Senior Staff Attorney

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania (“ACLU-PA”) seeks an experienced, full-time  attorney to develop and lead litigation and related advocacy. As an affiliate of the ACLU, the ACLU of Pennsylvania focuses its work on issues that directly impact people who live in, work in, or travel to/from Pennsylvania. We also work with the national ACLU on litigation and advocacy. 

Applicants should have meaningful experience in federal civil litigation with a demonstrated commitment to public interest work. We are accepting applicants to work either in the Philadelphia or Pittsburgh office. Please note that the ACLU-PA is currently operating under a hybrid work model, in which staff spend a minimum of two days per week working in their local office, while working from home when not in the office.

The selected candidate will help advance the ACLU-PA’s civil rights and civil liberties agenda in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania across the entire range of ACLU-PA’s priority areas. The focus of this role is to devise strategies for litigation and non-litigation advocacy, develop impact litigation, and lead case teams. This position reports to a supervising attorney and works closely with members of the Legal Department, cooperating attorneys, and other ACLU-PA departments to lead litigation and promote other advocacy objectives for the organization.  

The ACLU-PA’s Legal Department currently comprises six full-time attorneys as well as a paralegal and several legal fellows. Legal Department staff work on a wide range of civil rights and civil liberties cases, at both trial and appellate levels, in federal and state courts. They also support the legislative, advocacy, and communications work of the ACLU-PA.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Vision Statement

The ACLU-PA affirmatively values the humanity and contributions of those we work with, inside and outside of the organization, and will take action to build and sustain an equitable, anti-racist culture that centers the voices and experiences of marginalized and directly impacted people and communities, and an organizational environment where all people feel valued, trusted, and respected. We are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and having a workforce that reflects the populations that we serve; we actively recruit people of color, women, people with disabilities, formerly incarcerated people, and LGBQ&T, and gender non-conforming people.

The Approach

Our work is guided by the principles of freedom, equality, and justice enumerated in the Constitution. However, we understand that systemic racism and other forms of oppression have prevented the equitable application of these principles to all, and we strive to ensure that our approach accounts for this reality. We also acknowledge that demands of the work as well as the challenging subject matter it often involves take a toll. While we know that the path of this work is long and hard, we also value the importance of personal wellbeing. To that end, we endeavor to cultivate a culture that is supportive and sustainable and promotes taking care of oneself.

Duties and Responsibilities

• The vast majority of an ACLU-PA attorney’s work entails the investigation, development, initiation, and prosecution of litigation involving a mix of high-impact and emergent cases, which requires the following duties and responsibilities: 
  • evaluating and investigating potential claims; 
  • conducting legal research and analysis; 
  • identifying potential plaintiffs and developing working relationships with them;
  • working on cases with lawyers in the private bar (we call them “cooperating attorneys”);
  • drafting pleadings, including complaints, motions, and briefs; 
  • handling fact and expert discovery; 
  • trial work, including TRO and preliminary injunction proceedings;
  • conducting settlement negotiations; 
  • development of institutional-reform remedies and post-judgment monitoring; 
  • appellate brief writing and oral argument; and
  • other duties as may be required to meet ACLU-PA needs. 

• Other important aspects of an ACLU-PA attorney’s job involve:
  • research and support for our legislative program; 
  • advocacy work to advance civil rights through non-litigation means, such as writing public comments, engaging in public speaking, speaking with news media, and providing know-your-rights presentations and other public-education efforts;
  • developing and maintaining positive relationships with community members, coalition groups, experts, government officials, and academics to advance our work; 
  • intra-organizational work, including strategic planning, the practice of inclusive norms, participation in internal meetings, and collaboration with other ACLU affiliates and the national ACLU; and
  • supervising law student interns and legal fellows.

Qualifications

Required Education/Experience

• A J.D. from an ABA accredited law school; 
• Membership in the Pennsylvania Bar. If you are currently a member of another state bar, you must either be eligible to be admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar or sit for the next available Pennsylvania Bar examination and pass within twelve months;
• Litigation experience: Five or more years of legal experience, including experience in federal court. Eight years of legal experience is required to be considered for a senior staff attorney position. Clerkships count toward the experience requirement.

