Director of Advocacy for Public Benefits & Employment

The Statewide Advocacy Support Unit announces an immediate opening for a full-time Director of Advocacy for Income Security, who will be responsible for the statewide coordination of the work of Maryland Legal Aid in the areas of public benefits and employment.

Duties and Responsibilities

1.      Work closely with Maryland Legal Aid advocates in all offices to ensure high quality representation of clients in public benefits and employment cases.  Specific areas of practice include, but are not limited to, Social Security and Supplemental Security Income; Unemployment Insurance; state welfare benefits, including SNAP (Food Stamps), Temporary Cash Assistance and Temporary Disability Assistance; veterans benefits; criminal record expungements; child-care and transportation assistance programs; wage and hour claims; employment discrimination; family medical leave and advocacy to ensure appropriate language access to persons with limited English proficiency;

2.     Supervise advocacy on behalf of migrant farm workers in Maryland and Delaware;

3.     Coordinate and supervise administrative hearing and appellate advocacy.  Practice in state and federal appellate courts.  Conduct and co-counsel impact and complex litigation and advocacy on behalf of public benefit and employment clients;

4.     Support,  mentor and informally train staff and provide substantive law updates on issues related to public benefits and employment law;

5.     Conduct and assist staff with permissible legislative work and community education and outreach;

6.     Work closely with appropriate task forces and workgroups (most notably, Maryland Legal Aid’s public benefits,  workers’ rights, and language access task forces) to identify systemic barriers experienced by clients across the state, develop strategies to address those barriers, and work in collaboration with staff to implement strategies and monitor outcomes;

7.     Plan, and assist in, the provision of appropriate formal training of advocacy staff on issues related to public benefits and employment law;

8.     Coordinate interaction and collaborative advocacy efforts with other legal services providers and advocacy groups, government agencies, the bench, the bar, and community groups on issues involving public benefits and employment law;

9.     Where permitted, develop new and innovative projects designed to improve laws relating to just and favorable conditions of work, the right to fair and just compensation, protection against unemployment and discrimination in the work place; and laws which strengthen the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of individuals and families, including food, clothing, housing, medical care, and necessary social services; and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability or other lack of livelihood.

10.  Assist Maryland Legal Aid’s development team to craft new funding proposals and provide reports to funders to evaluate Maryland Legal Aid’s performance on grants related to advocacy involving public benefits and employment law;

11.  Assist with external and internal communication and production of written materials to support advocacy and community education efforts, including scholarly articles, reports, brochures, self-help materials and other publications focusing on public benefits and workers’ rights;

12.   Other duties as assigned.