a patient
• Design and disseminate advocacy tools appropriate for clinical staff
• Support clinician-driven integration of MLP screening and response practices in the Electronic Medical Record and
other Quality Improvement contexts
External Systems Reform
• Identify opportunities to influence policy in ways that will promote the health of vulnerable Texas Children’s patient
populations
• Communicate those opportunities to Texas Children’s Government Relations team; engage in external systems
reform activities under the direction of that team
• Bring a health disparities reduction lens (on behalf of all disparities populations) to the role, including collaboration
with appropriate coalitions in Houston
Other
• Maintain regular communication with, solicit input from, and develop standardized reporting and oversight
protocols with Texas Children’s MLP Steering Team
• Support research and evaluation activities, including efforts to demonstrate return on investment to the institution
• Support best practice dissemination within the national MLP Network, including participation in conferences and
publication efforts
• Support fundraising through grant proposal and report drafting, participation in funder site visits, etc.
Qualifications
The ideal candidate will possess:
• Licensed Attorney in good standing with the State Bar of Texas
• A demonstrated commitment to public interest work and desire to assist indigent clients
• Strong writing, communication, interpersonal, and organizational skills
• An ability and desire to work collaboratively in a variety of contexts and with multiple organizations
• Prior experience in managing independent projects or assignments
• Law school clinic, externship, summer, or other relevant practice experience a plus.
• Must be Fluent in Spanish
Preferred
• Previous Legal Aid Experience
• Social Security law or Education law experience
Salary and Other Support
The Staff Attorney will receive an annual salary as well as these other benefits:
• Employer-paid health, dental, and vision insurance, disability, and life insurance.
• 401(k)
• Employer-paid monthly parking and reimbursed travel expenses.
• Bar Dues
The Staff Attorney may be eligible to apply for a Student Loan Repayment Assistance Program through the Texas Access to Justice Foundation.
To Apply Submit a Cover Letter, Resume, Three Professional References to [email protected]