Human Resources Director

Organization Information and Mission Statement

LawNY® provides free civil legal help to individuals and families struggling with poverty in a nearly 10,000 square mile 14 county area with an urban center in Rochester and rural counties in western New York, the Finger Lakes and the Southern Tier. We provide services through seven fully staffed offices located in Bath, Elmira, Geneva, Ithaca, Jamestown, Olean and Rochester and we maintain satellite offices in Lakeville and Lyons and a business office in Rochester. Including AmeriCorps paralegals, we presently have approximately 180 staff members, including approximately 85 attorneys.

In 2020, LawNY® closed 4,881 cases benefitting 10,532 people. The breakdown of the cases was as follows: housing (27%), income maintenance (26%), family (22%), health (13%), consumer (3%), employment (3%) and other (6%).

 LawNY® has a revenue side budget of over $15.2 million, with approximately 90 contracts with various federal, state, county and city agencies, as well as area United Ways, foundations and private donations.

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

This position is located in LawNY®'s Human Resources department with involvement in all seven offices and management team. This position can be located in Rochester, Geneva, or Ithaca offices.

Position Description

The Human Resources Director is a member of our Organizational Management Team and is responsible for core personnel management, employee engagement, benefits administration, compliance with federal labor law, complaints and discipline, and operations management. The Director also works with the DEI Management team and staff committee to advance strategic Diversity, Equity and Inclusion organizational initiatives. The Human Resources Director reports to the Deputy Director of Operations.

This Director supervises two human resources administrators who coordinate benefits enrollment, payroll, leave requests, recruitment, hiring and onboarding, respectively. The Director similarly works closely with the Deputy Director of Operations to ensure staffing needs are met across the organization's programs and offices.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion organizational initiatives involve working collaboratively with the DEI Managers and staff committee to integrate race equity and anti-bias into the recruitment, hiring, onboarding, supervision, retention and disciplinary procedure. The Human Resources Director will play a key role with the DEI team as LawNY strives to create a culture that allows us to utilize mediation, restorative, and transformative justice practices, where formal complaints become rare because we have created a functional, equitable, anti-racist workplace. While we can never create a workplace free of conflict, we can create one committed to and succeeded in transforming pre-existing systems of racism, abuse and power into systems of justice and equity. This goal requires exceptionally qualified staff in LawNY®’s Human Resources Department. 

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

• Plan, lead, direct, develop, and implement policies, processes, training initiatives, and surveys to ensure legal compliance with federal, state, and local employment laws and regulations, and recommended best practices; reviews and modifies policies and practices to maintain compliance.
• Oversees the administration and workflow of human resource programs including, but not limited to:
  • Standardization/Centralization of HR Core Competencies
  • Benefit Administration
  • Employee Relation Issues & Resolutions
  • Strategic Planning of Recruitment, Hiring and Retention
  • Safety & Health Compliance
  • Regulatory Compliance
  • Employee Performance Process & Career Growth Module
  • Employee Recognition & Retention
  • Employee Engagement
  • Ensuring Confidentiality     
• Partner with the Executive Director, Director of Operations, Litigation Director and DEI Managers to set internal program priorities and collaborate on special, large-scale organizational initiatives that drive or align strategic organizational activities. 
  • Assist DEI Manager with implementation of DEI hiring and onboarding 
  • Assist DEI Manager and Pro Bono Director with recruitment initiatives
  • Collaborate with DEI Manager professional development plans, performance reviews, mentorship, supervision, and offboarding, in support of equity consistency across all LawNY® staff
• Provides direct supervision and oversight to the HR Administrator and the Recruitment & Hiring and Administrator
• Maintain knowledge of trends, best practices, regulatory changes, and new technologies in human resources and employment law; apply this knowledge to communicate changes in policy, practice, and resources to upper management.
• Support LawNY® personnel on any human resources issues that arise, including supervision, personnel support, and problem solving.
• Collaborate close with DEI Manager to manage restorative justice, transformative justice and conflict resolution initiatives 
• Maintain LawNY’s Human Resources Platform, BambooHR
• Collaborate with the DEI Manager for Training and Operations on professional development, training, and certification activities for staff.
• Foster a positive, collaborative work culture that attracts, keeps, and motivates a diverse staff.
• Ensure that employee engagement, retention, and inclusion is an organizational priority and are informed by employee-volunteer data, such as stay interviews, and employee engagement surveys.
• In conjunction with the Deputy Director, the HR Director will strategically plan and execute the HR roadmap to ensure centralization of policies and processes.
• The HR Director will execute salary placements and job offers which will be reviewed by the Deputy Director of Operations and Executive Director.

Salary:

Salary is set on a standardized organizational salary scale based on years of job experience. Upon job offer, candidates are asked to complete a form describing years of direct and comparable experience. Human Resources and the Executive Director review the form and provide the candidate with a proposed salary placement. The candidate may review and suggest alternate placement. The salary scale intends to mitigate bias. LawNY conducts an annual equity audit to compare salary placement with staff demographics.

The salary for a HR Director with 5 years of human resource experience is $77,500 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 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.                                                                                

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

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.