Job Description
Do you want your everyday work to fuel social justice, in your local community and beyond? If so, we invite you to join our team at Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCRSF) where we advance, protect and promote the legal rights of communities of color, low-income people, immigrants and refugees in the Bay Area and California through direct legal services, impact litigation, and advocacy. As one of the oldest and most esteemed civil rights organizations in our area, Lawyers’ Committee has been at the forefront of social justice movements for over fifty years.
We are looking for an energetic, highly-organized person who is committed to racial and economic justice and strongly-interested in coordinating small business legal services for clients of our dynamic public interest legal organization.
LCCRSF’s Legal Services for Entrepreneurs Program
LCCRSF has operated the Legal Services for Entrepreneurs (LSE) program since 1997, with a focus on serving wealth-creating enterprises in low-income communities of color. LSE provides free business legal services to clients in our “target communities,” defined as: 1) low-income individuals or people of color who want to start or develop businesses, 2) businesses committed to investing in economically distressed communities, including hiring people with law enforcement records, and 3) “mom and pop shops” located in areas where gentrification is a force for displacement.
The primary responsibilities of this position are client intakes, data entry, and coordination of our legal services, and our ideal candidate has skills and experience in all of these areas.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
This position is temporary. The start date is as soon as possible and the position will last until December 31st, 2020.
LCCRSF is working remotely through at least the end of 2020. The Temporary Program Assistant will work 100% remotely together with a team of remote colleagues.
In collaboration with the LSE Staff Attorney, the Temporary LSE Program Assistant will be responsible for the following:
1. Help promote LSE legal webinars.
· Conduct appropriate outreach and promotion via communication with our community partners to ensure participation from LSE’s target client communities.
2. Conduct client intakes and referrals.
· Respond to client inquiries by phone and email and direct clients to the appropriate resources;
· Schedule and conduct intake interviews with potential clients;
· Coordinate intake interviews and client data entry with the LSE Administrative Assistant; and
· In consultation with LSE Staff Attorney, determine which clients to refer to the pro bono attorney network and which to assign to contract attorneys.
3. Coordinate pro bono attorney matching and promotion.
· Draft and circulate potential client matters to pro bono network;
· Coordinate matching of volunteer attorneys with clients; and
· Remain in contact with clients and pro bono volunteers to mitigate any issues that arise in the representation; and
· With support from the Staff Attorney, locate attorneys for time-sensitive and specialized requests that cannot be matched through the traditional pro bono network.
4. Grant reporting and database/file management.
· Maintain up-to-date client information and attorney profiles on Salesforce;
· Compile monthly Salesforce reports for in-house tracking purposes and LSE grants; and
· Collaborate with LSE Staff Attorney and LCCRSF Grants Associate to compile and submit periodic grant reports.
Qualifications
LCCRSF seeks applicants with the following qualifications:
Required:
· Bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent work experience;
· Strong written and oral communication skills in English;
· Fluency in Spanish, both oral and written;
· Excellent people skills including patience, flexibility and creativity;
· Demonstrated commitment to racial and economic justice;
· Ability to take initiative on projects and to improve systems;
· Highly organized, detail-oriented, and able to track and meet multiple deadlines;
· Strong knowledge of Microsoft applications, including Outlook, Word, and Excel.
· Must be located in California (anywhere in state is fine)
Preferred:
· Prior experience in community organizing or providing community services, especially in low-income communities of color in the San Francisco Bay Area;
· Prior experience working with and supporting volunteers;
· Prior experience working on racial and/or economic justice issues, or related coursework;
· Prior experience working with small businesses on transactional matters, or related coursework;
· Prior experience in issues related to the displacement of low-income communities and communities of color and/or job creation and collective asset building;
· Prior experience using client management databases, especially Salesforce.
Compensation
$25-30/hour DOE. Benefits include paid time off (four months pro-rated from the annual rate equals 5 days of vacation and 4 sick days) and holidays (13 are observed over the calendar year). LCCRSF will be remote through at least December 31, 2020, and will pay a portion of home cellphone and internet costs/month, as well as furnish an LCCRSF laptop if needed and support ergonomic/workstation needs at your work location, within reason. Our office also closes for the week between Christmas and New Year’s, and we encourage all staff to arrange work so that they take the week off (i.e, employees do not need to take official paid time off for this time.)
To Apply
Applicants should submit: 1) a cover letter; 2) a resume; and 3) contact information for a minimum of two references by email to careers@lccrsf.org (w/ “Temporary Program Assistant – LSE Application” in the subject line).
Questions regarding this position may be submitted to careers@lccrsf.org.
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCRSF) advances, protects and promotes the legal rights of communities of color, low-income people, immigrants and refugees in California. LCCRSF fulfills its mission by partnering with over a thousand pro bono attorneys each year to provide free civil legal assistance and representation. Working alongside the communities we serve, we identify their greatest needs, study trends in individual cases and create change through a combination of direct services, impact litigation and policy advocacy in the areas of racial, economic and immigrant justice. Learn more at www.lccrsf.org.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Position will remain open until filled. Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. People of color, LGBTQ candidates, women, persons with disabilities and individuals over 55 are encouraged to apply.