Legal Action of Wisconsin (Legal Action) seeks a Director of Litigation and Advocacy to (re)envision and to lead our law firm’s structural change litigation and advocacy efforts.
Legal Action defines structural change litigation/advocacy as legal- and law-informed work that has a long-term positive effect on the conditions, laws, and systems that are important to the wellbeing of our client communities. Structural change advocacy is always thoughtful and generally the product of intensive and intentional preparation and planning prior to committing to the work. As we have defined it, structural change advocacy most often involves one of four kinds of work:
1. Collecting, analyzing, and sharing, internally and externally, data and information that helps explain the conditions, laws, and systems that are important to the wellbeing of our client communities.
2. Intentionally initiating and/or thoughtfully reframing litigation that will have a long-term positive effect on the conditions, laws, and systems that are important to the wellbeing of our client communities.
3. Using legislative, judicial, and other policy forums, including academic journals and public media outlets to tell powerful stories about the conditions, laws, and systems that are important to the wellbeing of our client communities.
4. Engaging continuously and effectively with our communities, including through community lawyering, to help LAW become an effective public voice in the discussion of the conditions, laws, and systems that are important to the wellbeing of our client communities.
Structural Advocacy is informed by the advocacy that we do in individual cases. Both are essential components of who we are and what we do at Legal Action.
Legal Action of Wisconsin: We are a large, vibrant non-profit law firm funded by the Legal Services Corporation, the Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, Victim of Crime Act (VOCA) funding, the Wisconsin Equal Justice Fund, and many other sources.
Each year, we provide free legal aid to between 11,000 and 14,000 low-income persons in Wisconsin’s southern 39 counties from offices in Milwaukee, Madison, Racine, Oshkosh, Green Bay, and La Crosse. In addition, the firm operates a statewide farmworker project and a statewide legal aid to human trafficking victims project.
Most of our direct client representation involves housing, public benefits, barriers to employment, consumer, family law, and victim rights. Legal Action attorneys specialize in specific areas of law though they may be called upon to work in multiple areas. They provide high-quality and aggressive representation, maintain a direct service caseload of individual clients, and contribute to the firm’s structural change litigation and advocacy.
Legal Action believes that equal justice under law can only be achieved through the creation and maintenance of a diverse staff. We strongly encourage applications from women, people of color, people who identify as LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, and people with life experiences or educational backgrounds that add to the firm’s diversity and our capacity to provide high-quality legal aid.
Summary: The Director’s primary responsibility is directing Legal Action’s structural change litigation and advocacy work. The Director will also serve as General Counsel for the firm and a member of our executive team. (The Executive Director leads the executive team. It includes the Litigation and Advocacy Director, the Director of Legal Services, and the Chief Financial Officer.)
Essential Duties Related to Direction of Litigation and Advocacy: The Litigation Director is responsible for the final formulations of the firm’s litigation and advocacy goals and for implementing the appropriate strategies to reach those goals. To that end, the Director is responsible for:
1. Supervising and directing the firm’s litigation and advocacy. This will include:
a. Serving as a key contributor to the firm’s assessment of the civil legal needs of our clients and the firm’s development and implementation of the strategic plan (including staffing needs) that will put the firm in the best position to address those needs.
b. Directly supervising the Assistant Litigation and Advocacy Director(s); Director of Racial Justice Legal Work; and Priority Coordinators.
c. Leading the effort to generate litigation and strategic advocacy; evaluating the choice of forums to achieve the litigation and advocacy goals; approving appeals; arranging and participating in moot court proceedings; coordinating the firm’s amicus activity and supervising the preparation of the briefs; directing and leading litigation teams or strategizing with attorneys when not leading the litigation team; and maintaining a small docket of cases that are focused on novel or impact approaches.
d. Providing direction and support to other legal work supervisors on litigation and advocacy goals and strategies.
e. Establishing and implementing protocol for attorneys to engage in structural change advocacy.
f. Ensuring that the firm is training, developing, mentoring, and supporting our attorneys so that they are in the best position to undertake successful litigation and advocacy.
g. Overseeing the evaluation, updating, and regular maintenance of litigation and advocacy tools such as pleading and brief libraries, legal research materials, automated documents, and other materials and tools that support litigation.