While no one person will have all of the skills and competencies enumerated below, the successful candidate should have many of the following: 

Highly important skills/competencies:

• Excellent legal research, analysis, and writing abilities; 
• Experience with complex federal civil rights litigation;
• Experience engaging in the investigation, development, and conduct of complex litigation, including drafting pleadings, managing discovery, motion practice, and handling evidentiary hearings; 
• Critical thinking skills, including: being able to quickly grasp the subtleties of complex legal issues and identify patterns; the ability to come up with insightful, pragmatic, equitable, and sustainable ways to tackle common challenges and produce positive change; and a successful track record of taking a concept from idea to implementation;
• Knowledge of and familiarity with racial equity and inclusion principles, including:  being able to recognize ways that race and other identities intersect in the work, especially with communities we serve; being comfortable talking about identities such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, ability, or gender in plain, specific terms; and understanding the historical context for racial inequity and its present-day implications; 
• Ability to manage a variety of work, to prioritize among competing demands, to stay organized and keep things on track, to take initiative to move cases forward, and to know when and how to ask for help;
• Proven ability to work well on a team, to adapt quickly to changing circumstances, to pay attention to detail, to acknowledge mistakes, to be receptive to constructive feedback, and to be accountable and reliable;
• Ability to frequently and independently travel to various locations across Pennsylvania; and
• Flexibility to accommodate work outside of regular business hours when warranted.

Preferred skills/competencies

• Legal experience in one or more of the following areas: race, gender, disability, or LGBTQIA+ discrimination; privacy, surveillance and technology; voting rights; immigrants’ rights; police misconduct; criminal law reform; or First Amendment expression and/or religious liberty;
• Substantive knowledge of constitutional law; 
• Direct personal or professional experience with communities impacted by systemic bias or economic exclusion;
• Experience working directly or in coalition with grassroots and community-based organizations; and
• Experience with public speaking.

Compensation & Benefits

We are committed to creating and maintaining a diverse workforce through equity initiatives, which includes equitable pay practices. Competitive compensation is commensurate with experience. The salary is $87,000-$112,000 annually, depending on experience and within the parameters of the ACLU-PA compensation scale. Excellent benefits include generous vacation and sick leave; individual/family employer-provided health and dental insurance; life insurance and long-term disability; defined contribution plan with employer match; and 11 paid holidays. Relocation assistance may be available for out-of-state candidates. This position is full-time, salaried, and exempt from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

Application Procedure 

Applications will be accepted until March 7, 2025. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible.  Applications must include (1) a resume, (2) a cover letter, and (3) a writing sample to our career page https://aclupahr.applytojob.com/apply. No calls, please. All applications are treated confidentially.  

The ACLU-PA is an equal opportunity employer. We value a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. The ACLU-PA encourages applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status, or record of arrest or conviction. 

This job description provides a general but not comprehensive list of the essential responsibilities and qualifications required. It does not represent a contract of employment. ACLU-PA reserves the right to change the description and/or posting at any time without advance notice.

About the ACLU of Pennsylvania

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization that serves as an enduring guardian of justice, fairness, and freedom, working to protect civil liberties and advance equity for all.

ACLU-PA defends and promotes the fundamental principles and values protected by the constitutions of the United States and of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as well as by national, state and local civil rights laws. For more than 100 years, the ACLU has sought, in particular, to protect and expand the freedoms of expression, belief and association; voting rights; the separation of church and state; the right to privacy, including reproductive freedom; due process of law, including the rights of the accused and of immigrants; limitations on the power of police; and the right to equal protection for all marginalized individuals and groups. In advancing these rights, ACLU-PA strives always to acknowledge and remedy the pervasive and persistent harms of systemic racism.

Integrating litigation, legislative and policy advocacy, organizing, and communications, ACLU-PA’s staff and volunteers work both independently and in coalition with those most affected by the issues we address to ensure that threats to liberty and the civil rights of all persons in Pennsylvania are met with stark resistance as we progress toward a more genuine multiracial, multicultural democracy.

ACLU-PA’s hiring process will comply with Philadelphia’s Fair Criminal Records Screening Standards (“Ban the Box”) ordinance.