Pace Community Law Practice Opportunity

Supervising Attorney and Assistant Director, Pace Community Law Practice (PCLP), Pace Law School
The PCLP is an innovative new community legal services center opening at Pace Law School in fall 2012.  One of the first of its kind, the PCLP will provide recent Pace Law School graduates with one-year fellowships to represent low and moderate income clients on a sliding scale basis.  In addition to providing direct legal representation, the PCLP will create capacity for low bono services by training and educating its Fellows in how to build solo and small legal practices.  This training will provide Fellows with the tools to sustain their employment and provide ongoing legal services to high-needs populations.  The PCLP plans to represent clients in immigration proceedings--which permit law graduates to represent clients before they have been admitted to the bar--as well as other legal practice areas, which may include but are not limited to family law, administrative proceedings such as Social Security and disability hearings, guardianship, housing, and others.

The PCLP is seeking a Supervising Attorney/Assistant Director who will have primary supervision and management responsibilities for the Fellows.    The Supervising Attorney/Assistant Director will provide direct legal supervision and mentorship to the Fellows in their representation of clients and assist the Executive Director in the management of the PCLP.  S/he will also assist the Executive Director in creating and executing the training and solo practice curriculum for Fellows and guide the Fellows in their community outreach and training efforts.  The ideal applicant will have experience in one or more of the practice areas listed above.

Duties and responsibilities include but are not limited to:
•    Supervising legal cases and representing clients
•    Managing, mentoring and supervising Fellows
•    Managing daily operation of PCLP law office, including management of administrative personnel, Fellows, volunteer attorneys, and law students/legal interns
•    Creating and developing training curriculum and solo practice training, including monitoring pertinent sources for CLEs, lectures, conferences, bar association programs, workshops, etc. of potential benefit to Fellows
•    Assisting the Executive Director with establishing practices and protocols for PCLP
•    Drafting grant applications and reports and  cultivating  sources of support for PCLP
•    Reporting case data and information
•    Other administrative responsibilities such as maintaining malpractice insurance, Board of Immigration Appeals accreditation, specialized practice library, system of case file organization, Facebook page, budget preparation and reimbursement approval, etc.
•    Reporting to the Executive Director of the PCLP
•    Pro-active public speaking and writing about the PCLP and related issues in legal education, professionalism, and law practice: enhancing the public profile of the PCLP through writing op-eds and letters to the editor, traditional and social media appearances, blogging, online commentary, and list-serv participation  
•    Creating and maintaining relationships with community groups and collaborating legal services providers including private practitioners and relevant bar associations
•    Assisting the Executive Director with recruiting and maintaining panel of mentors
•    Advocating on policy issues and/or participation in policy-making through membership on boards, commissions, or legislative bodies relevant to the client populations served
•    Engagement with the life of the Law School and the New York State Judicial Institute as necessary, possible, and appropriate: e.g., assisting moot court teams and student organizations; guest lecturing in classes, CLE programs or at the Judicial Institute; participating in faculty colloquia; contributing to Career Development and Public Interest Law Center panels and job interview simulations, etc.  
•    Collaborating, when possible, with Pace Law School’s clinics
Qualifications:
•    A JD degree from an ABA-accredited law school
•    Admission to practice law in New York State; admission in federal district courts and Second Circuit a plus; notary public a plus
•    Five to seven years of relevant experience in one or more legal practice areas; flexibility, capacity, and willingness to self-teach new areas of law and/or legal skills
•    At least 1-3 years experience supervising, managing, and evaluating legal work
•    Demonstrated capacity for high-quality decision-making/problem-solving: ability to diagnose problems, identify objectives, devise and select options and strategies
•    Demonstrated professional judgment: ability to generate and justify alternative legal positions, and to assess their strengths and weaknesses
•    Creativity: capacity to use legal arguments and authorities creatively and imaginatively
•    Theoretical perspective: capacity to perceive, research, and critically analyze non-legal contextual aspects of law and lawyering decisions such as empirical data/assumptions underlying a legal rule or principle; ability to distinguish policy and law arguments and to judge when and how to utilize each or both
•    Demonstrated commitment to provision of high quality legal services to low and moderate income communities and demonstrated strong public interest orientation
•    Excellent public speaking and writing skills; publications about lawyering, the legal profession, legal education, or legal issues a plus
•    Enthusiasm for creating and building a new model of legal services provision; interest in developing sophisticated knowledge of law office management, practice models and techniques, etc. through mastery of the pertinent literature and consultation with experts 
•    Commitment to training and mentorship of starting attorneys as well as to continual self-improvement; ability to reflect on, and learn from lawyering experience; skill and experience in providing constructive feedback to colleagues and systematic structured evaluation of attorney performance
•    Sensitivity to ethical issues, awareness of professional norms and standards; ability to analyze the applicability and validity of professional norms and standards in specific situations, choose among conflicting professional norms, and integrate personal and professional values;  inclination to articulate rationale of ethical choices; coherence and consistency of ethical reasoning
•    Small/solo/law firm practice experience a plus 
•    Business experience a plus
•    Fluency in a language other than English a plus

Location:
•    The PCLP is located on Pace Law School’s campus at: 33 Crane Avenue, White Plains, NY 10603.

How to apply:
Applications may only be submitted through Pace University’s career site, at https://careers.pace.edu.  Interested candidates can search for the posting number: 0601319.  Questions may be directed to Jennifer Friedman, Executive Director, Pace Community Law Practice, at jfriedman@law.pace.edu.  Do not submit application materials directly to Jennifer Friedman.