Staff Attorney

Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC) seeks applications for an early to mid-career Staff Attorney position in its Oakland, CA office. The position is full-time, exempt. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis with an anticipated start date of September 2025.

LSPC is an IOLTA-funded legal support center that provides legal training, legal technical assistance and advocacy support for civil legal services. LSPC’s mission is to release incarcerated people, restore human and civil rights, and reunify families and communities. LSPC advances this mission through a blend of litigation and legal support, policy advocacy and community organizing. Attorneys at LSPC work under the direction of a Director of Legal Advocacy and in collaboration with policy advocates, organizers, and fellows to follow the lead of those with lived experience of incarceration in all our work.

While we do not provide direct legal services, we have a great deal of contact with people in prison, family members, and members of communities that are deeply impacted by the prison industry. The ideal candidate for this role will bring passion and demonstrated commitment to expanding access to justice for these communities through developing deep expertise in civil legal issues impacting policed communities, individuals experiencing incarceration, reentry legal issues, and collateral legal impacts on the families of those subject to policing and incarceration.

Position Responsibilities:

• Develop legal trainings on issues related to the civil and human rights of incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and convicted persons and their families.
• Conduct legal research and deliver legal technical assistance and consultation to civil legal service providers throughout California and nationally.
• Partner with LSPC policy advocates and organizers to provide policy advocacy support for civil legal services by serving on coalitions and task forces, conducting legislative and regulatory research, bill analysis and bill drafting, participating in strategy sessions and direct public policy advocacy with legislators, elected officials and other administrative officials and entities.
• Provide litigation support for civil legal services through participation in impact litigation which may include drafting and reviewing amicus briefs, fact investigation, legal research and analysis and serving as co-counsel.
• Produce relevant legal resource materials covering a broad array of legal issues impacting incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and convicted persons and their families.
• Actively network, engage and outreach to the civil legal aid community in California to learn about pressing legal issues and collaborate to develop strategic responses to help close the justice gap for incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and convicted persons and their families.
• Review and respond to requests for legal information from incarcerated individuals and their family members.
• Train and supervise legal interns.
• Participate in and support LSPC’s outreach, organizing and community building events.
• Work in conjunction with all LSPC staff members to determine strategic priorities.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Membership in the California Bar
• Demonstrated commitment to advancing racial justice

Desired Skills and Competencies:

• Initiative and Ingenuity: You leverage resources creatively to solve problems and dive right in to take a concept from idea to implementation. You often consult with others, but you can also propose solutions and get things rolling without much guidance.
• Relationship-Building Skills: You are skilled at connecting with people from many different backgrounds as well as developing connections and relationships with traditional legal professionals, bridging those perspectives to serve LSPC’s mission.
• Strategist’s Mind: You quickly grasp the subtleties of complex issues and identify patterns and recurrent challenges. You don’t stop at diagnosing problems, though; you move to come up with insightful, pragmatic, equitable, and sustainable ways to produce positive change.
• Legal Knowledge and Skills: You work to develop deep legal knowledge and skills related to carceral systems and reentry legal needs, become an expert in a particular subject area or areas, and then use your legal knowledge and skills to support and develop the civil legal aid community for the benefit of incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and convicted persons and their families.
• Attention to Detail: You are reliable and consistent, so the civil legal aid community comes to rely on you for availability and the quality of your work.
• Communication skills (written and oral): You are adept at translating complex legal issues into accessible language and formats for a wide range of audiences with a commitment to further legal and political education for those often shut out of traditional professionalized spaces and you lead with humility.

Salary Range: $85,000-95,000

Benefits include health, dental, vision, acupuncture, chiropractor insurance, and generous PTO.

LSPC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We believe in access and inclusion of multiple dimensions of diversity, including race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion and disability. We are committed to implementing equitable practices and promoting diversity at all levels of our organization.

To apply, please submit a cover letter, resume, legal writing sample, and references to:

jobs@prisonerswithchildren.org

LSPC

4400 Market St.

Oakland, CA 94608