Staff Attorney - LGBTQ+ Advocacy Project (Bronx)

Legal Services NYC (LSNYC) fights poverty and seeks racial, social and economic justice for low-income New Yorkers. For over 50 years, we have challenged systemic injustices that trap people in poverty and provided legal services that help our clients meet basic needs for housing, income and economic security, family and immigration stability, education, and health care. LSNYC is the largest civil legal services provider in the country; our staff of more than 600 people in neighborhood-based offices and outreach sites across all five boroughs helps hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers annually. We partner with scores of community-based and client-run organizations, elected officials, public agencies, pro bono lawyers, and the courts to maximize our effectiveness. Our work fights discrimination and helps to achieve equity for all low-income New Yorkers.

LSNYC employees have numerous opportunities for growth and professional development, including access to our internal Justice Learning Center, which provides opportunities to earn free CLEs and gain experience as a trainer. 

BRONX LEGAL SERVICES SEEKS STAFF ATTORNEY FOR OUR LGBTQ+ ADVOCACY PROJECT

We are seeking an experienced attorney to join our LGBTQ+ Advocacy Project as a staff attorney.

Our Organization

Bronx Legal Services, the largest provider of free civil legal services in the borough, is part of Legal Services NYC’s network of local programs throughout New York City. Our mission is to advance society’s promise to its most vulnerable members: that they are entitled to equal access to our legal system. For over 55 years, we have provided civil legal services that help our clients meet their essential needs and have challenged the systemic injustices that keep them poor.

Bronx Legal Services prides itself on its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) efforts. As a social justice organization, we are committed to fighting for a workplace that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive. Our DEIB committee and numerous affinity groups work to foster collegial relationships among staff and allow staff to explore and advocate for racial justice and anti-oppression growth within our organization and through our legal work. All employees are expected to learn about, seek to understand, and work to realize our DEIB goals.

The LGBTQ+ Advocacy Project

The LGBTQ+ Advocacy Project is a general practice unit that provides comprehensive legal services in a single location for the LGBTQ+ community. The Project provides representation in a broad-range of civil legal needs including community and economic development; public assistance, social security, and other benefits; healthcare; advance directives and planning; housing preservation; and, consumer law. The Project also engages in affirmative litigation challenging discrimination and other systemic abuses faced by LGBTQ+ and HIV-affected communities.

Our LGBTQ+ Advocacy Project is part of our combined team: the Public Benefits Unit & LGBTQ+ Advocacy Project.

The Opportunity                                                          

We are seeking a staff attorney as a result of a grant. The staff attorney will provide comprehensive legal services to LGBTQ+ residents of the Bronx, with a primary focus on health law and health access and a secondary focus on family law/intimate partner violence. The staff attorney’s primary role will be providing direct representation in various civil matters. The staff attorney will conduct community education, provider education, off-site intake, and outreach, including intake at community health centers that are already part of our existing medical-legal partnerships. We expect this staff attorney to provide wide-ranging services, with an emphasis on individual representation, that improve the social determinants of health for LGBTQ+-identified Bronx residents.

The staff attorney will report to the Supervising Attorney of the Public Benefits & LGBTQ Advocacy Units.                 

Qualifications

• Admission to the New York State Bar;
• At least two years of combined experience in one or more of the following practice areas: health/home care, family, or public benefits (non-legal experience will be considered);
• Prior experience representing LGBTQ+ people required;
• Prior experience representing litigants at administrative hearings and in City, State, or Federal Courts required;
• Commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) and utilization of DEIB lens in the project, work, and representation;
• Ability to adapt quickly and correct course as well as to identify and achieve goals in an evolving project;
• Superlative communication and interpersonal skills, w