Housing Attorney
San Francisco Regional Office
Organization: Bay Area Legal Aid (BayLegal) ensures fairness in the civil justice system for the most vulnerable members of our community. From Silicon Valley to Napa Valley, we help clients protect their livelihoods, their health, and their families. Our clients include the working poor, families with children, foster youth, seniors, immigrants, veterans, and persons with disabilities. Through our regional county offices, our mobile advocacy clinics, and our nationally-recognized Legal Advice Line, BayLegal prevents domestic violence and sexual assault, increases economic stability, protects consumers, expands access to healthcare, and prevents homelessness. For our clients, BayLegal makes the difference between staying in poverty and thriving toward a brighter future.
Position: We are seeking a Housing Attorney to join our dynamic Housing Law practice group in San Francisco. Our housing attorneys focus on preserving tenancies for low-income and subsidized tenants in San Francisco. As part of the San Francisco's Tenants' Right to Counsel Initiative this position will focus on providing full-scope legal representation to tenants in unlawful detainer proceedings.
The Housing Attorney will:
· Provide full-scope legal representation to tenants in the unlawful detainer proceedings, including propounding and responding to discovery, conducting depositions, pre-trial motions, and trials;
· Represent tenants in administrative proceedings before the San Francisco Housing Authority and other agencies;
· Advocate for tenants on issues of fair housing, substandard conditions, and VAWA;
· Identify systemic problems that affect our clients’ housing rights and address these challenges through affirmative litigation and policy work;
· Conduct community outreach/ trainings, and provide pro per assistance to tenants at self-help and community sites county-wide, and
· Collaborating with the local and national tenant advocacy community.
Compensation and Benefits: Compensation is based on a competitive public interest salary scale. Generous benefits package includes medical, dental, and life insurance; long term disability; paid holiday, vacation, and sick leave; law school loan repayment; bilingual stipends; and 401k retirement plan.
Core Competencies:
· Membership in good standing in California State Bar, or license from another state and eligibility to practice under California's multijurisdictional practice rule; applicants awaiting California bar results will be considered.
· At least one year of relevant litigation and advocacy experience;
· Excellent legal research, writing, editing, and proof-reading skills, with ability to be detail-oriented;
· Excellent communication skills and experience in addressing various audiences;
· Strong organizational and time management skills, personal work ethic, and ability to manage diverse activities and competing deadlines;
· Strong interpersonal skills and an ability to work collaboratively with a dynamic team;
· Cultural competency in working with low‐income clients from diverse backgrounds, including clients with physical and mental disabilities, LEP clients, and LGBT clients;
· Bilingual ability in Spanish, Mandarin, or Cantonese preferred, and
· Familiarity with the local tenant advocacy community, federally subsidized housing, and the San Francisco Housing Court is a plus.
Applications: Bay Area Legal Aid thrives on our diversity and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a culturally diverse workplace and strongly encourage women, persons of color, LGBTQ individuals, veterans, persons with disabilities, and persons from other underrepresented groups to apply. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue on a rolling basis, but applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Please send a cover letter, resume, writing sample, diversity statement –described below, and list of references to: Human Resources Department, e-mail to jobs@baylegal.org. Be sure to refer to the posting "Housing Attorney—San Francisco" in the title of your email.
In a separate page from your cover letter, please address the following:
BayLegal’s clients are low- and very low-income members of our communities. They include the working poor, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities. To ensure our organization is best serving these populations, BayLegal strives to promote an evolving set of behaviors and attitudes amongst our staff, as well as policies that enable us to work effectively in all cross-cultural situations, with clients, with our coworkers, and with the community. We see this as a commitment to enhance the provision of our services to all clients; to raise the level of positive client outcomes; and to create an inclusive and respectful workplace in which differences are acknowledged and valued.
How do you think your personal background or experiences, professional or otherwise, have prepared you to contribute to our commitment to cultural humility and diversity amongst our staff? Feel free to think broadly about your response to this question, applying various aspects of your life and personal experiences.
[Please note that your response to the prompt above will not be read by your interviewing hiring committee. To reduce potential bias, your name will be removed and your response to this prompt will be read and reviewed separately from the rest of your application. Feedback on your response will then be provided to the interviewing hiring committee for this position. Therefore, if there is any specific information that you would like the interviewing hiring committee to be aware of, please make sure to include that information in your cover letter, even if there is some duplication.]