Family Law Staff Attorney

BROOKLYN LEGAL SERVICES STAFF ATTORNEY

FAMILY LAW/DOMESTIC VIOLENCE UNIT

Brooklyn Legal Services seeks an immediate, full-time, staff attorney for its Family Law/Domestic Violence Unit.

Brooklyn Legal Services, part of Legal Services NYC’s Brooklyn Programs, provides high quality, innovative representation to address the pressing legal needs of Brooklyn’s diverse low-income population. BLS focuses on the problems that have the greatest impact on our clients — preserving affordable and decent housing, maintaining income support, redressing abusive lending and consumer practices, promoting family stability and mitigating the effects of domestic violence, and advocating for other vulnerable and marginalized populations including low-income immigrants, older adults, veterans, and people with disabilities.

As a community-centered, social justice organization, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and equitable workplace where staff and clients feel welcome. Through our various affinity groups and committees, we actively work to foster collegial relationships among staff and allow staff to explore, grow in our understanding of and challenge barriers to opportunity within our organization and through our legal work. All employees are expected to learn about and seek to understand, identify and overcome barriers to justice, from individual preconceptions to structural obstacles, and work to realize our organizational goals and mission.

BLS’ Family Law/Domestic Violence Unit is an interdisciplinary team of attorneys and a paralegal whose mission is to provide holistic and culturally competent services to enable victims of intimate partner violence to live free of abuse and violence. Our attorneys provide direct legal representation to domestic violence survivors in a full range of family law cases, including divorce, custody/visitation, orders of protection and child support. The Unit is also funded to provide training to the NYPD to better serve victims of domestic violence in NYC. Finally, we conduct outreach and work in partnership with community groups to ensure that we are best serving the community. This is a great opportunity to do substantive matrimonial and family law in underserved communities in Brooklyn. This position is funded to provide assistance to victims of crime, including providing information about Crime Victims' Assistance and aiding clients in applying for benefits and compensation through the Office of Victims Services.

Responsibilities include:

• Conducting intakes, interviewing clients, providing advice, brief services and assessments for legal representation for new clients.
• Proving safety planning and legal referrals to clients.
• Advising and representing survivors of domestic violence in family law and matrimonial cases in Kings County Family, Supreme and Integrated Domestic Violence courts.
• Representing Brooklyn Legal Services at community events, stakeholders meetings, and off-site legal clinics.
• Conducting community outreach and education with our community-based partners.
• Provide training to both legal and other community members, such as Know Your Rights training.
• Complying with grant requirements, including providing information about Crime Victims' Assistance and aiding clients in applying for benefits and compensation through the Office of Victims Services
• Develop and maintain relationships with individuals, organizations, and government agencies within the domestic violence and legal community in New York City
• Working with social work team to assist clients in accessing non-legal support services and referrals

Requirements:

1. J.D. and admission to the New York State Bar required;
2. 5-7 years of matrimonial and family law practice in New York City required;
3. Excellent analytical, writing, communication, oral advocacy, trial, and organization skills;
4. Fluency or strong working ability in Spanish, Bengali or other language(s) commonly spoken by our client communities strongly preferred;
5. Experience working directly with survivors of domestic violence strongly preferred;
6. Demonstrated passion for public interest law, social justice and commitment to working with low-income communities and communities of color to advance equality.

How to Apply

Please apply here: https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/legalservicesnyc/jobs/4591565006

Applicants should submit a cover letter, resume, and two writing samples.

Only candidates selected for interviews will be contacted. No telephone calls, please.

Salary and benefits are determined by the LSNYC Collective Bargaining Agreement. Legal Services NYC is an equal opportunity employer. People of color, women, people with disabilities, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, and people over the age of 40 are strongly encouraged to apply.

Additional information about the practice may be found on our website, www.legalservicsnyc.org.

In addition to the compensation, the candidate hired for this position will be be eligible to participate in the benefits which are offered to employees of Legal Service NYC including medical, and dental, insurance. You will be eligible for 23 days of paid time off (Annual Leave/vacation days) for the first year. Effective immediately after hire, you have the option to open a 403(b) retirement plan and make contributions through payroll deduction. After the completion of one year of service you will have contributions of up to 7% of your annual salary made on your behalf by Legal Service NYC.

Fluency or strong working ability in Spanish, Bengali or other language(s) commonly spoken by our client communities strongly preferred.