Part-Time Attorney (Legal Services for Entrepreneurs)
Application Deadline: May 31, 2011. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
General Summary of Work Performed
Manage Legal Services for Entrepreneurs (LSE), a racial and immigrant justice project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. LSE provides free legal assistance to low-income individuals, including women, people of color, and immigrants, who want to start or develop for-profit businesses, and for-profit businesses committed to investing in economically distressed minority and immigrant communities. LSE clients are matched with pro bono attorneys from law firms throughout the Bay Area.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
1. Manage LSE’s pro bono attorney matching program, including reviewing applications for LSE services, conducting intakes with potential clients, screening cases, and overseeing placement of cases with pro bono attorneys.
2. Oversee LSE’s community-based legal clinics and workshops. Supervise volunteers who are staffing clinics and workshops, update workshop presentations and self-help materials, and attend clinics and workshops.
3. Provide legal consultations to small business clients and represent individual clients, as needed, on an emergency basis.
4. Oversee ongoing outreach to potential LSE clients, and build LSE’s relationships with community-based organizations and within the microenterprise community.
5. Identify issues appropriate for LSE to address through policy advocacy and/or community education.
6. Supervise the work of LSE law students, fellows, volunteers, and other LSE staff.
7. Proactively seek opportunities to engage in public education and media advocacy to strengthen pro bono and impact work.
Other Duties and Responsibilities
1. Work to further LCCR’s long-range goals as appropriate, including maintaining and establishing good relationships with the private bar and work on internal matters as identified or assigned, including:
2. Ensuring that LCCR’s pro bono and impact work is functioning in furtherance of LCCR’s strategic goals and mission
3. Assisting the Development and Communications Team in the drafting and development of proposals and reports, program budgets, and fundraising materials
4. Identifying potential donors and solicitors, as well as new members and Board members
5. Attending staff meetings
6. Attending Board meetings, including the Annual Meeting
7. Contributing to the newsletter and other public relations materials
8. Other duties as assigned by the Director of Policy and Programs and/or Executive Director
Knowledge, Skills & Abilities
1. Member of CA Bar in good standing with experience in transactional law &/or experience working with small businesses on legal issues
2. Proficiency in a foreign language (particularly Spanish, Cantonese, or Mandarin) and/or prior experience working with/ties to low-income communities of color and/or immigrant communities in the San Francisco Bay Area is desired but not required
3. Ability to plan and coordinate own work and to meet deadlines with minimal supervision
4. Strong supervision and mentoring skills
5. Excellent oral and written communication skills
6. Values working cooperatively with others, both within the organization and in the community
To Apply
Please send cover letter, a resume with three references and a writing sample to Lawyers’ Committee c/o Silvia Contreras by email at scontreras@lccr.com, by fax to (415) 543‐0296, or by mail to:
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area
131 Steuart Street, Suite 400
San Francisco, CA 94105