Description:

A National Legal Advocacy and Educational Organization (MA)—a national legal-advocacy, social-justice, and educational organization since 2005—seeks applications from highly talented and motivated attorneys wishing to join our dynamic and growing legal team as a senior staff attorney.

Status: Full time

Classification: Exempt

Location: MA's staff works remotely, with most of the team based on the East Coast. Periodic domestic travel for staff gatherings, court appearances, case development, fundraising events, and other professional reasons is required.

Reports to: Legal Director

The senior staff attorney will play a key role in our mission-driven growth across these areas of work by collaborating rigorously, under the leadership of our legal director, with internal and external colleagues and various allies and partners.

Roles and Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Provide technical expertise/assistance to partners
Participate in ongoing advocacy coalitions
Develop relationships with grassroots and organizational partners and related, shared advocacy
Develop and present Know Your Rights (KYR) guidance
Develop trainings for advocates
Federal and/or state/local policy advocacy, as required
Screen and follow up on intakes
In-depth, complex legal research and writing for both litigation and non-litigation advocacy
Oral advocacy and communications/media/public advocacy relating to both litigation and non-litigation work
Litigation work, including but not limited to: identifying and weighing potential legal claims/arguments/strategies; client contact, advisals, and communications; drafting pleadings, motions, and briefs; strategizing for and conducting written and oral discovery; strategizing for, exploring, and guiding settlement negotiations
Oversee interns and fellows

Qualifications:
Success as a senior staff attorney requires the following:

Sound professional judgment
Rigorous critical-thinking skills
Strong oral and written communication skills
Exceptional time-management and organizational skills
Demonstrated ability to work and collaborate effectively in a remote environment as part of a team, with clients, and with myriad partners and allies
Consistently demonstrating initiative and accountability for all areas of your work
Ability to receive and implement feedback effectively
Flexibility and adaptation in response to shifting priorities
At least 5 years of practice experience as an attorney
Subject-matter expertise and advocacy experience in one or more of the following areas:

immigration detention-and-deportation system
criminal legal system
prisoners' rights and carceral abolition
legal frameworks concerning putative national security
students' rights under the First Amendment and under Title VI of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964
low-wage workers' rights
litigation and advocacy under:

constitutional and statutory civil-rights frameworks, including: disability rights
the Federal Tort Claims Act
transparency frameworks (the Freedom of Information Act and state/local equivalents)

Demonstrated experience in:

movement and client-centered lawyering
intersectional racial and social justice work
participating in, maintaining, expanding, and building advocacy coalitions

Understanding and fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace and beyond

In addition, candidates should have a J.D. from an accredited university, be admitted in good standing to the bar of any state and/or the District of Columbia, be fluent in oral and written English, and be willing and able to travel as the demands of the position require.

Additional/Preferred Qualifications
The ideal candidate will have:

Experience litigating in federal and state courts, including in complex civil litigation
Experience with federal and state/local policy advocacy
Experience preparing administrative complaints directed to civil-rights bodies within federal and state/local agencies
Fluency in ASL (American Sign Language), ISL (International Sign Language), and/or one or more non-English languages (with a preference for Arabic, Urdu, Dari, Farsi, Pashto, Tajik, and/or Uzbek)
Demonstrated experience in: