Director of Legal Services - TeamChild
Agency Name: TeamChild
Position / Job Title : Director of Legal Services
Location: Seattle, WA - Remote
Category : Attorney
Job Description: TEAMCHILD
TeamChild is a nationally recognized nonprofit legal aid organization serving youth across Washington State, with office locations in Seattle, Tacoma, Yakima and Spokane. TeamChild’s mission is to uphold the rights of youth involved, or at risk of involvement, in the juvenile legal system to help them secure the education, healthcare, housing and other support they need to achieve positive outcomes in their lives. We have three mutually reinforcing program strategies: legal services, policy advocacy, and training and community education. Core to all of our work is our legal services program, which reaches youth 12-24 years old in four of Washington’s largest counties as well as youth incarcerated in our state’s juvenile prisons. Our clients are youth and young adults who are entangled in juvenile court and the child welfare system and need civil legal advocacy to prevent homelessness, access education and employment, and get their basic health and other needs met. In our work, we also aim to move systems away from exclusion, punishment, arrest, and incarceration towards more effective and community-based strategies that address root causes and provide culturally meaningful and developmentally appropriate support and opportunities for young people.
At TeamChild we believe that racial and other social identities should be respected and affirmed. In support of this belief, we are trying to build an equitable and inclusive organization and providing our team of staff, volunteers and Board members with the tools to address institutionalized racism and other forms of oppression. All members of our team are responsible for providing and supporting an equitable and inclusive work environment that will enrich our interactions with each other and our advocacy. This responsibility provides the foundation for empowering the children and families that we serve so their needs are justly represented and their desires amply fulfilled.
JOB OVERVIEW
TeamChild is seeking a Director of Legal Services who will be responsible for leading and maintaining TeamChild’s high quality and holistic direct legal services program consistent with the organization’s values, vision and mission. In this role, the Director of Legal Services will build on TeamChild’s twenty years of experience and collaboratively develop, lead and implement priorities and impact strategies and supervise our client-directed work across the state.
The Director of Legal Services supervises six Managing Attorneys and oversees the onboarding, training, and professional development of all attorney and non-attorney legal services staff. The Director of Legal Services does not carry a caseload but provides litigation and other case-related strategy development and support to program staff across the state. The Director of Legal Services oversees and manages attorney licensing, protocols and professional and ethical duties related to case handling and contract acquisition, deliverables, and reporting related to the legal services program activities.
The Director of Legal Services reports to the Executive Director, is a member of TeamChild’s Executive Team, and works with all staff in supporting strategic policy advocacy, community engagement, and communication efforts to ensure visibility and accountability across diverse communities and social justice movements. This position will require travel to TeamChild offices across the state. This position can be based anywhere in Washington State, with preferred location near to one of our program offices in King, Pierce, Yakima, or Spokane counties.
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Leadership
• Collaboratively develop, coordinate, and lead the strategic direction and implementation of TeamChild’s statewide direct legal services program in alignment with TeamChild’s Values, Vision and Mission.
• Expand tools and impact of TeamChild’s legal services program by exploring and developing anti-racist strategies, including community or movement lawyering. This involves collaboration with the Director of Policy and Advocacy, Community Engagement & Anti-Racism Director, staff and youth and communities most impacted by juvenile court involvement.
• Build and cultivate relationships and engage directly with both TeamChild staff and youth and communities most impacted by juvenile court involvement to ensure alignment with and accountability to impacted communities.
• Work collaboratively with Executive Team and Board, including assistance in budget development and stewardship of resources.
• Work with allies and partners within and outside the legal community to advance strategy and impact goals.
• Represent TeamChild in advocacy coordination and other collaborative spaces within the Alliance for Equal Justice, defense communities, and other system stakeholders in a way that aligns with TeamChild values and drives toward our impact goals.
2. Supervision
Supervise Managing Attorneys:
• Lead and coordinate onboarding of new Managing Attorneys.
• Conduct performance evaluations and provide support, ongoing mentoring and training, and professional development opportunities for direct reports.
• Approve and manage timesheets, vacation requests, and expenses for direct reports.
• Foster and develop skills for supportive and collaborative teamwork.
• Collaboratively create and ensure leadership and professional development opportunities are equitably distributed to staff.
• Communicate and advocate for staff needs, concerns, and suggestions to the Executive Team.
