Benefits Senior Attorney
The Alliance for Children’s Rights is seeking a dedicated individual to join our Benefits Program as a Senior Attorney. This is an exempt, full‑time position. The Benefits Program’s objective is to secure funding to support children living in out‑of‑home care. Experience advocating for youth in the foster care, dependency court, and/or child welfare systems, as well as experience litigating writs of administrative mandamus, is helpful but not required. Spanish fluency is strongly preferred but not required.
WHAT YOUR IMPACT WILL BE
The Benefits Senior Attorney works closely with the Benefits Program Director and the Vice President of Legal and Program Services to provide direct legal services to families seeking funding to support children living in out‑of‑home care. These benefits are essential to ensuring stability for youth and their caregivers. The Benefits Program also advocates for the removal of systemic barriers through an equity‑ and intersectionality‑informed lens. This role offers a meaningful opportunity to improve the lives of children living in foster care and poverty.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Under the direct supervision of the Benefits Program Director, the Senior Attorney will perform the following responsibilities:
- Analyzing public benefits issues that arise for children and caregivers in the child welfare
- Representing caregivers to secure public benefits in various proceedings, including but not limited to administrative fair hearings, re-hearings, writs of administrative mandamus, and other appellate litigation.
- Working on impact litigation and both local and statewide policy
- Preparing case summaries and files for placement of cases with pro bono
- Providing trainings and technical assistance to pro bono attorneys, staff, and community
- Training and supervise volunteers and law clerks.
- Developing and updating benefits materials for clients, pro bono attorneys, and the
- Maintaining knowledge of current trends and policies in public benefits that affect children and families in the child welfare system.
- Supervising Intake, identifying legal issues and strategies, and training and providing guidance to student interns and staff on benefits issues.
- Conducting community outreach and trainings and work with service providers and community partners, to maximize effective resources and supports for families and children.
- Completing additional administrative duties including data entry and
- Performing other duties as necessary
This job description is of a general nature and is not an exhaustive list of all responsibilities and duties of the position.
EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS
- D. degree and active membership in the California State Bar.
- Minimum of 5–7 years of legal experience.
- Experience with public benefits is helpful.
- Fluency in Spanish is highly preferred.
- Excellent written, oral, and advocacy skills.
- Strong analytical and interpersonal skills.
- Ability to communicate effectively with clients, attorneys, child welfare agencies, the judiciary, and the public.
- Strong organizational and multitasking abilities.
- Ability to manage a high‑volume caseload.
- Self‑starter with a strong desire to help others.
- Demonstrated litigation experience, including case evaluation, legal research and writing, discovery, negotiations, mediation, and hearing or trial work.
SALARY RANGE
This is an exempt, full-time paid position, target starting salary range for the senior attorney is $92,000-$104,000. Final starting salary offered is contingent on years of relevant experience. Benefits include generous vacation and paid holidays; comprehensive health plans covering 100% of the employee cost of medical, dental and vision insurance; life insurance; flexible spending accounts for childcare and health expenses; generous retirement savings plan with company contributions to your 403(b) after one year of employment, and discounts on fitness memberships and other activities.
Email resume and cover letter to Nina Bailey, Human Resources Coordinator at [email protected]. Due to a high volume of interest, we are not able to contact each interested applicant. No calls please. If selected for consideration, candidates will be contacted to discuss our recruitment process and next steps.
Other CONSIDERATIONS
This position will typically be based in our Los Angeles office, and the candidate must be Los Angeles – based. Except for in-person court hearings, Alliance events, trainings, in-office meetings with clients, colleagues, and community partners, and to the extent that telework is allowed, this position may choose to work remotely from home. The employee may be required to return to the office at any time at the employer’s discretion.
VACCINATION REQUIREMENT
The Alliance is committed to prioritizing and safeguarding the health and wellbeing of our employees, their families, our clients, and members of our community against the COVID-19 coronavirus. In response to COVID-19 and the increased transmissibility with recent variants, and to support a safe environment for everyone, all new Alliance employees must provide original documentation confirming they are fully vaccinated, and or evidence of an approved qualifying medical exemption or religious held belief exemption at the time of hire.
NON-DISCRIMINATION
The Alliance for Children’s Rights is committed to building and supporting a culturally diverse and inclusive environment that values all staff members’ backgrounds and perspectives in our work. We strongly encourage individuals from all traditionally underrepresented communities to apply. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. We are an Equal Employment Opportunity employer, and prohibit discrimination against employees or applicants because of race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, veteran status, or any other unlawful basis.
The Alliance for Children’s Rights will consider qualified applicants with a criminal history pursuant to the California Fair Chance Act. You do not need to disclose your criminal history or participate in a background check until a conditional job offer is made to you. After making a conditional offer and running a background check, if the Alliance is concerned about conviction that is directly related to the job, you will be given the chance to explain the circumstances surrounding the conviction, provide mitigating evidence, or challenge the accuracy of the background report. Find out more about the Fair Chance Act by visiting the Civil Rights Department Fair Chance Act webpage.