Staff Attorney, Senior Staff Attorney, or Senior Counsel, Disability Rights Program

ABOUT THE JOB

The ACLU seeks applicants for the term-limited, full-time position of Staff Attorney, Senior Staff Attorney, or Senior Counsel in the Disability Rights Program of the ACLU’s National office in San Francisco, CA or Washington, DC. This is a two-year, term-limited position that will focus on veterans’ rights. This is a hybrid role that has in-office requirements of two (2) days per week or eight (8) days per month. 

We will review applications on a rolling basis, but priority consideration will be given to those who submit applications by May 30, 2025.

The Disability Rights Program’s mission is to achieve an America free of discrimination against people with disabilities; where people with disabilities are valued, integrated members of society who have full access to education, homes, health care, jobs, families, voting and civic engagement. We fight to ensure that people with disabilities are no longer segregated into, and over-represented in, civil and criminal institutions such as nursing homes, psychiatric hospitals, jails, and prisons.

The ACLU has fought for decades for the rights of people with disabilities - achieving key wins to stop coerced mental health treatment and unnecessary institutionalization, as well as playing a role in the drafting of the ADA. In 2012, the ACLU established the Disability Rights Project. DRP litigates and advocates to use disability rights laws to end the overrepresentation of people with disabilities in the criminal legal system, including pursuing first of its kind litigation to ensure that municipalities provide trained, non-police responders to people experiencing mental health crises. We also litigate and advocate to promote alternatives to guardianship and to secure equal access to the ballot. We also provide support to affiliates and the National office on disability rights issues that intersect with core civil liberties. While the ACLU’s Legal Department is headquartered in New York, the Disability Rights Program is housed in the San Francisco and Washington, D.C. offices.

The ACLU has also long fought for the rights of veterans and service members, running from its Military Discharge Project in the 1970s to assist veterans in upgrading discharge papers, to recent briefs arguing that the jurisdiction stripping language of the Veterans Judicial Review Act be narrowly construed, to litigation to uncover information about DOGE’s efforts to access sensitive information from the Department of Veterans Affairs. We are also litigating now to address censorship in Department of Defense Schools and to protect the path to citizenship for service members, and we have a history of working to protect the rights of military people to vote, to support the consideration of race in service academy admissions, and to challenge discrimination against women and LGBT people.

This position is part of a collective bargaining unit. It is represented by ACLU Staff United (ASU).

WHAT YOU'LL DO 

Reporting to the Director of the Disability Rights Program, we seek an experienced litigator to be a core member of a small, collaborative and strong team working to advance veterans’ rights through the lens of disability rights.

YOUR DAY TO DAY

• Create and implement multi-pronged strategies using litigation, public education, and legislative and policy advocacy to further the disability rights of veterans
• Assist in and lead litigation, including writing pleadings and briefs, conducting discovery and motion practice, handling hearings and trials, arguing appeals in both federal and state courts, and managing litigation teams
• Work with ACLU political advocacy and affiliate staff on bills in state legislatures and in Congress
• Draft policy analysis designed to effect change in state and federal administrative agencies
• Engage in community outreach and public speaking, including representing ACLU positions to the media and the public generally
• Work closely with legal and non-legal program staff, particularly legislative, communications, advocacy, and fundraising professionals
• Develop strong co-counsel relationships with other public interest lawyers and pro bono attorneys
• Provide support and assistance to ACLU affiliates and cooperating attorneys
• Coach and mentor junior staff members and interns
• Travel as required for litigation, legislative and policy advocacy, conferences, and public speaking

FUTURE ACLU'ERS WILL 

• Be committed to advancing the mission of the ACLU
• Center and embed the principles of equity, inclusion and belong