Full-Time Consumer Law Supervising Attorney
Legal Assistance of Western New York, Inc.® (LawNY) has an immediate opening for a Supervising Attorney within our Consumer Unit. This position is program wide and will collaborate with all of the LawNY offices. This position can be housed in any one of our seven offices located in Rochester, Geneva, Ithaca, Bath, Elmira, Olean, or Jamestown, based on the selected candidate's preference. Moreover, LawNY offers a hybrid work schedule of up to three remote days per week during an employee’s first six months, and up to fully remote thereafter, consistent with job responsibilities. This position will require periodic in-person appearances and some travel across the organization’s service area.
Position Description
Legal Assistance of Western New York, Inc.® (LawNY®) is a not-for-profit law firm providing free legal services to eligible clients in civil cases through seven field offices covering a fourteen-county area in Western New York. Our Consumer Law Unit was created in 2017 to increase LawNY’s capacity to represent clients with consumer law problems across our 14-county service area. Our consumer unit currently focuses on consumer credit debt defense, auto fraud, student loans, medical/nursing home debt, affirmative consumer litigation, bankruptcy, and more. The consumer unit is currently composed of a team of seven staff members, including one supervising attorney, one supervising paralegal, two staff attorneys, three AmeriCorps legal assistants, and a rotating group of law student volunteers and interns, with two additional paralegal positions expected to be added this spring, along with this Supervising Attorney position.
This position will join our existing supervising attorney in managing the day-to-day operations of the unit, including setting case priorities, accepting cases for representation, directing impact litigation and systemic advocacy strategies, and collaborating on grant administration and compliance. They will be directly responsible for supervising program staff, which may include attorneys, paralegals, and volunteers.
As a supervisor, we expect the person who fills this position to have demonstrated skills to foster productive, equitable relationships with all supervisees across a wide range of backgrounds. We expect those who fill this position will grow and adapt their practice to the needs of the community and the organization, and place an emphasis on strong supervision skills. Supervisors play a critical role in realizing LawNY’s vision of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Every supervisor is expected to actively engage in learning and becoming increasingly skilled in supervision that supports this vision.
This position will also maintain a caseload of their own consumer cases. The attorney will focus on a wide variety of consumer protection issues, including predatory debt collection, credit reporting disputes, student loans, bankruptcy, and deceptive consumer practices. The attorney will be expected to staff LawNY’s regional Consumer Hotline, providing information and resources to callers with consumer problems; Conduct initial client screenings and triage incoming consumer cases; Maintain a caseload of consumer law cases, with a focus on impact litigation; Assist staff on presentations and outreach to the community; Identify emerging trends in consumer law practice at the State and Federal level, by participating in relevant workgroups and conferences; and Work with other LawNY® staff members and the community to develop strategies to address systemic consumer problems that adversely impact the low-income communities we serve.
The ideal candidate should have a strong understanding of the intersection of consumer issues with racial justice, and a willingness to incorporate racial justice principles into both the day-to-day legal work of the unit as well as overarching unit priorities and strategies. The applicant must also have the caring, patience, and emotional maturity to help low-income people navigate crisis situations.
This position will report to the Managing Attorney overseeing our organization-wide programs.
Responsibilities These are the most significant responsibilities and primary functions of the position.
Qualifications These are the basic qualifications for the position.
Additional Traits and Skills These are the traits, attributes, attitudes, and skills that speak to the candidate’s ability to succeed in the position. While no one candidate will possess all of the qualities listed, the ideal candidate will have many of these qualities. LawNY encourages each candidate to think about their own personal knowledge, skills, and experience, as well as professional skills and experience, in relation to this list of traits and skills.
Salary and Benefits
Salary is competitive and is set on a standardized organizational salary scale based on years of job experience. The annual salary for a Supervising Attorney with three years of legal experience is $68,000.
We provide a superlative package of fringe benefits including:
We also provide a very generous leave package including, in the first year of employment, 20 days of vacation plus 13.5 holidays and two floating holidays. Employees also receive 12 sick days and five personal days per year. New parents receive 20 days of paid new parent leave.
LawNY participates in the Legal Services Corporation loan repayment assistance program and is also a qualifying public service loan forgiveness (PSLF) employer.
Start Date & Application Timeframe
Applications for this position will close March 10, 2023. Please apply before then for full consideration. You will receive a confirmation email when your application has been received on our HR platform. LawNY® will contact you to inform you whether you have been offered an interview.
This position starts as soon as possible after offers are made, with a target start date of May 1, 2023. The job will remain posted until filled. If not filled by this date, applications will be accepted on a rolling basis.
Application Instructions
To apply, submit your cover letter, resume, and three references through LawNY®’s BambooHR platform, here. References will not be contacted until after any interview, and will not be contacted without your knowledge. To promote social justice and achieve our mission, LawNY® is committed to maintaining a diverse staff and creating an inclusive and respectful workplace. In your cover letter, please explain how you think your lived and/or professional experience or background has prepared you to contribute to support a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion in LawNY’s processes.
Questions or Accommodations? Contact Sandra Coyne at scoyne@lawny.org
Legal Assistance of Western New York, Inc. (LawNY®) is an equal opportunity employer, committed to inclusive hiring and dedicated to diversity in our work and staff. LawNY® strongly encourages applications from Black, Indigenous and People of Color, women, LGBTQIA+ individuals, people with disabilities, and persons from other underrepresented groups whose background may contribute to working in and sustaining an environment that enables staff and clients to feel empowered, valued, respected, and safe. LawNY welcomes applications regardless of race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, genetic information or any other consideration protected by law.
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