Children and the Law - Associate Director Chief Counsel

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Job Summary

• The ABA Center on Children and the Law seeks to fill a leadership position for the Associate Director of Legal Representation Projects. This individual will help implement the vision for the ABA's role in the parent representation movement in family and juvenile courts throughout the United States. Help lead components of the Center's work focused on child and youth representation as well as agency and tribal representation. Work in multiple states to facilitate change efforts in family courts and social services systems that affect parent, child, tribal, and family rights. As the Associate Director of Legal Representation Projects, the individual will serve in executive leadership roles on the National Alliance for Parent Representation (NAPR) and the Family Justice Initiative (FJI) and assist with planning national conferences on parent representation and access to justice for children and families.

Essential Job Functions and Responsibilities

• Lead and support the design of technical assistance, training and legal reform efforts, with a focus on elevating the importance of high-quality legal representation, lived expertise leadership, and racial justice as key components of system transformation.
• Serve as a nationally recognized leader in the Legal Representation program area through speaking engagements, published work, training opportunities, partnership invitations, and funding relationships.
• Represent the Center at meetings and conferences around the country.
• Partner with Center leadership and team to set vision for continued growth of the Center's larger operations with a focus on helping to set a vision for how different areas of work fit together across the Center to promote access to justice for children, parents and families.

Management:

• Supervise attorneys at the Center who will partner on grant projects, to include recruiting, hiring, training, and mentoring other attorneys in the Legal Representation program area.

• Commit to promoting racial justice and cultural sensitivity in projects, trainings, and policy development.

• Develop and manage budgets on multiple legal representation grant projects.
• Write grant proposals and cultivate funder relationships with private philanthropic supporters.
• Manage the RFP process for government contracts with federal and state partners.
• Manage contract processes with the ABA General Counsel Office on grants, subgrants, contracts, and other legal agreements entered into in the Legal Representation program area.
• Manage partnerships outside of the ABA on subawards, subcontracts, and independent consultant agreements.

Collaboration:

• Partner with organizations and practitioners to elevate models of legal representation that can be evaluated and replicated in other parts of the country, including pre-petition, multi-disciplinary, and post-reunification representation.

• Work on policy and practice change rooted in lived expertise leadership with colleagues who have personal child welfare system experience as parents, children, and/or kin.

• Develop and maintain partnerships with senior leaders at other organizations to partner on projects, substantive legal work, and grant proposals.
• Collaborate with the Steering Committee of NAPR, provide support to its sub-committees and partner with NAPR Co-Chairs to invest in and grow the parent representation movement at the local, state, and national levels.
• Keep the Steering Committee informed of relevant Center work, emerging policies, and opportunities for collaboration on state and national issues relevant to family legal representation.
• Serve as an Executive Team member of the Family Justice Initiative and collaborate with co-leaders to help realize the mission of ensuring high quality legal representation for all children and all parents.

Project Implementation:

• Lead a Committee of Steering Committee members and partner with Center colleagues to plan the agenda and logistics of our 2026 National Conference on Parent Representation, and future conferences.
• Implement key Family Justice Initiative tools focused on increasing appellate advocacy for children, parents, and tribes in child welfare cases.
• Build attorney capacity across the country to address issues of racism on behalf of clients.
• Partner with lived experience colleagues to ensure legal service delivery for all children and parents is accountable to client direction and feedback.
• Help to lead the strategic vision for a new project focused on challenging the legal concept of termination of parental rights as a regular child welfare outcome.
• Assist in the development of law-related policies and best practices, many for consideration by the ABA House of Delegates to become ABA-supported policies.
• Undertake publishable legal writing, especially on emerging legal representation topics, including those raised by advocates, professionals, and communities in this work.
• Launch new project ideas and concepts as part of ongoing growth in work.

Required Education, Qualifications Experience

• JD and admission to the bar in at least one jurisdiction.
• Minimum 8 years in law practice or equivalent substantive experience in areas of law and policy.
• Demonstrated commitment to supporting race equity and cultural sensitivity in prior professional experiences.
• Resource development, budget management, program conception and management, and personnel management required.

• Excellent demonstrated skills in mentoring, training, and development of professional staff with varying experience levels.

• Strong communication and organizational skills, ability to exercise independent judgment, and ability to work well with multiple constituencies.
• Experience in a not-for-profit setting desirable.
• Lived experience related to child welfare or a connected field will be prioritized.

All applications must be submitted online. When applying please include a cover letter and resume in one document when uploading on the ABA site. Applicants are encouraged to demonstrate a commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion in prior advocacy related to children, parents, and families.

The American Bar Association is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer of all protected classes including veterans and individuals with disabilities. Women, minorities, veterans, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. In compliance with the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA), if you have a disability and would like to request an accommodation in order to apply for a position with the American Bar Association, please call [redacted].

Other details

• Job Family Center for Human Rights Jobs
• Pay Type Salary
• Min Hiring Rate $117,280.00
• Max Hiring Rate $144,156.66
• Travel Required Yes
• Travel % 25
• Required Education Doctorate

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