Description:
Description:Legal Aid of Western Missouri is looking for a Managing Attorney to lead our Central Office in Kansas City, which serves Jackson, Clay, and Platte Counties. This is a full-time position reporting to the Deputy Director of Programs. Our Central Office is the largest of our seven offices, and the person who leads it shapes how legal help reaches people across the Kansas City metropolitan area. The Managing Attorney directly supervises the office's six supervising attorneys and, through them, a team of roughly 80 legal and support staff. This is first and foremost a people-leadership role, and we're looking for someone who genuinely enjoys developing staff and building a team that does its best work. Because leading the office is the heart of this job, the Managing Attorney carries a smaller caseload of their own, no more than 10 - 20% of their time.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead, supervise, and develop the Central Office's supervising attorneys, and hold overall responsibility for their teams and the quality of the legal work they produce.
- Manage day-to-day operations of a large office: helping our supervising attorneys set team priorities aligned with organizational priorities, managing workloads, solving problems, and building a healthy, collaborative culture across teams.
- Oversee performance management for the office, including evaluations, professional development, and addressing issues as they arise.
- Oversee and review all legal work produced in the Central Office, using regular case review to ensure quality and consistency across practice areas.
- Ensure the Central Office complies with LSC regulations, case acceptance policies, program priorities, and other policies set by the Executive Director and Board of Trustees.
- In partnership with the Director of Client Access, oversee intake of new cases, including managing intake staff, keeping intake practices efficient, and tracking trends in case types and community needs.
- Help to design and lead outreach and community legal education in the office's service area so residents know how to reach Legal Aid.
- Build and maintain relationships with courts, community organizations, and local partners that connect people to our services.
- Support the hiring, onboarding, and ongoing development of attorneys and staff in the office.
- Serve on the Legal Aid leadership team.
Requirements:
Required Qualifications:
- A JD and licensed to practice law in Missouri.
- At least eight years of experience practicing law.
- Significant experience supervising and managing staff, including managing other supervisors or leading a team large enough to demonstrate the ability to manage at this scale.
- Strong organizational, interpersonal, and communication skills.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience in poverty law, civil rights law, or other public interest practice.
- Significant litigation, administrative, and management experience.
- Experience leading a large or multi-layered team.
- Experience with the Legal Services Corporation regulations and guidance.