Legal Content and Community Outreach Strategist

Overall Position Objective:

Works with Access to Justice staff and stakeholders to develop and maintain legal information for Oregon Law Help, the statewide interactive legal information portal. This role uses technology and self-help best practices in self-help legal information to support access to justice low-income and underserved Oregonians and fosters strong engagement with legal and community partners who contribute to and rely on the portal’s information and referral tools.

This position is authorized to work a hybrid schedule.

Essential Duties:

• Content Strategy, Development and Processes:
  • Design and oversee self-help legal information development and content strategy for Oregon’s statewide civil legal information and referral website (Oregon Law Help).
  • Write edit, and proof legal information content, including legal articles, guided interviews, and videos.
  • Apply best practices in plain language, website design, and website content creation.
• Craft and maintain content quality standards and quality assurance processes to ensure legal information is accurate, accessible, and responsive to the civil legal needs of Oregonians, with a focus on low-income and underserved populations.
• Develop and maintain content style guides, checklists, and other procedures to ensure consistency and quality.
• Create and maintain processes to ensure necessary organizations and assistance are included and accurately reflected in the legal help resource directory.

• Legal Information management and partner engagement:
  • Stay current on emerging trends, research, and technology related to accessible legal information and access to justice innovation.
  • Conduct research to inform and prioritize development, including monitoring law changes and other legal developments.
  • Recruit and collaborate with Oregon lawyers and other subject matter experts to write and edit legal content, including facilitating and guiding Oregon Law Help related task forces and meetings to support content development and partner organization engagement.
  • Providing guidance and support to content development partners, including training on content style guide and processes.
  • Coordinate with project vendors.
  • Partner with OSB’s Director of Referral and Information Services to support and develop Lawyer Referral Service-related legal information materials and develop tools to connect users with this service through the Portal Project website.

• Outreach and Engagement
  • Partner with Access to Justice community leaders and system stakeholders, including Oregon Law Help’s Advisory Committee and future community-based sub-committees.
  • Explore and implement opportunities for community and system partner input and engagement to inform content and site development, including user-testing, focus groups and other feedback methods.
  • Provide support and assistance to organizations in the website referral directory with updating their listings.

• Assist the Director of Legal Services Programs in the oversight and monitoring of established standards and guidelines for legal services providers.

• Foster cooperation, collaboration, and teamwork with department and among other OSB departments and respective managers, directors, chief officers, and employees to provide customer service orientation towards internal and external recipients of programs and services.

• Model behavior and practices that value diversity and incorporate inclusive and culturally competent practices.

Other Duties:

• Serve as bar liaison to sections, committees, and task forces as assigned.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Juris Doctor degree required.
• Four years of law practice in legal areas serving individuals (“people law”), such as landlord-tenant law, consumer law, family law, wills and estates, immigration, or public benefits law. Experience providing legal services to low-income and indigent communities helpful and not required.
• Demonstrated knowledge of and commitment to social justice, with a focus on improving access for low-income and historically underserved communities.
• Demonstrated interest to learn and explore new tools and technologies to enhance access to justice and promote improvement and innovation.
• Demonstrated ability to produce high-quality written content across various media. Excellent grammatical, organizational, and proofreading skills. Strong research and fact-checking skills. Strong ability to distill complex ideas into simple concepts.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with a diverse range of groups, including community-based organizations and relevant government stakeholders.
• Demonstrated knowledge of the Microsoft O365 Office Suite in a Microsoft Windows environment with particular emphasis on Word, Excel, and Outlook. Demonstrated knowledge of database programs helpful and not required. Ability to become familiar with OSB-specific programs and software.
• Competency in technology systems necessary to conduct the work of the department.
• Effective and productive use of time management practices, prioritizing, multi-tasking, and working in a fast-paced, detail-driven, service-oriented environment.
• Demonstrated oral communication skills using in-person and virtual formats.
• Demonstrated critical thinking, negotiation, facilitation, problem solving, decision making, and analytical skills.
• Interpersonal and conflict resolution skills with demonstrated ability to listen to understand and manage difficult conversations.
• Self-motivation skills requiring minimal supervision with ability to balance independent and team-oriented work.
• Ability to pay strict attention to detail.
• Ability to be flexible, agile, and resilient in addressing expected and unexpected situations.
• Ability to exercise sound judgment in keeping with the policies and objectives of LSP, Access to Justice, and the Oregon State Bar.
• Ability to exercise professional demeanor and a high level of customer service for a potentially demanding customer base in a variety of situations and with various interest groups or individuals with conflicting and competing needs, desires, and demands.
• Commitment to the concept of teamwork and cross-responsibility within a department.

Any satisfactory equivalent combination of experience and training which ensures the ability to perform the work may be substituted for the above.

Job Related Physical Characteristics:

• Ability to communicate in person, in writing, by email, by telephone, and other communication media, e.g., video conferencing.
• Ability to operate a computer for long periods.
• Ability to remain in a stationary position for long periods.
• Ability to manipulate data for program and budgetary purposes and typing.
• Ability to use standard office equipment and computer peripherals.
• Ability to work in a moderately noisy, open environment.
• Ability to work in an office and remotely as needed.
• Ability to maintain focus and perform detailed work requiring concentrated effort for long periods.
• Ability to travel overnight, inside and outside Oregon, for meetings and seminars.

The OSB offers excellent benefits including voluntary 6% participation in the PERS program.

• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Flexible schedule
• Flexible spending account
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Parental leave
• Professional development assistance
• Retirement plan
• Tuition reimbursement
• Vision insurance