Description:
Kentucky Equal Justice Center (KEJC) is seeking its next Staff Attorney II to lead our Housing Justice team. This attorney will be considered a team leader with the opportunity to serve on the management team. This role requires a minimum of 5+ years of experience. Key functions include but are not limited to mid-level legal, policy, and administrative duties. This position will have program oversight and be evaluated on the overall performance of the Housing Justice Team, which includes supervision of outreach coordinators and collaboration with support staff as needed. This is a full-time salaried position (40 hours/week).The Staff Attorney II will be an integral part of KEJC's work to provide eviction defense to people in Fayette County facing eviction. While KEJC recognizes the value of and seeks a geographically diverse staff, the Staff Attorney II will be expected to appear in Fayette County District Court five days a week.
About the Position:
The purpose of this team at KEJC is to ensure every Kentuckian experiences safe, stable housing as a human right, so the Staff Attorney Il will play a critical role in establishing a vision for that goal and executing SMART strategies that achieve progress.
This attorney will be responsible for supervising a team of outreach staff leading KEJC's response to critical poverty work across the state, including but not limited to housing inequality, legal and technical barriers to fair housing practices as a result of legislation, policy dissemination, eviction, and basic rights issues as they emerge. They will be a key stakeholder responsible for working across organizations, coalitions, and geographies to ensure that all Kentuckians facing eviction have access to rental assistance, legal assistance, support services, education, and representation. This position will have direct support from the Director of Legal Programs and the Executive Director.
Please note, due to the nature of our work as legal advocates the focus, scope of duties, and goals of this position may require adjustment at any time to meet client needs and serve our mission, so it requires a high degree of adaptability to work on a variety of cases and projects.
Duties and Priorities
- Delivering direct services to Kentuckians facing eviction
- Includes representation in Fayette County Eviction Court, cases generated through the Eviction Help Desk, and housing case opportunities that emerge across the state for KEJC involvement
- Growing productive and collegial attorney relationships both internally and externally
- Serve in a supervisory capacity for a multi-function team that includes an Outreach Coordinator and multiple Housing Outreach workers
- Supporting Louisville Tenants Union under the Louisville Bar Association grant
- Observing and executing best practices with our partners, including legal aid organizations and other community service providers who are also producing deliverables towards a similar mission
- Building systems (internal to KEJC and with our organizational partners) that allow Kentuckians to access legal assistance and rental assistance more easily and reliably
- Due to current guidelines from various funding streams, this position will not be permitted to lobby at this time
Additional Functions and Competencies
- Develop detailed knowledge of policy options and best practices for preventing evictions of Kentuckians
- Monitor proposed changes in local, state, and federal law, regulations, and practices related to eviction and rental assistance programs
- Develop state, regional, and national peer and expert networks for advice, counsel, and development and evaluation of proposals and initiatives
- Prepare a variety of written materials including briefing papers on promising options, best practices, and current issues; and compelling public-facing communications on housing, evictions, and rental assistance
- Help plan and conduct meetings of the statewide legal services Consumer and Housing Task Force
- Assist Kentuckians in accessing rental assistance
- Defend Kentuckians that legal aid organizations cannot represent who are facing eviction in court
- Identify and pursue impact litigation opportunities on key issues and handle a small caseload of individual matters
Communication and Development
- Work collaboratively with our Communications, Development, Operations, and Executive teams to build a sustainable legal program focused on fund seeking, grants, storytelling, budgeting, and reporting
- Work with KEJC staff to identify additional funding opportunities to ensure the sustainability of KEJC's housing justice work as a key priority of our mission
- Participate in meetings, conference calls, and activities of local, state, and national public interest partners, including but not limited to LFUCG, Kentucky Housing Corporation, National Low Income Housing Coalition, ThriveKY, and coalitions of organizers and directly impacted Kentuckians with a focus on ensuring every Kentuckian who needs rental assistance gets it and every Kentuckian facing eviction experiences zero days of homelessness
- Participate in annual forecasting, budget preparation and management, performance evaluations, impact reporting to funders, and regular program reports to the board
Qualifications:
- Active member of the Kentucky Bar
- A minimum of five years' experience as an attorney with preference for candidates with 7+ years of experience, including housing litigation and experience working across organizations to deliver housing stability services to Kentuckians
- Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, including demonstrated public policy communications
- Strong preference for jury trial experience
- Comfort speaking in front of groups
- Excellent interpersonal skills and conflict management
- Comfort working in a multicultural setting, with sensitivity to language and cultural issues
- Excellent organizational and problem-solving and skills
- Facility with social media and web-based communications tools
- Ability to be a self-starter in developing and carrying out activities, to take initiative and work independently, as well as in a team
- Knowledge of low-income issues
- Commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion
- Proficiency with data tools and work tracking platforms
- Proficiency in a second language preferred but not required