• Collaboratively develop and model strong relationships as well as timely and consistent lines of communication between the Executive Team, Managing Attorney Staff and Program Staff.
Support and ensure culturally relevant onboarding, training and professional development of all legal services staff:
• Collaborate with Executive Director and TeamChild attorneys to continue refining and improving onboarding, training and development opportunities for attorneys.
• Collaborate with Executive Director, Managing Attorneys and non-attorney advocates to establish onboarding and training structures for non-attorney advocates.
• Oversee and hold Managing Attorneys accountable to provide proper onboarding, support and development to Staff Attorneys and non-attorney advocates, using staff feedback. Collaborate with Managing Attorneys to coordinate onboarding and proactively connect staff with training, development and CLE opportunities based on staff needs and interests.
• Identify and develop external networks and resources for consultation and development.
• Support creation and maintenance of an accessible resource bank/legal library, including briefs, templates, relevant case law and other institutional knowledge.
• Collaborate with Community Engagement and Anti-Racism Director and Director of Policy and Advocacy to build staff capacity to engage in youth and community-driven advocacy, including community or movement lawyering.
3. Management
Ensure licensing compliance of all TeamChild attorneys
• Ensure compliance with Rules of Professional Conduct
• Manage license renewal process
Manage Fellowships, Internships/Externships, & Pro Bono Attorneys
• Centralize fellowship inquiries and work with local offices to develop fellowships in alignment with TeamChild Values, Vision and Mission.
• Supervise and oversee the planning of fellowship projects, including the development of big picture goals and checkpoints.
• Recruit and centralize information and access to attorneys interested in volunteering.
Oversee and manage contract acquisition, deliverables, and reporting related to the legal services program activities, with primary responsibility on JR Project and Fellowships
• Review data and edit reports for local office contracts prior to submission.
• In coordination with Executive Team, Managing Attorneys and impacted employees, seek funding, develop proposals, communicate with funders and develop funder relationships
Oversee and collaboratively develop program policies and practices for the legal services program work, including case handling protocols, document management, electronic case management and timekeeping tools, conflicts of interest, and volunteer and intern management.
QUALIFICATIONS
Required
• Member in good standing of the Washington State Bar Association or eligible for reciprocity or willing to seek admission to the Washington State Bar Association.
• Demonstrated commitment to and competency with building meaningful relationships with youth, young adults and communities impacted by the systems in which we are working.
• Demonstrated commitment to standing in relation and accountability to most impacted communities in each of the regions we serve.
• Demonstrated experience providing high-quality training, supervision and interpersonal mentorship. Demonstrated exceptional management skills
• Strong legal advocacy and analytical skills.
• Demonstrated excellence in administrative hearing and civil litigation, negotiation, clear and persuasive writing, and oral presentation.
• Solid analysis of systemic oppression, including institutional racism, and demonstrated commitment to undoing institutional racism and other forms of oppression.
• Demonstrated experience with anti-racist advocacy.
• Interest in holistic and non-legal advocacy, community or movement lawyering.
• Innovative problem solver and strategic thinker with a growth mindset.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively and collaboratively as part of a senior management team.
• Demonstrated alignment with TeamChild Values: Centering Youth, Anti-Racism, Wholeness, Accountability.
• Humility.
• Must be able to plan for and travel to TeamChild offices and throughout the state to meet agency needs.
Strongly preferred
• Experience providing legal aid or public defense representation to individual clients.
• Experience in relevant areas of law (school discipline/special education, Medicaid/EPSDT, delinquency, child welfare, or other areas of youth law, juvenile defense).
• Demonstrated experience providing high-quality training, supervision and interpersonal mentorship to attorneys and non-attorney legal advocates.
• Experience with holistic and non-legal advocacy, community or movement lawyering.
• Established relationships with and accountability to most impacted communities in the regions we serve.
TO APPLY
Please email a concise letter of interest and resume to jobs@teamchild.org. Please write "Director of Legal Services" and your last name in the subject line. No phone calls or email inquiries please. Position open until filled.
Before submitting your application, please check TeamChild’s website (www.teamchild.org/careers) to make sure that this position is still open.
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
TeamChild is committed to providing employees with a competitive salary and benefits package. The salary range for this positions is $90,000 to $105,000. The position comes with full benefits (including medical, dental, vision, EAP, generous paid time off, long and short-term disability, and options to set up FSA and 403b retirement accounts).
Link to Application: http://teamchild.org/careers/