Co-Executive Director, Legal Services

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Co-Executive Director, Legal Services

Location: This position is currently remote. Occasional in-person meetings and events in Seattle are

required.

Classification: Exempt, Full-time (Monday-Friday, 40 hours/week)

Reports to: Board of Directors

Salary: $107,060

Applications reviewed on a rolling basis. Priority deadline Monday, August 3.

License to practice law not required for this role.

Benefits: Paid medical, vision, and dental insurance; 13 paid holidays plus week-long office closures in July and December; 12 vacation days and 12 Sick and Safe Time days in the first year; 100% of Paid Family and Medical Leave premiums paid by employer, 401K retirement plan and access to free personalized retirement planning advisors; monthly stipends for remote work and personal phone expenses; and paid professional development expenses.

I. About Communities Rise

Communities Rise’s mission is to foster movements to build power in communities impacted by systemic oppression. We do this by helping small businesses, nonprofits, and community-based organizations to grow, thrive, and build lasting economic power. While Communities Rise serves all eligible small businesses and nonprofits in Washington State, we prioritize organizations that are led by or owned by people of color. Our work can be broadly organized into three categories:

• Capacity Building: We build capacity in organizations working in communities impacted by systemic oppression through our nonprofit cohort program, grant writing, and fundraising clinics.
• Legal Services and Trainings: We provide legal support to nonprofit organizations and small businesses on their business legal needs through direct representation, legal clinics, and legal trainings.
• Cross-Sector Collaborations: We team up with funders, community organizations, and community leaders to co-design, implement, and elevate initiatives for equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Communities Rise has existed in one form or another for over 25 years. Communities Rise is the result of a merger in 2019 between the Nonprofit Assistance Center (incorporated in 2000) and Wayfind (first incorporated in 2003 under the name Washington Attorneys Assisting Community Organizations, which later rebranded in 2014). The merger enabled us to consolidate our legal and non-legal support services under one roof, allowing us to provide more comprehensive support services.

Communities Rise currently has 11 employees across three departments: the legal team, the capacity building team, and the admin team. Our organization centers and prioritizes the well-being of our employees, as we have long sought to counter industry trends of burnout in both the nonprofit sector and the legal profession, as evidenced by our generous holiday calendar. Our organizational culture is often fairly casual, warm, inclusive, and at times, silly, but we are also rigorous and hard-working because of how deeply we care about the orgs that we serve. We approach our work with a commitment towards social justice and racial equity via ongoing community engagement and focused strategic planning. We are intentional about our funding sources to make sure our funder obligations are aligned with our values and the community’s needs.

In 2023, Communities Rise adopted a three-person Co-Executive Director team as part of our commitment to shared leadership. Communities Rise staff are organized into three departments: Capacity Building Services, Legal Services, and Finance/Operations. While each Co-E.D. leads their respective departments, a majority of the Co-E.D.’s team will be spent on leading the organization as a whole, and sharing that responsibility with the Co-E.D. team. As a team, the Co-Executive Directors are responsible for organization-wide budgeting, fundraising, contracts, organizational wellness, and organizational culture. By co-managing more traditional executive responsibilities, the Co-E.D. model allows us to break down silos between different program teams while ensuring each Co-E.D. has more capacity to directly support our staff and the delivery of our services.

II. About the Legal Team

Our Legal Team provides CR’s pro bono legal services to low-income small businesses and nonprofits in Washington State. As one of the only Washington civil legal aid organizations that advises business entities, we are in a unique position to help low-income individuals build lasting economic power for their communities by supporting their business endeavors. A strong candidate for this position will have some experience working with or serving small businesses and/or nonprofits. The ideal candidate is passionate about helping underprivileged entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders achieve their goals while protecting their organizations during these turbulent times.

The Legal Co-E.D. will supervise the Legal Programs Lead Attorney who is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day functions of CR’s legal services as well as supervising the Legal Team’s other attorneys and paralegal. As a result, the Legal Co-E.D. need not necessarily be an attorney who is licensed to practice law. Most of the Legal Co-E.D.’s time and attention will be dedicated to overseeing the needs of the entire organization, managing relationships with funders and partner organizations, assisting with client outreach, and also maintaining a deep understanding of the needs of our legal program staff and the communities they serve.

Here is a brief description of the breadth of legal issues that our legal team helps clients with. Communities Rise routinely advises limited liability companies, nonprofit corporations, sole proprietorships, and unincorporated associations on the following legal topics: entity formation and governance (operating agreement drafting, corporate governance, 501(c)(3) compliance, other tax law issues, industry-specific compliance), contract drafting and review (sales contracts, services contracts, fiscal sponsorship agreements, partnership/investor deals, waivers, licenses, etc.), intellectual property issues (registration and licensing for copyrights and trademarks), employment law (independent contractor vs. employee classification, employer compliance, civil rights laws, and best practices for hiring, onboarding, and termination), real estate transactions (commercial lease review, purchase and sale transactions), and more. Candidates are not expected to be well-versed in each of these practice areas, nor will candidates be necessarily expected to advise clients on each of these legal topics. However, it would be a “plus” for a candidate to demonstrate some breadth of experience with respect to these legal topics.

The Legal Team has a sophisticated system for managing client intake and matching incoming matters with pro bono attorneys. Thanks to our extensive network of volunteer attorneys, Communities Rise can serve a high volume of pro bono clients while maintaining staff attorney caseloads at a reasonable size, allowing our attorneys to build genuine relationships with each client.

