Program Description

This position is a dual-program role focused on providing education-related advocacy on behalf of children and families receiving services through CLC’s Medical-Legal Partnership Healthy Together and its Guardian ad Litem (GAL) Education Program.

The Guardian ad Litem (GAL) program represents 400-425 clients a year from birth to age 21 who are alleged to have been exposed to abuse and neglect. The program incorporates a multi-disciplinary team of attorneys, social workers, investigators and education attorneys to ensure our GAL attorneys are equipped to provide zealous, client-centered, holistic and culturally humble advocacy on behalf of our clients’ best interests.

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

Within the Healthy Together program, the Staff Attorney is responsible for providing high quality legal representation and legal assistance to low-income parents and caregivers where legal solutions are required to address children’s health problems.  Healthy Together Staff Attorneys also perform community and medical partner outreach activities.  The primary responsibility of the Staff Attorney is to represent parents and caregivers in education/special education, health care access and housing conditions 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 also play an integral role within CLC’s Guardian ad Litem (GAL) Education Program, providing critical support to guide GALs in identifying needed educational supports for children who are the subject of abuse and neglect cases in DC’s Family Court.  The primary responsibility within this GAL Education Program role is to provide technical assistance and legal consultations to GALs in the education arena, providing collaborative support on education-centric issues arising in their cases, including special education, school stability, discipline, and other legal issues specific to youth in foster care.   In limited circumstances, the Staff Attorney may also provide direct representation to adult educational decision-makers on behalf of children involved in abuse and neglect cases in DC’s Family Court.

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 12-18 extended representation cases primarily in the areas of education/special education but may also include health care access, housing conditions, 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 notes, case-handling timelines, and case notes/timekeeping policies in order to achieve positive outcomes for client families.

Brief Advice and Collaboration Cases

• Maintain recurring monthly meetings with approximately 5-8 assigned GAL attorneys to provide education-related resources, information, and supports for GAL staff cases.
• Provide in-depth advocacy and consultation as part of collaboration cases, working in tandem with a GAL to solve complex case-related issues for children in foster care. Where appropriate, a GAL Education Attorney may stand-in for the GAL during education meetings.
• Document outcomes and next steps from monthly GAL meetings in Legal Server, the case management system.
• Work with GALs and supervisor to identify promising cases for referral to the education team, assisting in facilitating project referrals.
• Ensure that each case in the assigned pod is reviewed at least quarterly during pod check-in meetings and that the status and next steps are documented in Legal Server.
• Assist GAL during transition planning to ensure clients’ education issues are stable at the time of case closure.

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.
• Receive potential client contact information from medical partner/clinic or hospital staff and be responsible for conducting the intake or assigning the intake to the Healthy Together Brief Service Staff Attorney.
• 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.

Engage in Evaluation and Data Management Activities

• Ensure timely and accurate input of case and intake information into the 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/GAL staff meetings, CLC staff meetings, and other internal committees and working groups as requested by the Program Director.
• Provide support to the 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.

Resource Development and Trainings

• Develop resources to train and assist GALs in their ability to issue-spot and address a range of educational topics for youth in care.
• Deliver trainings for GALs, other Children’s Law Center staff, and external stakeholders on salient education topics.

Volunteer Support  

• Mentor volunteer attorneys handling special education cases.  
• Develop and conduct volunteer attorney trainings and materials as assigned.  
• Provide guidance and support to other CLC mentors.  

Program Activities

• Attend all Education Project meetings.
• Actively participate in case rounds, training, contract deliverables, or other program activities as requested, including Thursday Trainings, fall trainings, and trainings for external stakeholders.
• Contribute to innovation in casework and trainings, both internally and externally.
• Support the education-related work of the Policy Team where appropriate.
• Support the collection and reporting of case information to improve practices.
• Serve as a mentor to pro bono attorneys in education cases, as appropriate based on experience.

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 strongly preferred. 

Required Skills and Experience

• JD and DC Bar membership or immediate eligibility to waive in.
• Minimum of 1- year previous special education/education advocacy experience in DC or another jurisdiction.
• Experience providing direct legal services to low-income clients or other community lawyering experience. Experience that will be considered includes job experience, law school clinics, clerkships, and internships.
• Ability and willingness to learn how to represent and advocate for parents/caregivers with health-harming legal needs impacting their children.
• 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.
• Passion for and desire to work with low-income families.

• Cultural Humility – an openness to self-reflection and to understanding and respecting other cultural experiences and points of view and viewing individuals as experts in their own culture and experiences.
• Giving and Receiving Feedback – the ability to be self-reflective, give and receive appreciative, coaching, constructive, interpersonal and evaluative feedback.
• Conflict Management – a process which is designed to guide individuals and groups from the moment of conflict to the implementation of an identified solution.  This process incorporates skills and techniques, including recognizing points of conflict, identifying the facts and feelings involved to get to the root of the issue, investigating equitable solutions, implementing and evaluating solutions, and supporting and guiding others throughout the process.

Salary and Benefits

The salary for this position ranges from $67,980 - $76,512 annually based on relevant experience.  Children’s Law Center offers a generous benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, and short- and long-term disability insurance; employer-provided retirement contributions; flexible spending plans; and vacation, sick, holiday, family and medical leave. Children’s Law Center is a 501(c)(3) organization.  Employees with federal student loan debt can apply for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. For more information, go to https://myfedloan.org/borrowers/special-programs/pslf.  Additionally, the DC Bar Foundation’s Loan Repayment Assistance Program provides renewable one-year, interest-free, forgivable loans up to $12,000 per year for qualified Children’s Law Center attorneys. For more information, see https://dcbarfoundation.org/lrap/.

Application Instructions

To apply, please submit a resume and cover letter as one PDF file via CLC's careers page (https://childrenslawcenter.org/get-involved/careers/).  

Children’s Law Center is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment. If you believe that you need accommodation to search for, or apply for, one of our positions please send an email to Jobs@ChildrensLawCenter.org. In your email, please include the accommodation you are requesting and the job title you are applying for. It may take up to three business days to receive a response to your request.

Hybrid Working Conditions

Children’s Law Center is currently operating on a hybrid work schedule.  Employees are required to work in-person from Children’s Law Center’s office a minimum of two days per week.  At least one of these days must be either Tuesday or Wednesday.  The hybrid work schedule is subject to change based on organizational needs and/or best practices for health and safety.  Hybrid work expectations may vary depending upon role responsibilities.

Work Authorization

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S.  Children’s Law Center is unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time.

Background Checks

Candidates who receive a conditional offer of employment will be subject to a background check.

EEO

Children’s Law Center is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunities for all applicants and existing employees. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to ancestry, age, color, disability, genetic information, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, military or veteran status, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, and any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law, ordinance, or regulation. In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire.  We invite you to visit our website to learn more about our company and our career opportunities (https://childrenslawcenter.org/get-involved/careers/).

DEI Statement

Children’s Law Center is dedicated to building a world that is inclusive in approach and has equal opportunities and equitable outcomes for all. Our organization is committed to developing and supporting a robustly diverse, equitable, inclusive and anti-racist community, where all members can create and feel a sense of belonging. Through our collective deliberate efforts, we work toward racial and social justice for children and families in DC.