Description:

About the Job:
The ACLU seeks applicants for the full-time position of Staff Attorney, Senior Staff Attorney, or Senior Counsel in the Voting Rights Project of the ACLU's National office in New York, NY or Washington, DC. This is a hybrid role that has in-office requirements of two (2) days per week or eight (8) days per month. This is a 3-year term-limited position.

Established in 1965, the Voting Rights Project has worked to protect the gains in political participation won by voters of color since passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA). Since its inception, the Voting Rights Project has litigated hundreds of voting rights cases and has aggressively and successfully challenged efforts to suppress voting or to dilute minority voting strength.  

The ACLU Voting Rights Project was established in 1965 – the same year that the historic Voting Rights Act (VRA) was enacted – and has litigated more than 350 cases since that time. Its mission is to build and defend an accessible, inclusive, and equitable democracy free from racial discrimination. We have three principles: (1) all Americans should be eligible to vote; (2) voting should be free and easy; and (3) all people should count equally. The Project employs an integrated advocacy approach, combining legislative advocacy, public education, and litigation, and has active cases in over a dozen states.

The Voting Rights Project's recent docket has included more than 30 lawsuits to protect voters during the 2020 election; a pair of recent cases in the Supreme Court challenging the last administration's discriminatory census policies: Department of Commerce v. New York (successfully challenging an attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census), and Trump v. New York (challenging the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the population count used to apportion the House of Representatives); challenges to discriminatory congressional and state legislative maps, including two recent cases in the Supreme Court: Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP (2023), challenging South Carolina's congressional map as an unconstitutional and starkly racially gerrymandered map; and Allen v. Milligan (2023), successfully challenging Alabama's congressional map as unlawfully diluting the Black voting power under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act; challenges to voter purges and documentary proof of citizenship laws; and challenges to other new legislation restricting voting rights in states like Georgia and Texas. The ACLU Voting Rights Project is currently litigating voter suppression and minority vote dilution cases in over a dozen states, from coast to coast, in every region of the country. 

This position is part of a collective bargaining unit. It is represented by ACLU Staff United (ASU).

What You'll Do:
Reporting to the Deputy Director of the Voting Rights Project the Staff Attorney, Senior Staff Attorney or Senior Counsel will be responsible for developing and litigating voting rights cases in state and federal cases.

Your Day to Day:

Participate in litigation of constitutional and statutory cases on a wide range of voting rights issues including researching and drafting pleadings, briefs and legal memoranda, engaging in discovery and motion practice, and conducting evidentiary hearings and oral arguments in the trial and appellate courts 
Participate in analyzing legislation for potential litigation 
Develop new cases, non-litigation advocacy projects and identify and work with potential plaintiffs and witnesses 
Work with and advise ACLU state affiliates 
Provide technical assistance and expert legal advice to cooperating attorneys, and others who seek assistance on voting rights litigation, legislation, and advocacy
Serve as a resource for ACLU legislative, policy and campaign work and advancing ACLU policy goals through public education, organizing and participating in coalitions
Engage in public speaking and articulating ACLU views to a variety of audiences
Collaborate with staff across the organization, including in other projects within the ACLU's Legal Department, Communications Department, Affiliate and Nationwide Support Initiative, National Political Advocacy Department, Strategy Office, and state affiliates to advance voting rights
Travel as required for litigation, conferences, and client development
Engage in special projects and other duties as assigned
Center principles of equity, inclusion, and belonging in all work, embedding the values in program development, policy application, and organizational practices and processes

Future Aclu'ers Will

Be committed to advancing the mission of the ACLU
Center and embed the principles of equity, inclusion and belonging in their work by demonstrating commitment to diversity with an approach that respects and values multiple perspectives
Be committed to work collaboratively and respectfully toward resolving obstacles and conflicts

What You'll Bring

A J.D. degree and bar membership permitting practice in New York, or a willingness to promptly seek such membership
A minimum of four years of litigation experience, including clerkships, is preferred
Commitment to voting rights, racial justice, and civil liberties; familiarity with these issue areas is preferred
Strong analytical skills and a high level of proficiency in legal research and writing
Analytic skills and legal research and writing skills
Demonstrated ability to write and to speak clearly and persuasively
Self-motivation and diligence, with a proven ability to meet deadlines and manage competing priorities in a dynamic environment
Proven ability to work across a wide range of teams to foster a collaborative environment