2. Serves as the key advocate or spokesperson on the ways that Legal Action’s litigation and advocacy can address the civil legal problems of our clients.
3. Ensure that the firm’s projects and offices identify and work effectively on issues of common applicability.
Other Duties Related to Direction of Litigation and Advocacy:
1. With other managers, ensure that the firm’s outreach is supporting the achievement of our litigation and advocacy goals.
2. Encourage the development of projects and skills that utilize Legal Action’s knowledge and expertise in the public realm through, for example, written projects (original research, collaboration with academic entities, community groups) and LSC-compliant work in response to requests from policy makers.
3. Develop a mechanism for assessing new forms of technology (such as GIS mapping or data scraping from court records or the like) that are being developed and marketed to LAW firms and criteria for determining when and how LAW should invest in those technologies.
Essential Duties Related to Serving as General Counsel for Legal Action: The Director serves as General Counsel for the organization. In that role, the LD will:
1. Work with Legal Action attorneys and their direct supervisors in handling potential malpractice claims as they arise and coordinate with our malpractice insurance carrier, under the terms of our contract, when necessary.
2. Provide advice and support to Legal Action attorneys who have become the subject of professional complaints and provide information about the complaint process, advise and support to the supervisors of those attorneys
3. Provide counsel on and, when necessary, make final determinations on critical in-house ethics and professional responsibility matters.
4. Determine and implement and then continually evaluate and refine (as necessary), the firm’s “wall-off” policies and procedures.
Other Duties Related to Serving as General Counsel for Legal Action:
1. While the firm currently uses external labor and employment counsel, the Director may be called upon to consult with others on employment and labor law matters.
2. Since the firm is funded by grants and contracts, the Director may be called upon to assist with considering certain contractual and grant matters. These matters may involve privacy, attorney/client privilege, and control of data that the firm keeps.
3. Since the firm is closely and highly regulated by the Legal Services Corporation (and others), the Director may be called upon to assist in responding to compliance concerns.
OFFICE LOCATION: The Director may be housed in any Legal Action office. Please specify the desired office location in the cover letter.
FLEX WORK: Legal Action supports flexible work arrangements that meet the goals of the organization and the employee. All regular employees are eligible to request flexible work including flextime, compressed work week, and remote work. We expect the Director to work in-person at least 2 days per week. (In-person work may include in-office time, time spent on client meetings and in court, performing outreach, and in serving clients.)
COVID-19 VACCINATION POLICY: Legal Action requires all regular employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and to provide proof of vaccination within 30 days of employment. Employees may request an exemption from the vaccine requirement.
PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT: The position involves sedentary work, working in a stationary position for an extended period, operating a computer, and using a telephone. Specific vision abilities required for this job include close vision of a computer screen. The position may require driving a motor vehicle while seated for short trips and/or extensive travel. The position requires occasional reaching, bending, kneeling, and stooping to retrieve assorted items and materials and the need to exert up to 10 pounds of force to lift, carry, push, or otherwise move objects.
SCOPE OF AUTHORITY: The Director directs and supervises the work of Legal Action attorneys and other employees and volunteers.
GOVERNANCE: Legal Action’s personnel policies and other operating policies and procedures govern this position.
SALARY: The salary range for this position is determined by Legal Action’s salary administration plan and will fall between $134,107 - $174,936. The incumbent’s placement within the range is determined solely by their years of post-JD experience.
LANGUAGE PREMIUM: Legal Action’s Salary Administration Plan includes additional pay of either
$2,400 or $4,800 annually (depending on the amount of work and paid pro rata per pay period) for those employees who are fluent in Spanish or Hmong and who utilize their language skills in performing their work.
