Associate Staff Attorney *Remote - Oregon Based*

Compassion & Choices is seeking an Associate Staff Attorney to help advance our work to improve care, expand options and empower everyone to chart their end-of-life journey.

This position is primarily responsible for a significant amount of research and writing, litigation support, direct client contact, screening and other administrative tasks as needed.

This is a full-time, remotely-located paid position reporting to the Director of Litigation. Compensation offered will be commensurate with experience. We offer excellent benefits including employer-shared medical and dental insurance premiums, employer-paid short- and long-term disability, life and accidental death & dismemberment insurance, flexible spending account for medical and child care, commuter pre-tax benefit, eligibility to participate in 401K with generous 5% employer match and 100% vested at time of eligibility, 12 paid holidays, 17 PTO days first year, and personal days.

Primary responsibilities for this position include:

• Marshals facts, conducts research and analyzes applicable legal issues.
• Represents a client or Compassion & Choices at committee, commission, council, legislative, professional and community meetings.
• Provides oral and written legal advice and opinions.
• Drafts, reviews and amends correspondence, complaints, motions, answers, memoranda, agenda, reports, written opinions, and other documents.
• Identifies claims, interviews clients and witnesses, and directs factual investigations in order to formulate defense or to advance legal action.
• Participates in all phases of civil litigation including at the trial and appellate levels.
• Prepares a variety of studies, reports and related information for decision-making purposes.
• Maintains calendars and docketing information for litigation and other matters.
• Complies with all applicable attorney rules of professional conduct as well as all policies and procedures of Compassion & Choices.
• Works with awareness of budget to accomplish goals efficiently.
• Works effectively with support staff, regularly reviewing work in progress and carefully reviewing completed work.
• Actively participates in continuing professional education programs relevant to the attorney's practice.
• Maintains excellent working relationships with support staff, peers and supervisor; develops and maintains effective communication skills.
• Serves as a legal ambassador when interacting with other professional associations and legal advocacy groups.
• Timely and accurate completion of related reports (such as “P card” statement, performance reviews, time cards, etc.).
• Demonstrates commitment to and active support of C&C’s Diversity & Inclusion program.
• Support of all C&C efforts as requested; including, but not limited to, activities such as identifying prospects, briefing donors, alerting staff of fundraising opportunities, reaching out to donors, participating in phone-a-thons, etc.
• Knows, supports and administers the policies and procedures of C&C.
• Familiarity with and commitment to the Compassion & Choices mission.
• Other duties as assigned.

Preferred Qualifications (You will be a good fit):

Education and Experience:

• J.D. from an ABA accredited law school
• Current active status as a member of the Oregon State Bar or ability to obtain membership in Oregon State Bar via reciprocal admission or passing the next bar exam.
• 2-5 years of experience – preferably in health law and policy, patient rights, legislative counsel, civil litigation in human rights or civil liberties, criminal defense, state and federal constitutional law.
• Highly desired is experience with reproductive or LGBTQ rights litigation that will provide crossover knowledge and expertise.
• Familiarity with the pro bono practices and public interest contributions of large law firms desired.
• Ability to demonstrate exceptional analytic, research, writing and oral advocacy skills, including the capacity to work quickly and competently under pressure.
• Bi-lingual (Spanish) desired.

Skills:

• Language Skills: Ability to read, analyze and interpret common scientific and technical journals, financial reports, and legal documents. Ability to respond to common inquiries or complaints from clients, regulatory agencies, or members of the business community. Ability to write speeches and articles for publication that conform to prescribed style and format. Ability to effectively present information to top management, public groups, and/or boards of directors.
• Mathematical Skills: Ability to apply general mathematical concepts such as fractions, percentages, and ratios and proportions to practical business situations.
• Reasoning Ability: Ability to define problems, inductive and deductive reasoning…collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.
• Computer Skills: Working knowledge of related software including, but not limited to, Google Apps; Spreadsheet, Word Processing, and Adobe Acrobat). Must have the ability to adapt to new software tools as they become available.
• Certificates, Licenses, Registrations: Active status as a member of the Oregon State Bar.
• Travel: Must be able and willing to travel (overnight and possible weekends). 10-20% travel, but could be significantly more depending on case and project needs (40% +/-). Travel costs and mileage are employer paid.
• Able and willing to occasionally work beyond a normal eight-hour workday, including evening and weekend meetings and events.

Values: Must be energized by the idea of working at an organization with the following values:

• Compassionate in our conviction that dying patients should be free of unwanted treatment, suffering or outside interference.
• Respectful of the autonomy of individuals to decide what end-of-life options are best for them and their family.
• Courageous in our willingness to confront the toughest end-of-life health challenges, disrupt the broken status quo and protect an individual’s right to self-determination.
• Credible in all our education, advocacy and partnerships — our efforts are grounded in objective research and demonstrable facts.
• Resilient in our capacity to respond to opportunities and threats in the movement so that we can achieve our vision as quickly as possible.

About Compassion & Choices

Across the nation, Compassion & Choices works to create a society that affirms life and accepts the inevitability of death, embraces expanded options for compassionate dying, and empowers everyone to choose end-of-life care that reflects their values, priorities and beliefs. To make this vision a reality, we improve care, expand options and empower everyone to chart their end-of-life journey.

Compassion & Choices is committed to building a staff that reflects the diverse communities that make up our country. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and recruit, hire, train, promote, and administer any and all personnel actions without regard to age, color, creed, disability, economic status, ethnic identity, gender identity, national origin race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, veterans status, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.