BROOKLYN DEFENDER SERVICES FAMILY DEFENSE PRACTICE, SEEKS LEGAL ASSISTANT

Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) provides innovative, multi-disciplinary, and client-centered criminal, family, and immigration defense, as well as civil legal services, social work support and advocacy, for tens of thousands of clients in Brooklyn every year. BDS represents clients who have diverse, complex and multi-faceted needs in a high volume and very fast-paced setting.

The Family Defense Practice represents indigent parents accused of abusing and neglecting their children in Kings County Family Court. Our cases involve families impacted by homelessness, domestic violence, substance abuse, and mental illness. FDP’s mission is to keep families together and reduce the amount of time children spend in foster care. Our clients are primarily low income people of color. Interdisciplinary teams of attorneys, social workers and our administrative staff defend clients’ due process rights in family court and outside of court, they help families get the benefits and services they need to stay together.

Under the direct supervision of the Administrative Support Manager, the Legal Assistant provides a wide range of litigation and administrative support to attorneys as part of the administrative team

Responsibilities:

•      Draft subpoenas and follow up with hospitals, schools, and the police department for records

•      Participate in attorney training and hiring committees, including scheduling, preparation of materials, and ensuring that attorneys receive CLE credit

•      Assist in intake in Family Court when FDP picks up new cases

•      Participate in general duties of the administrative team as needed, including conducting conflict checks for new clients; drafting client letters; contacting service providers for letters to support clients and other administrative tasks, such as covering reception as needed.

•      Other responsibilities as assigned

Qualifications:

•      Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience required.

•      Strong organizational and administrative skills

•      Critical thinking and problem solving skills (able to analyze the way something works,

identify ways it could be improved, explain those ideas to others)

•      Excellent oral and written communication skills

•      Ability to take responsibility for multiple varied tasks and organize own time to ensure all tasks are completed accurately and on time

•      Ability to work both independently and as part of a team

•      Flexibility to take on a variety of duties as needed to support the work of the team