PUBLIC DEFENDER CLIENT ADVOCATE – LOS ANGELES COUNTY HEAL PROGRAM

Job Summary

Partners for Justice (PFJ) is seeking Client Advocates for its Professional Fellowship Program in Los Angeles County. This placement will specifically be within the Holistic Early Assessment & Linkage (HEAL) program at the Los Angeles County Public Defender. HEAL Client Advocates work alongside a Public Defender and a Psychiatric Social Worker to support clients in custody on felony charges who have mental health conditions, substance use disorders, or intellectual or developmental disabilities. Starting at arraignment, Advocates help connect clients to treatment and write treatment plans that support requests for mental health diversion and earlier release from custody.

Who We Are

PFJ was founded to transform public defense at scale, diminishing the effect of race and wealth on legal outcomes. This means empowering public defenders to assist clients with the underlying drivers of arrest and achieve better legal and non legal outcomes, ensuring people can walk away from the criminal legal system with their rights, lives, and future intact. As a national nonprofit organization, PFJ partners with public defenders in 20 states nationwide through our Professional Fellowship program, advisory services, training, and communications.

About the Partners for Justice Professional Fellowship for Client Advocate

PFJ’s Professional Fellowship offers a unique opportunity to create an impact while gaining handson experience within the criminal legal system. As a Client Advocate, you’ll engage in a meaningful fellowship experience designed to make a concrete difference in the lives of the people you work with. With training, mentorship, and ongoing support, Advocates are integrated as full time employees within public defender offices across the country.

During your fellowship placement, you’ll become part of a carefully selected national cohort of fellows with aligned passions and goals. Throughout your time, you’ll cultivate negotiation, problem solving, and storytelling skills that will equip you for opportunities beyond your placement. The PFJ Professional Fellowship also offers access to professional development support, funding, mentorship, and assistance in professional and academic applications.

Acknowledging the challenges of working inside the criminal legal system, PFJ supports Advocates with mental health and wellness programming and an Advocate Hardship Fund to address financial emergencies.

What You'll Do as a HEAL Client Advocate

As a Client Advocate, you'll serve as a fulltime employee within a public defender office for up to two years. Advocates play a pivotal role by providing client led direct service to people facing criminal charges. Each day presents new challenges and opportunities, from direct engagement with clients to collaboration with service providers to participating in legal proceedings.

In the HEAL program, Client Advocate responsibilities include:

• Keep track of each client assessment completed by the Psychiatric Social Worker in your courthouse; upload it and record it in the HEAL data tracker.
• Check every day which trial attorney has been assigned to a case, and send attorneys the standard HEAL email offering a mental health diversion report, help connecting the client to services, and a treatment memo.
• Accept referrals from attorneys and connect clients to treatment and services based on the Social Worker’s recommendations. These include DMH Court Linkage, CENS, JCOD programs, Patient Reentry Case Management, Collaborative Courts, and substance use treatment.
• Conduct client interviews and build relationships with clients to understand their priorities, identify potential enmeshed penalties of arrest, and assess barriers to the client accessing desired services.
• Partner closely with the trial attorney on each referred client from referral through case resolution. This includes sharing updates on treatment linkage and placement availability, aligning treatment memos with diversion strategy, and coordinating any in court support.
• Refer clients, based on their priorities, to community programs, non criminal legal services, and social services such as housing, employment, and public benefits.
• Write a treatment memo for each mental health diversion report, and for cases where the report comes from a court appointed expert or Capstone.
• Coordinate with the Rapid Diversion Program (and its provider, Project 180), the Office of Diversion and Reentry, and in house Public Defender social workers.
• Meet with clients in custody and, when needed, attend court to support their case.
• Develop and maintain a resource guide of available social and legal services in the local community and in the county more broadly.
• Keep records in the Public Defender’s case management system, and report monthly metrics by assigned deadlines.
• Maintain detailed knowledge of diversion program processes and requirements, as well as services accessible through the Public Defender’s office.
• Actively participate in the Partners for Justice Professional Fellowship program.

Who We’re Looking For

We're looking for people who want to make a change in our communities and in the American criminal legal system. People who share lived experiences with our clients are encouraged to apply for current openings, given the insight such experience brings into the systems in which we operate.

As a potential Client Advocate, you will need:

• A demonstrated interest in public service or social justice.
• Interest or experience in mental health, substance use treatment or disability services, and working with people in crisis.
• Strong relationship management skills or customer support experience.
• Exceptional organization skills with strong attention to detail and ability to consistently meet deadlines.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to draft professional written narratives suitable for submission in court proceedings.
• Comfort in working autonomously and the ability to independently structure your own work.
• Past work or volunteer experience within a public defender office, a legal office serving low income people, or in social service delivery is preferred.
• Experience bringing trauma informed approaches to direct service work or enthusiasm for
• learning how to engage in trauma informed advocacy.
• Reliable transportation.
• Professional level Spanish language skills are highly valued.

You should be an early career professional or be willing to accept an entry level position. Client Advocates will receive training on California mental health diversion, Los Angeles County’s treatment and diversion programs, trauma informed practice, and working with clients in custody, among other aspects of the role.

Please note that Advocates cannot offer legal advice or clinical support, and Advocates do not diagnose clients or conduct clinical assessments. This is the responsibility of the Public Defender’s Psychiatric Social Workers, and Advocates work from the Social Worker’s recommendations. We are unable to place candidates who are already licensed social workers or hold law degrees.

Compensation and Benefits

Annual compensation ranges from $52,400 to $55,980, depending on tenure in placement and Spanish language abilities. In addition to the fellowship’s supplemental benefits, employment benefits include fully paid medical, dental, and vision coverage and a generous PTO policy.

As part of the PFJ Professional Fellowship, you will also have access to the benefits described above, such as career support, mental health programming, and ongoing training and mentorship. This position is likely to be included in a bargaining unit represented by the National Organization of Legal Services Workers (NOLSW). PFJ recently recognized the union; however, the union has not yet been certified and the parties have not yet negotiated a collective bargaining agreement. Accordingly, certain aspects of the compensation package described in this job description may be modified through the collective bargaining process and will be subject to any agreement ultimately reached between PFJ and NOLSW.

Equal Employment Opportunity Policy & Fair Chance Hiring

PFJ provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

Furthermore, qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the fair chance ordinances of the jurisdictions we work within, including but not limited to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance and the California Fair Chance Act.

Professional-level Spanish language skills are highly valued.