FRINGE BENEFITS: This position receives a full fringe benefit package. It currently includes:
• Employer-paid health and dental insurance for employee, employee + spouse, employee + children, or full family with no premium contribution by the employee unless a spouse has other health insurance available to them;
• Two options for individual Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) to help employees with deductibles and out of pocket costs. One HRA option (base HRA) has no contribution by the employee and the other, optional HRA option (buy-up HRA) requires a monthly contribution by the employee.
• Employer-paid life and long-term disability insurance and other voluntary (employee-paid) income protection benefits for employees and their dependents;
• A retirement plan contribution (subject to annual board approval, dependent on budget);
• Generous sick leave accrual;
• At least three weeks of annual leave (longer tenured employees receive additional annual leave);
• At least four days of personal holidays per year (longer tenured employees receive additional personal holidays);
• Four weeks of paid parental leave after one year of employment; and
• 40 hours of “Service Leave” every five years of employment.
RELOCATION EXPENSES AVAILABLE: Up to $1,200 of expenses related to relocating may be available for reimbursement.
SUPERVISION: This position reports to Deedee Peterson, Executive Director. PROBATIONARY PERIOD: The position is subject to a six-month probationary period.
OUTSIDE PRACTICE OF LAW: Legal Services Corporation regulations place strict limits on the outside practice of law by Legal Action of Wisconsin attorneys: Legal Action attorneys cannot maintain an ongoing private practice separate from their work at Legal Action. The regulations do allow newly-employed attorneys to close-out their previous practice and do allow attorneys to participate in pro bono and charitable activities, but those must be approved in writing by the Managing Attorney and the Executive Director.
REQUIRED:
1. Commitment to Legal Action’s Mission, Vision, and Core Values.
2. Minimum of 15 years of legal experience, including at least 10 years of planning and implementing complex state and federal litigation:
a. Considerable experience before a state’s highest court including appellate advocacy and argument before a state Supreme Court.
b. Considerable experience as lead counsel in complex federal litigation including federal trial work and appellate advocacy.
c. Demonstrated ability to analyze, assess, and choose among advocacy forums to maximize the firm’s resources.
3. Ability to generate and communicate original legal theories, in academic and professional forums, in response to shifting trends in legal practice and policies affecting the poor.
4. Superior oral and written advocacy skills.
5. Exceptional legal acumen.
6. Commitment to maintaining the highest moral and ethical standards in the practice of law.
7. Demonstrated experience in developing trust relationships with communities across cultures and respect for and inclusion of people across cultures, ethnicities, ages, gender identities and gender expressions, sexual orientation, religion, abilities, and socio-economic circumstances.
8. Proven ability to work effectively, collaboratively, and collegially with others.
9. Barred in Wisconsin or eligible for timely admission to practice in Wisconsin.
DESIRED:
1. Management or administrative experience including supervision of staff attorneys in a legal aid setting.
2. Experience in maximizing limited resources through collaboration, mutual support, and the thoughtful assessment of strategic choices by individual attorneys and by the whole law firm.
3. Proficiency in Spanish or Hmong.
Applicants must submit the following application materials via Legal Action of Wisconsin’s online applicant portal by accessing the following link: https://secure2.entertimeonline.com/ta/7988.careers?ApplyToJob=553836672
• Cover letter that details the candidate’s interest in the position, qualifications, and experience
• Resume, including licenses, publications, and a listing of notable litigation
• Two legal writing samples
• Names and contact information for three professional references
• Curriculum Vitae, if applicable
• Letters of recommendation (other than professional references), if desired
HIRING PROCESS & TIMELINE: A team of Legal Action staff members will serve on an interview panel and will make recommendations to Deedee Peterson, Executive Director, the hiring manager. While the position is open until filled, we hope to conduct first round interviews of an initial candidate pool by mid-September and therefore encourage applications as soon as possible and before August 31, 2023.