Homeowner Services Legal Fellow

About the Community Economic Defense Project (CEDP) & CED Law 

Our Mission                                                                                                                             

We partner with low-income and working people to build economic and racial equity. We do this by confronting economic abuse and investing in community wealth. We use an ever-evolving set of legal, economic and advocacy tools to challenge and dismantle unjust systems, building quickly towards a world where all people have what they need to live and thrive. 

Our Organization

The Community Economic Defense Project (CEDP) is a Colorado-based nonprofit. Launched in 2020 as the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project, our organization was formed to keep our neighbors housed during the pandemic. Working with clients, we built a deeply integrative approach to eviction, foreclosure, and homelessness prevention that centers the legal and financial needs of housing-insecure families and uses a variety of tools to keep them housed. 

Our team now serves more than 1,000 people per month, bringing together housing lawyers, economists, data analysts, policy-experts, organizers, and technologists to serve our clients. We have served more than 50,000 low-income Coloradans across 45 counties, distributing over $200 million in emergency assistance. We have also contributed to the passage of major legislation to prevent eviction, stop economic abuse, and make credit and life-saving medication cheaper.  CEDP’s model has been cited as a best practice by White House, HUD, the Urban Institute, and in the media.

Building on our work to stop evictions, CEDP has further expanded its integrated services model to include disaster response, predatory towing, debt collection, benefit access & navigation, long-term rental assistance, and homelessness response. Similar to CEDP’s work on rental housing, these efforts offer a continuum of care that includes navigation and advisory services, targeted payments, legal support, and the ability to participate in advocacy. 

More about the Role:                                                                                                                                                                               

Our practice is seeking a Homeowner Services Legal Fellow to help us stabilize low-income homeowners and/or mobile homeowners in Colorado along this outlined continuum of care. At CEDP we strive to disrupt the cycle of poverty by confronting economic abuse and investing in community wealth. This fight requires agility, adaptability, and the drive to create systemic change.

Therefore, we invite Fellowship applicants to partner with our team of housing attorneys, designers, legal technologists and advocates to craft an innovative project that will support and empower the most vulnerable Coloradans. CEDP will work with the prospective fellow to submit applications to one or several fellowships, including Equal Justice Works, Justice Catalyst, and any law school-specific public interest fellowships. If selected as the Housing Fellow, the position will begin at CED Law in early Fall 2026. CEDP operates with a growth mindset and pushes to challenge the status quo. We welcome ideas for this fellowship application, but there is no need to have a fully formed project proposal before reaching out to us! Big picture, this project could focus on:

• Assisting mobile homeowners to acquire title to their home 
• Helping mobile homeowners navigate conditions issues and assert their rights against mobile home park management and/or ownership 
• Protect low-income homeowners against predatory HOAs 
• Supporting highly vulnerable homeowner populations, including seniors, families with young children, victims of domestic violence, or disabled individuals 
• Provide desperately needed assistance to homeowners who reside in one of Colorado’s twenty-three legal deserts 
• Advancing innovative strategies and methods to empower low-income homeowners and/or mobile homeowners 
• Identifying and implementing legal interventions and solutions to preserve and protect heirs’ property

In this role you will:

• Communicate with clients in a timely, respectful, and empathetic manner 
•  Manage client and key stakeholder expectations 
• Represent clients in legal proceedings that threaten housing stability and/or in affirmative litigation in court 
• Set and complete case goals identified by, or in partnership with, supervisors and in accordance with fellowship project requirements 
• Coordinate across CEDP to ensure timely tracking and reporting of case completions 
• Have or develop excellent knowledge of Colorado housing law 
• Complete required documentation for both case tracking and personal management 
• Cultivate skills needed for social networking, gained through forging relationships with a variety of constituencies 
• Sharpen time management skills and manage multiple initiatives and projects 
• Develop verbal/written communication/ presentation skills including the ability to lead and participate in panels and discussions 
• Create and execute a comprehensive project that supports and empowers low-income  homeowners and/or mobile homeowners facing housing instability in Colorado

Position Requirements:

• Work with us (the host organization) to develop and submit a fellowship application(s)
• JD earned in 2025 and currently entering a clerkship position or JD expected to be earned in 2026 
• Demonstrated passion for social and racial justice 
• Strong desire to center client and community needs 
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills 
• Strong organizational abilities 
• Ability to work in a fast-paced work environment 
• A supportive, client-focused attitude 
• Creativity and willingness to think outside of the box 
• The desire to work in a collaborative environment centered on social and racial justice and equity 
• Ability to travel around the Denver metro area for in-person community events, hearings, and team meetings 
• Knowledge of MS Office suite, client relationship database such as Clio, Google Suite desired 
• Other language skills not required but are a strong plus and eligible for additional stipend

Additional Details:

• Candidates must reside in Colorado, ideally within the greater Denver Metro area. The position includes competitive pay, flexible time off, benefits package (including medical, dental, vision), and 401k. 
• A competitive salary of $65,000-$75,000 per year pre-admission to the Colorado bar and $75,000 post-admission plus a $1,000 per year hybrid employee salary adjustment. CEDP will top up any Fellowship grant awarded to these amounts. 
• Employees who utilize two languages or more at work are eligible for a $2,000 salary differential per year added to the salary grade listed above.  Language assessment will be conducted by the organization as a requirement to receive the differential. 
• All employees receive a technology stipend of $720 per year 
• Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis but must be received by June 13, 2025 
• The estimated time to complete the recruitment process will be by June 27, 2025
• As in-person work is sometimes required, all employees at CEDP & CED Law are expected to maintain current vaccination status in keeping with CDC recommendations. 
• CEDP is an equal opportunity employer, with a demonstrated commitment to challenging systems of inequity. 

Salary

• $65,000 - $75,000