Supervising Staff Attorney - CAFL Worcester

Overview

The Children and Family Law Division (CAFL) of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the Massachusetts public defender agency, is seeking a Supervising Staff Attorney to supervise Trial Attorneys and to provide family regulation representation for its Worcester Office. 

 

We fight for equal justice and human dignity by supporting our clients in achieving their legal and life goals. We zealously advocate for the rights of individuals and promote just public policy to protect the rights of all.

 

Our Values

Courage   •   Accountability   •   Respect   •   Excellence

 

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION MISSION STATEMENT

 

CPCS is committed to protecting the fundamental constitutional and human rights of our assigned clients through zealous advocacy, community-oriented defense, and the fullness of excellent legal representation.  We are dedicated to building and maintaining strong professional relationships, while striving to accept, listen to and respect the diverse circumstances of each client, as we dedicate ourselves to meeting their individual needs.  It is our CPCS mission to achieve these goals, and in furtherance thereof, we embrace and endorse diversity, equity and inclusion as our core values as we maintain a steadfast commitment to: (1) Ensure that CPCS management and staff members represent a broad range of human differences and experience; (2) Provide a work climate that is respectful and supports success; and (3) Promote the dignity and well-being of all staff members. CPCS leadership is responsible for ensuring equity, diversity, and inclusion. The ability to achieve these goals with any level of certainty is ultimately the responsibility of each member of the CPCS community.

 

AGENCY OVERVIEW

 

CPCS is the state agency in Massachusetts responsible for providing an attorney when the state or federal constitution or a state statute requires the appointment of an attorney for a person who cannot afford to retain one.  The agency provides representation in criminal, delinquency, youthful offender, family regulation, guardianship, mental health, sexually dangerous person, and sex offender registry cases, as well as in appeals and post-conviction and post-judgment proceedings related to those matters.

 

The clients we represent are diverse across every context imaginable and bring many unique cultural dimensions to the matters we address. This reality creates a critical need for CPCS staff to be culturally competent and able to work well with people of different races, ethnicities, genders and/or sexual orientation identities, abilities, and limited English proficiency, among other protected characteristics.

 

DIVISION OVERVIEW

 

Attorneys working with CPCS’s Children and Family Law Division represent parents, children and older youth, custodians, and guardians in cases in which the Department of Children and Families (DCF) is seeking custody of children and a limited number of other civil cases relating to families.  Attorneys appointed to these cases represent clients in care and protection matters (know elsewhere as dependency or abuse and neglect cases) and in termination of parental rights, guardianship-of-a-minor, and child requiring assistance cases.  Nearly all of these cases are heard in the Juvenile Court.

 

CAFL’s legal advocacy plays a critical role in cases that affect families.  For a parent involved in a care and protection case, having a skilled CAFL legal team may mean the difference between the family’s reunification and the termination of parental rights – the “death penalty of family law.”  For a teenager who is the subject of a truancy case, CAFL’s advocacy may secure the special education services that enable the client to succeed in school and avoid being placed in a foster home with strangers.  For siblings looking for stability after the court has freed them for adoption, the CAFL attorney will fight to ensure that they are provided a permanent home that allows them to stay together.

 

POSITION OVERVIEW

 

The Children and Family Law Division (CAFL) of the Committee for Public Counsel Services is seeking a Supervising Staff Attorney with a minimum of five years of experience providing representation in Family Regulation cases for its Worcester office.  Under the direction of the office’s Attorney in Charge, the Supervising Staff Attorney will assist in the supervision of staff Trial Attorneys.  The Supervising Staff Attorney will also have their own reduced caseload.  Clients are children and indigent parents who are parties to care and protection, child requiring assistance, termination of parental rights cases, and childre