Description:
A Free Civil Legal Assistance to Low-Income Individuals and Families in Philadelphia seeks to immediately hire a full-time attorney to work as part of its Consumer Housing Unit, with a focus on tangled title cases. The attorney selected for this exciting and demanding position will help low-income individuals throughout Philadelphia preserve their homes, stabilizing families and neighborhoods in the process. In many cases, the attorneys will be saving homes that have been passed down through multiple generations or are the subject of a title dispute. This attorney will represent clients facing a variety of tangled title legal issues arising out of, but not limited to, mortgage foreclosure and tax foreclosure issues. The work will also include community outreach and education.Responsibilities include:
- Probate and estate administration;
- Register of Wills pleading and practice;
- Orphans' Court litigation;
- Filing quiet title actions;
- Defending against ejectment actions;
- Drafting, executing, and recording deeds and other documents necessary to enable homeowners to obtain record ownership of their homes and supervising paralegals preparing such documents;
- Participating actively in in working groups and task forces to reduce and prevent tangled titles and to achieve housing equity;
- Pursuing litigation and other strategies designed to reduce obstacles to individual homeownership.
Qualifications:
- Law degree and admission to a PA Bar, or a willingness to take the PA bar exam. Candidates with at least 3 years of client representation experience are preferred, but less experienced attorneys will be considered;
- Creativity, tenacity, empathy, patience, and a passion for justice for low-income individuals;
- Experience in probate and real property law preferred, but not required;
- Supervisory experience preferred, but not required;
- Fluency in a second language, particularly Spanish, preferred;
- Ability to manage a significant caseload of individual clients;
- Excellent legal analysis skills;
- Excellent work ethic, organization, and communication skills;
- Excellent legal research and writing skills;
- Excellent litigation skills and oral advocacy skills;
- Experience and interest in policy work and others forms of systemic advocacy;
- Possess sound professional and legal judgment;
- Experience and ability to work with low-income and vulnerable diverse individuals;
- Illustrate a high-level commitment to racial justice advocacy;
- The ability to work cooperatively as part of a team.
