Who We Are

Program Description

Healthy Together is a medical-legal partnership for DC’s children. Children’s Law Center partners with Children’s National Hospital, Mary’s Center and Unity Health Care to provide legal services to children and families who have health-harming legal needs.  Through the partnership, Children’s Law Center advocates for landlords to adhere to the law and fix housing conditions that harm a child’s health, ensures school systems provide appropriate, quality educational programs to students with disabilities, and holds government agencies and health insurance providers accountable for providing medically necessary services to children.  By focusing on critical social determinants of health and working side-by-side with the community, Healthy Together reduces the health inequities and racial disparities that many of our client families face.

Job Summary

The Healthy Together Staff Attorney is responsible for providing high quality legal representation and legal assistance to parents and caregivers with limited financial resources in a compassionate, culturally appropriate, and trauma-informed manner.  Healthy Together Staff Attorneys also perform community and medical partner outreach activities.

The primary responsibility of the Healthy Together Staff Attorney is to represent parents and caregivers in education/special education, health care access and housing matters, along with representation in other legal service matters as needed.  The Staff Attorney is also responsible for conducting intakes with potential clients and providing advice and referral information. The Staff Attorney will work out of CLC as well as within a medical clinic setting.

Role Responsibilities

Case Handling

• Provide high-quality direct legal representation in extended representation cases for parents/caregivers to address health-harming legal needs of their children.
• Carry a caseload of approximately 25 extended representation cases in the areas of education/special education, housing conditions, health care access, public benefits and other poverty law areas as needed.
• Ensure timely and accurate input of case information into case management system and adhere to applicable policies and protocols, including case planning, case-handling timelines, and case notes/timekeeping policies in order to achieve positive outcomes for client families.

Handle Healthy Together Intakes

• Serve as a point of contact for community members and receive referrals from the Healthy Together Program Director, attorneys, health care and other community partners.
• Conduct preliminary and subsequent intake interviews with potential clients to determine legal issue, and whether and how Children’s Law Center can assist the potential client and family.
• Enter intake information into our case management database and conduct intakes within Children’s Law Center guidelines.
• Independently assess whether potential clients need full representation, brief service, advice, referral, or information.
• Conduct legal research and/or identify other community resources for intakes.

Referrals, Advice, and Brief Service to Parents and Caregivers

• Provide brief advice, counsel, and referral information to parents and caregivers in need of legal assistance to address health-harming legal needs of their children.   
• Provide brief service to parents and caregivers in need of legal assistance in the areas of education/special education, health care access, housing conditions, public benefits and other poverty law areas.  Examples of brief service include but are not limited to:  helping parents and caregivers with initial child Supplemental Security Income applications and requests for reconsideration; ghost-writing letters for parents requesting evaluations or other services from school; writing letters to landlords and/or property managers detailing housing conditions concerns, request remediation, and providing notice; providing troubleshooting assistance through phone calls or emails to agency personnel to try to resolve a legal problem.
• Recommend cases for extended representation.
• Revise and/or prepare outreach and education materials such as tip-sheets, referral sheets, know your rights flyers, etc. to improve the efficacy and timeliness of legal service delivery to parents and caregivers.

Medical Partner Relationship-Building, Site Management and Community Outreach

• Nurture and build relationships with Children’s National, Mary’s Center, and/or Unity to expand impact and increase effectiveness of Healthy Together.
• Provide consultation, training, and technical assistance to healthcare partners in legal needs screening and substantive legal areas.   
• Provide trainings and outreach geared to caregivers and patient families in client advocacy support and specific legal areas related to children’s health outcomes.
• Develop, provide input on, and implement medical-legal partnership processes with a focus on any clinic location where Staff Attorney is located.

Engage in Evaluation and Data Management Activities

• Ensure timely and accurate input of case and intake information into case management system and adhere to applicable policies and protocols, including but not limited to case planning, intake and case-handling timelines, and case notes/timekeeping policies.
• Maintain accurate, timely data entry for non-case-related activities including but not limited to medical partner trainings and consultations, community outreach efforts, systemic advocacy and/or coalition activities.

Participate in and Contribute to Learning, Systemic Advocacy and Coalition-Building Opportunities

• Attend and participate in all Healthy Together staff meetings, CLC attorney and staff meetings, and other internal committees and working groups as requested by the Program Director.  
• Provide support to Children’s Law Center Policy Team in areas of expertise to address the systemic needs of the Children’s Law Center client community.
• Participate in community partner coalitions or external committees as needed and requested by the Program Director.

Qualifications

• A demonstrated commitment to social, economic, and racial justice. 
• Strong legal analysis and research, writing and oral advocacy skills.
• Excellent organizational and time management skills.
• Exceptional interpersonal, communication and relationship-building skills.
• Demonstrated capacity to work independently and collaboratively.
• Proactively identifies issues and works to find creative solutions in the face of obstacles.
• Strong independent judgement and decision-making.
• Bilingual English/Spanish communication skills strongly preferred.
• Current knowledge of the law and legal system, especially in areas that affect low-income and marginalized communities.
• Experience with advocating in one of more of the following areas preferred;
  • housing conditions/habitability;
  • special education (IDEIA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act); and/or
  • healthcare access (Medicaid denials and terminations or EPSDT claims).

Required Skills and Experience

• JD degree.
• DC Bar membership or eligibility for DC Bar membership based the transfer of a Uniform Bar Examination score attained in another jurisdiction or membership in good standing in the Bar of another jurisdiction for at least 3 years immediately prior to the application for admission.
• Experience providing direct legal services to low-income clients or other community lawyering.  Experience that will be considered includes job experience, law school clinics, clerkships, and internships.
• A commitment to fostering inclusivity and equity, as well as humility when working with clients and colleagues at the intersection of multiple identities, including race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, immigration status, religion, physical and mental disability, and/or limited English proficiency.
• Ability and willingness to learn how to represent and advocate for parts/caregivers with health-harming legal needs impacting their children.

Organizational Competencies