Senior Attorney, Early Defense

Job Details

Level: ExperiencedJob Location: Queens - Jamaica, NY 11432Position Type: Full-TimeEducation Level: Graduate School DegreeSalary Range: $104,000.00 - $127,500.00 Salary/yearTravel Percentage: NegligibleJob Category: Legal

The Center for Family Representation Inc. (CFR) is an award-winning, innovative law and policy organization that serves primarily Black and Brown families and youth in Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx with an interdisciplinary legal defense model that serves more than 2400 clients every year. CFR was originally founded in 2002 to dramatically change the trajectory of indigent parents being prosecuted by the City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). Our goal is to defend and protect our clients’ rights, reduce the harm of family separation and prevent or minimize the time any child spends in the foster system. CFR provides interdisciplinary family defense with a model that was unique at our founding and that is now being replicated nationally: we assign every client an attorney and a social work staff member, and teams have the support of parent advocates, who are parents with direct personal experience of being investigated and prosecuted by ACS. CFR’s Early Defense Practice represents parents during a child protective investigation (to avoid court involvement where possible) and our SCR practice assists parents in clearing their names from state maltreatment records.

As an agency committed to securing justice for families, we built the Youth Defense practice (YDP) to defend youth at risk of family separation through incarceration. YDP uses the same interdisciplinary model to represent youth being prosecuted in Queens and Manhattan in Supreme Court Youth Parts, during Probation Adjustment and in Delinquency proceedings in Family Court. CFR’s Home for Good program provides legal and social work services to clients in immigration, civil legal services and criminal defense matters, to afford clients an efficient and well-coordinated one-stop solution to a range of issues that threaten family stability.

Recognized as experts in our fields, we annually train over 500 practitioners in the city, state and around the country on strategies to promote family preservation and interdisciplinary representation, and we provide community based “Know Your Rights” presentations to parents, youth and service providers. We advocate at the city, state and national level for policies that reduce the harm of family separation, and promote parent engagement and justice for youth and families.

 

The Senior Attorney for Early Defense (SAED) will partner with other Early Defense supervisors and the Early Defense Director to create and encourage strategies and practices that will shield or reduce CFR Early Defense clients from the family policing system. The SAED will report to the Managing Director of Litigation (MDL).

 

Location: This position is seated in Queens and is remote or in person as needed. CFR has offices in Staten Island, Lower Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens.  This position may work out of any of these offices as needed subject to CFR’s hoteling policy. 

 

Specific Responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

 

Early Defense 

• In partnership with the Director of Early Defense and other Early Defense leadership the Senior Staff Attorney for Early Defense responsibilities may include:
  • Being a strategic thought partner to the Director of Early Defense and Early Defense management team in building out the practice 
  • Strategically communicate with legal representatives of respective agencies involved in a family policing investigation (i.e. DOE, Hospital, ACS, PPRS etc.);
  • Delivering and monitoring a variety of written and oral communications including Early Defense Retainers, Client’s Rights and Responsibilities, practice resources, internal memos, and important messaging for internal and external use;
  • Provide legal representation and individualized advice to parents and other adults facing ACS investigations as needed; 
  • Think creatively around strategies and practices to shield Early Defense Clients from the Family Policing System. Included but not limited to 
    • Use of Standby Guardianship Agreements and Designation of Person with Pa