LEGAL ASSISTANCE OF WESTERN NEW YORK, INC.

POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT: Housing Project Unit Supervisor (Supervising Attorney)

FULL-TIME ( Choice of offices - Western New York )

Position Description

LawNY ® seeks to fill an immediate opening for an Unit Supervisor to join a new organization-wide team of housing advocates, under the management of a Housing Project Managing Attorney. This position will report directly to the Housing Project Managing Attorney and will collaborate with the Managing Attorney in execution of job responsibilities.

LawNY ® is transitioning to a centralized housing advocacy program that will include supervision and training, priority setting, intake, and other administrative and legally substantive operations. The unifying housing program will increase collaboration across our 14-county service area, ensure housing advocates have robust resources and support to be successful in their work, and standardize our practices to provide high-quality legal services equitably across our service area. We also expect to be better positioned to recognize and respond to widespread patterns and issues among our clients with regard to their housing.

The Unit Supervisor, in collaboration with the Housing Project Managing Attorney, the Housing Project Intake Supervisor, and the Housing Project Grants Administrator, will play an integral role in starting up this new centralized model in order to meet these goals.

The primary responsibility of this position is to provide substantive legal supervision and support to Supervising Attorneys across our organization who are engaged in housing work. LawNY ® ’s housing practice is extremely broad, and provides services regarding: private landlord/tenant issues, eviction defense, subsidized and public housing issues, mobile home issues, rent-to-own contracts, substandard housing, code enforcement issues, housing discrimination, and more. The position may also provide co-counseling and litigation support to housing advocates across the program. The applicant should have an understanding of housing law, and eviction prevention in particular. We expect those that fill this position to grow and adapt their practice to the needs of the communities we serve and of the organization.

The applicant must have a strong foundational understanding of the root causes of poverty and the ways in which poverty and racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression are intertwined. The ideal candidate will have an understanding of the power and the limitations of the law in addressing systemic harms.

The person filling this role will supervise housing supervising attorneys from across the program. The candidate will collaborate with a wide range of LawNY ® staff and must have the skills to effectively supervise across lines of difference. Every supervisor at LawNY is expected to actively engage in learning and becoming increasingly skilled in supervision that supports diversity, equity, and inclusion.

This position reports to the Housing Project Managing Attorney.

Responsibilities: These are the most significant responsibilities and primary functions of the position.

• The primary role of this position will be to provide legal supervision and support to supervising attorneys across the program engaged in housing issues. While the person in this position will be assisting with litigation, this is not a role with primary responsibility for direct client services.
• Assist the Housing Project Managing Attorney, Grants Administrator, and Intake Supervisor to plan and restructure LawNY’s seven separate housing units and the office’s existing and new grant funding into one, cohesive program-wide housing unit.
• Ensure supervision, training, leadership development and other support for housing supervising attorneys.
• O versee individual advocate caseloads to ensure that supervisors have caseloads appropriate to their experience level and consistent with the highest quality of service delivery and staff well-being.
• Perform legal research for ongoing cases and provide litigation support for housing attorneys program-wide.
• In collaboration with the Housing Project Managing Attorney, monitor developments in the law and lead both initial training for new housing staff and periodic updates for experienced staff.
• With the Housing Managing Attorney and the Director of Litigation and Advocacy, serve as a program-wide resource for formulating strategies to promptly address challenging and novel housing issues.
• Support, encourage, and co-counsel on affirmative and impact housing litigation, in collaboration with the Housing Project Managing Attorney, Director of Litigation, regional litigation staff, and subcontractor/partner agencies.
• Incorporate principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion and engage in learning to become increasingly skilled in supervision that supports diversity, equity, and inclusion (e.g. building a relationship with supervisees based on mutual respect and trust, understanding communication and work styles, having difficult conversations, developing conflict resolution skills, addressing microaggressions and interrupting implicit bias).
• E ngage in collaborations with other community agencies, organizations and bar associations, both locally and statewide, to spot common issues and patterns and discuss strategies for targeting systemic issues.
• Actively engage organizations led by impacted communities, community organizations, agencies and bar associations in developing and setting advocacy and litigation priorities and strategy.

• Collaborate with supervisees, other supervisors, managers, and directors to develop, implement, and maintain a diverse, equitable and inclusive work environment.
  

