Description:

Department: City Bar Justice Center
Reports To: Executive Director

FLSA Status: Exempt

The City Bar Justice Center seeks an experienced and multi-skilled attorney committed to expanding access to justice to join us as Director of the Justice Center's Elder Law Project. This position reports principally to the Justice Center's Executive Director, and to the Director of Legal Services on an ad hoc basis.

The Elder Law Project (ELP) offers hybrid-based legal services, clinics, and informational presentations free of charge to limited-income New York City-area seniors, empowering them to protect their legal rights and make informed legal decisions with a goal of aging with greater security and dignity. Critical to ELP's services model is a network of trained volunteer attorneys who prepare clients' essential life and estate planning documents, including basic wills as well as healthcare proxies, powers of attorney, living wills, and disposition of remains designations. ELP staff and volunteers also offer advice, counseling, and referrals on government benefits, landlord-tenant disputes, fraud/scam prevention, and other topics, and connect ELP clients with the Justice Center's consumer bankruptcy, immigration, homeowner stabilization, or shelter advocacy services as needed. ELP also cultivates relationships with area senior centers to reach seniors where they are, whether homebound or online, and collaborates with these centers to host bilingual clinics and presentations covering topics like Medicare overview, life and estate planning, and scam prevention. ELP staff and volunteers also often visit ELP clients at home to prepare and sign sensitive legal documents in person.

The City Bar Justice Center provides high-quality, free civil legal services benefiting over 27,000 New Yorkers each year who lack the resources to hire private counsel. With a staff of about 50, the Justice Center also relies on expansive partnerships with law firms, corporate legal departments, the courts, the City Bar, and other stakeholders. In FY2025, nearly 3,000 pro bono attorneys donated services to support legal services clinics and client matter work drawn from the Justice Center's dozen civil legal services projects.

Principal Areas of Responsibility:

Provide overall strategic direction to ELP, assisting NYC-area seniors of limited means with the suite of life planning and other legal documents and broad legal information resources that facilitate aging with greater security and dignity.
Stay up to date on the most urgent issues affecting those aged 60+, and develop legal programming and advocacy strategies to assist in meeting these urgent needs, including via pro bono legal clinics, written resources, and other programming and services responsive to client needs.
Manage ELP's caseload, which ranges from brief legal advice to representation, by supervising case screening and intake, deciding which matters to represent or refer out, determining which matters to assign to pro bono volunteers and supervising these volunteers on matters that have been placed with them, and maintaining a direct services caseload as determined by project needs.
Mentor and supervise project staff including a project coordinator (paralegal), and train, supervise, and mentor pro bono volunteers and occasional interns.
Develop training materials for pro bono volunteers and external audiences, and deliver trainings internally and externally on a range of legal issues.
Develop, maintain, and cultivate pro bono relationships and community partnerships, and oversee new and ongoing opportunities for pro bono volunteers to work on ELP matters.
Draft, edit, and revise legal communications, documents, and self-help guides for the general public.
Supervise, contribute to, and ensure the quality of ELP's data tracking and reporting; collaborate with Justice Center management on grant writing, reporting, and administration; and provide strategic and thought leadership in collaboration with Justice Center management in discharging the vision and meeting the requirements of a new grant supporting ELP and help to position the project for long-term success and sustainability as the needs of NYC seniors grow and also shift.
Exercise strategic vision to manage ELP's policy advocacy and outreach, including close collaboration with City Bar, other legal services and community organizations, and other stakeholders on urgent issues affecting the senior population.
Represent ELP and the City Bar Justice Center to a wide variety of audiences, offering expertise, guidance, and training to both internal and external constituencies.
Work collaboratively with the Justice Center's in-house social work team to provide holistic, trauma-informed services that meet and support clients' material, mental health, and emotional needs.
Serve as a collaborative member of the Justice Center's larger legal services team, including by contributing to organization-wide strategic initiatives and supporting policy innovation and compliance practices.

Experience, Skills & Requirements:

Must be an attorney in good standing admitted to practice in New York with a minimum of five years' relevant practice experience assisting seniors with life and estate planning and other Elder Law needs.
We encourage applications from candidates who have other experience advocating for seniors or working in the estate planning field; and/or those experienced in delivering high-volume income-based client/clinical services.
Detail-oriented self-starter with superb legal judgment and a capacity to multi-task who is creative, thoughtful, and tech savvy; has experience building a program and/or leading teams; can support our institutional commitments to policy advocacy and community education; and can demonstrate a commitment to building and nurturing pro bono partnerships with the private bar, serving those who struggle with a lack of resources, and advancing values of diversity and equity.
Excellent writing, oral communication, organizational, and people and counseling skills; ability to work both independently and with others, and to effectively and collegially collaborate with and/or mentor, train and supervise other attorneys, legal assistants and interns, and pro bono volunteers.
Proficient with Microsoft Office 365 and ability to effectively use case management and other platforms.
Spanish language skills are highly preferred.
Ability to travel locally as needed for clinics and client needs, and ability to occasionally travel regionally or nationally for policy advocacy and conferences.

The City Bar Justice Center has a hybrid work environment, and candidates for this position will be expected to work out of our main offices located in the City Bar building in midtown Manhattan roughly 50% of the time and remotely for the balance of time.

Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States. We are not able to sponsor visas for this position.

Salary range for this position is $100,000 - $125,000 (annualized) depending on depth and diversity of skills and years of professional and practice experience. This position is available to start on or after December 8, 2025. The New York City Bar Association provides a competitive benefits package, including generous paid time off, choice of medical plans, dental, vision, 401K, life insurance, commuter benefits, Employee Assistance Program, short-term/long-term disability insurance, complimentary New York City Bar Association membership, many free City Bar CLEs and employee discounts, among others.

To apply, please submit a resume and a tailored cover letter detailing your interest in and qualifications for the position. Candidates will be considered on a rolling basis until the position is filled, and finalists for the role will additionally be asked to provide three business references.

The City Bar Justice Center is a proud equal opportunity employer, and we particularly encourage applications from candidates belonging to communities historically under-represented in the legal profession. We actively seek a diverse applicant pool and encourage candidates of all backgrounds and unique experiences to apply. We welcome diversity of all kinds. It is our policy to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, creed, age, national origin, alienage or citizenship status, gender (including gender identity), sexual orientation, disability, arrest or conviction record, pregnancy, credit history, salary history, caregiver status, marital status, partnership status, or status as a victim of domestic violence, stalking and sex offenses, religion, sex, genetic information, military status, unemployment status or any other characteristic as protected by law. With regard to the Americans with Disabilities Act and other related laws, the organization will endeavor to make reasonable accommodations for persons due to their religious beliefs, disability, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical condition or because the individual was a victim of domestic violence, sexual violence or stalking.