Legal Innovation Fellow (Hybrid)

Description:

About the Community Economic Defense Project (CEDP) & CED Law
Our Mission:
We partner with low-income and working people to build economic and racial equity. We do this by confronting economic abuse and investing in community wealth. We use an ever-evolving set of legal, economic and advocacy tools to challenge and dismantle unjust systems, building quickly towards a world where all people have what they need to live and thrive.

Our Organization
The Community Economic Defense Project (CEDP) is a Colorado-based nonprofit. Launched in 2020 as the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project, our organization was formed to keep our neighbors housed during the pandemic. Working with clients, we built a deeply integrative approach to eviction, foreclosure, and homelessness prevention that centers the legal and financial needs of housing-insecure families and uses a variety of tools to keep them housed.

Our team now serves more than 1,000 people per month, bringing together housing lawyers, economists, data analysts, policy-experts, organizers, and technologists to serve our clients. We have served more than 68,000 low-income Coloradans across 54 counties, distributing more than $280 million in emergency assistance. We have also contributed to the passage of major legislation to prevent eviction, stop economic abuse, and make credit and life-saving medication cheaper. CEDP's model has been cited as a best practice by the White House and HUD in 2022-2023, think tanks like the Urban Institute, and in the media.

Building on our work to stop evictions, CEDP has further expanded its integrated services model to include disaster response, predatory towing, debt collection, benefit access & navigation, long-term rental assistance, and homelessness response. Similar to CEDP's work on rental housing, these efforts offer a continuum of care that includes navigation and advisory services, targeted payments, legal support, and the ability to participate in advocacy.

More about the Legal Innovation Fellow Role:
Our practice is seeking a Legal Innovation Fellow to work within CEDP's Legal Innovation Lab, developing digital tools and technology-driven approaches to expand access to justice for low-income Coloradans facing housing instability, consumer debt, and other economic justice challenges. This fellowship sits at the intersection of law, technology, and community — combining hands-on legal practice with tool design and development to build resources that help people understand and enforce their rights at scale.

We believe that legal tools — built in close partnership with the people who will use them — can transform access to justice in ways that direct services alone cannot. Yet too many tenants, debtors, and low-income consumers navigate high-stakes legal situations without any legal support or even basic information about their rights. We are seeking a fellow who is excited to help us close that gap through creative, technology-informed legal practice.

The fellow will work closely with the Legal Innovation Lab Director and CED Law supervising attorneys, who will provide mentorship, training, and supervision throughout the fellowship. Critically, the fellow will also carry a direct legal practice through CED Law — providing real legal services to real clients — so that the tools they build are grounded in the lived realities of the people they are designed to serve. Together, we will collaborate to develop and submit applications to one or several fellowships, including Equal Justice Works, Justice Catalyst, Skadden, and any law school-specific public interest fellowships. If selected, the fellowship position would begin at CED Law in early Fall 2027.

We welcome applicants who are excited to shape and co-design a project with us. There is no need to have a fully developed proposal before reaching out. Big picture, this project could focus on:

• Designing and building digital self-help tools — such as guided interview platforms, automated document assembly, or AI-assisted screening tools — to help low-income Coloradans navigate housing, consumer protection, or economic justice legal issues
• Providing direct legal services through CED Law to clients in areas connected to the fellow's tool-building work, such as representing tenants on appeal who previously used a pro se eviction defense tool, or supporting consumers navigating debt collection
• Conducting community-based participatory research and user testing with clients and community partners to co-design tools that reflect actual community needs and workflows
• Analyzing data on legal outcomes, service delivery gaps, and tool usage to identify where digital interventions can have the greatest impact and to strengthen the evidence base for the work
• Building partnerships with community organizations, legal aid providers, or courts to implement tools and expand their reach into underserved communities and legal deserts
• Researching emerging legal technologies — including AI-assisted tools — and developing frameworks for responsible, equitable deployment in legal services contexts
• Developing accessible legal information resources, including plain-language guides, know-your-rights materials, or multilingual content, that extend the reach of CEDP's tools and services

In this role you will:

• Communicate with clients in a timely, respectful, empathetic, and trauma-informed manner
• Carry a direct legal practice through CED Law in an issue area connected to your fellowship project, ensuring your tool-building work is grounded in real legal practice
• Collaborate with the Legal Innovation Lab Director, CED Law supervising attorneys, and CEDP's technologists and data analysts to scope, design, and develop digital tools
• Conduct user research and community engagement to center the voices of clients and community partners in tool design and iteration
• Manage fellowship project goals, timelines, and deliverables in close coordination with supervisors and in accordance with fellowship requirements
• Contribute to data collection and analysis to evaluate tool effectiveness, identify service gaps, and support evidence-based decision-making
• Build and maintain partnerships with community organizations, legal aid providers, courts, or other stakeholders to support tool implementation and adoption
• Develop knowledge of Colorado housing, consumer protection, and economic justice law and apply it across direct services, tool development, and systems-level problem solving
• Sharpen project management, relationship-building, and legal technology skills in a fast-paced, collaborative environment
• Contribute to a practice culture that is equity-centered, community-responsive, and committed to expanding access to justice for low-income Coloradans

Position Requirements:

• Work collaboratively with CEDP (the host organization) to develop and submit fellowship application(s)
• JD earned in 2026 and currently entering a clerkship position or JD expected to be earned in 2027
• Demonstrated passion for housing justice, economic justice, public interest law, and/or access to justice
• Strong desire to center client and community needs in legal advocacy and tool design
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills and ability to engage with diverse stakeholders
• Strong organizational and project management abilities
• Ability to work in a collaborative, fast-paced, and community-centered environment
• A supportive, client-focused, and solutions-oriented attitude
• Creativity, initiative, and willingness to think outside the box in designing sustainable legal interventions
• Interest in legal technology, access to justice innovation, community lawyering, and partnership-building
• Technical skills (coding, UX/product design, data analysis) are a strong plus but are not required for this role
• Ability to travel within the Denver metro area and surrounding jurisdictions for community events, meetings, and trainings
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office, Google Suite, and case management systems preferred
• Other language skills are not required but are a strong plus and may be eligible for an additional language salary differential

Additional Details:

• Candidates must reside in Colorado, ideally within the greater Denver Metro area. The position includes competitive pay, flexible time off, benefits package (including medical, dental, vision), and 401(k).
• A competitive salary of $65,000 per year pre-admission to the Colorado bar and $75,000 post-admission. CEDP will top up any Fellowship grant awarded to these amounts.
• All employees receive a technology stipend of $720 per year
• Employees who utilize two languages or more at work are eligible for a $2,000 salary differential per year added to the salary grade listed above. Language assessment will be conducted by the organization as a requirement to receive the differential
• Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis but must be received by August 15th, 2026
• The estimated time to complete the recruitment process will be by August 25th, 2026
• As in-person work is required, all employees at CEDP & CED Law are expected to maintain current vaccination status in keeping with CDC recommendations.
• CEDP is an equal opportunity employer, committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Employment decisions are mad

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