Business Attorney - Communities Rise
Agency Name: Communities Rise
Position / Job Title : Business Attorney
Location: Washington State
Category : Attorney
Job Description:
Team:
Legal Reports to: Executive Director
Salary: $80,000-$100,000 annual, depending on level of experience
Benefits: Paid medical, vision, and dental insurance; 13 paid holidays, including 3 floating holidays; paid office closures the week of the 4th of July and between December 24th and January 1st; 12 vacation days and 12 Sick and Safe Time days in the first year of employment; access to a 401K retirement plan (no employer match) and free personalized retirement planning advisors; monthly stipends for remote work and personal phone expenses; paid professional development expenses, CLE trainings, and Washington State bar licensing fees.
Start Date: Mid October-Early November 2022
Hours: Full time (40 hours/week), exempt position. The position will staff monthly virtual evening events (and possibly in-person, in the future) such as our small business legal clinics.
Location: Candidate must be licensed and located in Washington State and must be authorized to work in the US. Due to the pandemic, Communities Rise (CR) staff have been working from home. Once CR decides it is safe to reopen its office and work in person, this position may continue to work from home but will require some physical presence at the office to attend required meetings and attend community events.
Summary of Position:
We are seeking a business attorney with a minimum of 2+ years of experience counseling business organizations on transactional legal issues such as formation, contract review, IP, or employment. The position will primarily involve providing these legal services to small businesses, and occasionally providing such services to nonprofits in collaboration with the current attorney who focuses on nonprofits. Both attorneys aim to provide legal services through a relational approach that is focused on building community power in communities impacted by systemic oppression and advancing race equity. This position will also staff our monthly legal clinics, collaborate with community partners that serve small businesses and community organizations, and connect clients seeking legal assistance with volunteer attorneys. The individual in this position will assist us in both organizational and legal team strategic planning and in streamlining our legal services in a meaningful way that meets community needs. The ideal candidate is community-minded, committed to racial equity and self-reflection, and shares experiences similar to the communities we serve.
Position Responsibilities:
Legal Support for Small businesses (legal work, relationship-building, administrative tasks) ● Provide direct legal assistance to small businesses and occasionally nonprofits. ● Collaborate with the Legal Team on client intake and engage in issue-spotting. ● Review and approve legal applications for Communities Rise legal services. ● Coordinate legal services under government contracts via a relationship-centering framework. ● Engage in genuine relationship-building to meaningfully support community-based organizations. ● Build relationships with volunteer attorneys and work collaboratively to place legal matters. ● Data collection for grant and contract reporting. ● Staff monthly small business legal clinics, covid-19 clinic, and phone consultations.
Community Education & Legal Trainings (legal-related work, trainings, outreach):
● Create legal resources and facilitate community education trainings, CLEs & workshops. ● Present about CR legal services at community meetings and conferences. ● Work closely with team members to formulate and implement outreach strategies for small businesses.
In House Counsel for Communities Rise
● Provide legal counsel to CR staff on a variety of issues including contract review, ethics, IP, employment, and nonprofit compliance.
Program Development & Strategic Planning (organizational development)
● Participate actively in program development and strategic planning processes including our journey towards shared leadership. ● Work with the legal team to develop legal programs for small businesses. ● Assist with reimagining and running our attorney mentorship Nonprofit Advocates Program.
Miscellaneous:
● Assist with communications, fundraising, and administrative work. ● Other responsibilities as assigned. Minimum requirement ● At least 2 years experience in IP, contract, corporate, or employment law.
Preferred Qualifications
● Experience in counseling small businesses. ● Experience with: Google Workspace, Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Salesforce, Zoom and Mailchimp.
About Communities:
Rise Our mission is to support movements to build power in communities impacted by systemic oppression. We foster cross-sector collaboration, and provide capacity building and legal services for community organizations and low-income small business owners. Before we merged and became Communities Rise in 2019, we were two organizations Wayfind and the Nonprofit Assistance Center (NAC), with long histories of supporting community organizations. Wayfind provided legal services while NAC focused on capacity building. Fast forward nearly three years into a global pandemic, and we are still learning what it means to be a fully merged organization. The pandemic has presented opportunities for Communities Rise to get clear and creative with our strategic planning process to decide as an organization how we would like to participate in rebuilding the world we would like to leave for future generations.
About the Legal Team:
The Legal Team is diverse and is currently made up of the following roles: a Small Business Resources Manager (part time, .8 FTE) who works collaboratively with the small business attorney to develop legal resources for small businesses and coordinate small business outreach among other duties, an Attorney (full time) focused on nonprofits, a Learning Manager (full time) who develops CR’s trainings for small businesses, nonprofits and attorneys, a Volunteer Engagement Manager (full time) who plans CR’s monthly legal clinics and strengthens CR’s relationships with volunteer attorneys, and an Administrative Assistant (full time, works across teams). After two years of significant changes and challenges due to the pandemic, we are revisiting our goals and deciding what steps to take to move them forward. We feel the pandemic has called for a new way of being in the world and moving forward we seek someone who is willing and able to join us on this evolving journey. Communities Rise is invested in developing a collaborative and transparent shared leadership structure that allows for the wellness of its individuals in a way that is sustainable for all.
What we value:
● Openness, flexibility, and commitment to collaboration and shared leadership. ● A strong commitment to race equity and racial justice. ● Comfort working with a diversity of groups and interests. ● Inclusivity and relationship-focused leadership. ● Recurring and frequent feedback provided among all team members.
How To Apply:
To apply, email your resume and include 2-3 paragraphs in the body of your email telling us why you are interested in joining our team. Share about your experience in the community, why this work is important to you, and where you learned about the position to jobs@communities-rise.org with “Application for Attorney Position” in the subject line.
Timeline:
We will review applications on a rolling basis and the priority deadline is September 23, 2022. We will hold telephone screening interviews of selected candidates for about 20-30 minutes. There will be a second round of Zoom interviews with final candidates between September 26th and October 7th. We will be checking references of final candidates prior to the Zoom interview. We are hoping for a start date between mid October to early November 2022. Communities Rise is an Equal Opportunity Employer and welcomes and encourages people from communities of color, people with disabilities, indigenous, refugee, immigrant, and/or working class.