Qualifications: 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 requirements listed, the ideal candidate will have many of the following qualifications. LawNY ® encourages each candidate to think about their own personal knowledge, skills, and experience, as well professional skills and experience, in relation to the list of qualifications.

• (Required) Minimum of five years of legal experience as an attorney, with a preference for experience within civil legal services.
• (Required) Admitted to practice and in good standing in New York State, eligible for admission without examination, or able to be admitted pro hac vice.
• (Required) Experience supervising others and conducting training on substantive legal topics, especially housing issues.
• Experience with one or more aspects of housing law, including eviction prevention, tenants’ rights, and affordable housing.
• Litigation experience, including experience with motion practice, discovery, and conducting trials.
• Demonstrated leadership on critical issues facing low-income people.
• Demonstrated commitment to providing services to low-income people.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and undertake transformative initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to command the trust and respect of staff members, community groups, and the legal community.
• Commitment to engaging in learning and developing supervision skills that support diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• An understanding of the concepts of institutional and structural racism and their impact on underserved and underrepresented communities
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including a commitment to providing trauma-informed services.
• Humility in working with colleagues and clients across the spectrum of diversity, including race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, immigrant status, religious identity, physical and mental disabilities, and/or limited English proficiency.
• Fluency in Spanish is a plus.
  

Organization Information

Legal Assistance of Western New York, Inc. (LawNY ® ) is a not-for-profit law firm providing civil legal services to low-income clients in a fourteen county area of western New York.

LawNY ® has been providing high quality legal represe ntation for 53 years. O ur 2021 cases were closed in the following practice areas: housing (31%); government benefits (26% ); family law (25.5%); health law (9.4%); miscellaneous benefits including wills and advance care directives (4.8%); consumer law (4.7%); employment law (1.8%); individual rights (0.8%); and education (1.3%).

LawNY ® is committed to equitable inclusion across race, gender, sexual orientation, gender

identity, age, ability, sex, religion, economic circumstances, ethnicity, national origin, and

culture. We are increasingly committed to creating a law firm where race equity, diversity and cultural competency are integral components of our work, from client advocacy to internal operations. We are actively seeking applicants whose work incorporates this perspective and whose lived and professional experience contributes to sustaining an environment that enables staff and clients to feel empowered, valued, respected, and safe.

Office Description

LawNY ® was created by a merger of three regional legal service programs in 2004, and today has over 170 e mployees, including attorneys, paralegals, and a legal support team who work closely across areas of specialization to bring a holistic approach to addressing legal issues affecting our clients and community. LawNY ® has seven fully staffed field offices in Bath, Elmira, Geneva, Ithaca, Jamestown, Olean and Rochester, several satellite offices across Western New York, and a business office in Rochester.

This position is program wide and will collaborate with all of the LawNY ® offices. This position can be located in any LawNY ® office, with a preference for locations in Bath, Elmira, Geneva, Geneseo, Ithaca, Jamestown, or Olean. 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.

Salary:

Salary is set on a standardized organizational salary scale based on years of job experience.

The salary for a Unit Supervisor/Project Manager with five years of relevant experience is $72,150 as per the LawNY ® salary scale.

Benefits: We provide a superlative package of fringe benefits including:

• 94% employer paid health insurance, with significant HSA contributions to offset high deduction plans
• 100% employer paid dental and disability insurance
• $50,000 automatic life insurance
• Remote Work Policy: New staff are able to work from home up to 3 days per week during their 6 month probationary period with manager approval. This increases to 5 days per week once successfully finished with a probationary period with manager approval.
• LawNY is committed to providing a work-life balance to their employees. We encourage and support a 35 hour work week to ensure our employees have this balance.
  

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 ® staff may also qualify for public interest law school loan forgiveness programs.

Application Instructions:

To apply, submit your cover letter, resume, and three references through LawNY ® ’s BambooHR platform ( click 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 at LawNY.

Applications for this position will close on April 14, 2023 . Please apply before then for full consideration. The job will remain posted until filled. If not filled by this date, applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. 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.

Questions or Accommodations? Contact Sandra Coyne at scoyne@lawny.org

Legal Assistance of Western New York, Inc. (LawNY ® ) is an equal opportunity employer. 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.