The WSBA recognizes Communities Rise as a Qualified Legal Service Provider. We approach our work through the lens of community lawyering, an approach to civil legal aid that centers projects around the goals and unique expertise of our client communities, rather than projects that center on the goals and expertise of the attorneys. Ideal candidates are community-oriented, share our commitment to racial equity and self-reflection, and may have similar experiences to those of the client communities we serve. Strong candidates will also have some experience working as part of a legal team, whether as an attorney, a paralegal, or another other role that supports the delivery of legal services to clients.

III. Responsibilities

Executive Administration (55%): The Co-Executive Director, Legal Services has the following organization-wide responsibilities in coordination with the other two Co-Executive Directors.

• Strategy: Develop organization-wide strategy, including strategic planning, identifying new program opportunities, cross-department collaboration, and regular communication with the Board of Directors.
• Finance: Lead the development of the annual budget, ensure grant funds are appropriately expended, serve as authorized signer on organizational accounts, and maintain the long-term financial sustainability of the organization.
• Fundraising: Partner with the Development Director on annual fundraising, including developing strategy, planning annual fundraising event(s), grant proposals and reporting, meeting with funders, and donor stewardship.
• Organizational Wellness/Human Resources: Manage human resources, including hiring, and develop policies and practices that support staff and organizational wellness.
• Relationships: Maintain strong relationships with funders, organizational partners, key community members, and other external stakeholders who help our

Department Administration (35%): The Co-Executive Director, Legal Services has department-specific responsibilities described below.

• Lead the planning and execution of:
  • Legal Team staffing strategy, hiring, onboarding, and team stewardship.
  • Collaborative cross-departmental programmatic planning.
  • Analyze internal and external data to incorporate emerging community needs into operationalized programs, for the purpose of assessing responsiveness, effectiveness, and equity in programs and to administer changes as needed.
  • Building and growing relationships with community consultants, partners, and volunteers that support legal services programs.
  • Collaboratively identify and internally operationalize special initiatives to advance our legal services strategy.
  • Meet internal and external reporting deadlines and internal requests.
  • Client outreach strategies, including fostering connections with BIPOC communities to ensure services are culturally relevant and equitable.
• Support in the planning, execution, and evaluation of:
• Legal training offerings and other legal education initiatives: Ensuring the timely completion of contract deliverables for related funders and occasionally directly contributing to the development and delivery of our educational content.
• Legal services, including our legal clinic program, extended legal services, and other legal offerings: Ensuring timely completion of contract deliverables for related funders and occasionally representing clients when needed.
• Technical assistance offerings in partnership with the Development Director or external providers.
• Help plan and implement communications, marketing, and outreach strategies related to legal services programs, including development of client testimonials.

Staff Supervision (10%): The Co-Executive Director, Legal Services has the following supervisory responsibilities:

• Supervise the Legal Programs Lead Attorney and the Volunteer Engagement Manager. Hold regular supervisory meetings to support their respective work, including professional development, work planning, problem solving, assessing workload, and dividing new work among staff as necessary.
• Review and approve timesheets for payroll, including approving PTO requests and managing coverage of duties during leaves.

IV. Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• You must live and be authorized to work in Washington State. This position is currently remote, but requires occasional in-person meetings and events in Seattle.
• At least 3-5 years of experience working as part of a legal team that delivered legal advice to clients.
• At least 3 years of experience in organizational development and/or a leadership position at a community-based organization.
• Alignment with Communities Rise’s mission and commitment to racial equity and centering our work around communities of color and communities impacted by systemic oppression.
• Interest in working as a Co-Executive Director team, as well as independently.
• Some experience in nonprofit or small business legal service strategies, as a recipient or provider.
• Experience working on issues of social justice and race equity that includes the ability to facilitate peer-to-peer or group conversations, assess power dynamics, resolve conflicts, and adjust and respond to organizational needs as they arise for QTBIPOC communities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong administrative skills, including the ability to track small details, plan and execute short and long-term projects, meet deadlines, and support the capacity of staff in these areas.
• Demonstrated commitment to building authentic relationships with staff and communities we serve.
• Experience partnering with a Development Director on fundraising strategy.
• Creative, flexible, and community-minded approach to solving problems and willingness to carry out the wide-ranging and often shifting responsibilities of a small and evolving nonprofit.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint). Our office uses Google Workspace.
• This position requires the use of Salesforce for data tracking and reporting and Soapbox for event registration.
• Laughter and a sense of humor.

V. How to Apply

To apply, please send your resume and cover letter to jobs@communities-rise.org with the subject line "Application for Co-ED Position.” We are reviewing applications on a rolling basis, with a priority deadline of Tuesday, August 4.

Communities Rise is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, creed, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, veteran status, or any other protected class under applicable law. We encourage people from communities of color, people with disabilities, indigenous peoples, refugees, migrants, working-class people, and/or LGBTQIA+ community members to apply for this position. Communities Rise will provide, except in cases of undue hardship, reasonable accommodations for candidates participating in all aspects of the hiring process. To request assistance or accommodations, please contact jobs@communities-rise.org.

Paid medical, vision, and dental insurance; 13 paid holidays plus week-long office closures in July and December; 12 vacation days and 12 Sick and Safe Time days in the first year; 100% of Paid Family and Medical Leave premiums paid by employer, 401K retirement plan and access to free personalized retirement planning advisors; monthly stipends for remote work and personal phone expenses; and paid professional development expenses.