We offer a mission- and employee-focused work environment and competitive public interest compensation.
- This position is full-time, 40 hours per week, exempt.
- Salary range $80,000 to $100,000, commensurate with experience.
- At least a two-year commitment expected.
- Flexible work schedule (when not under litigation deadlines).
- Malpractice insurance.
- Some professional dues paid by CLDC.
- Benefits include generous paid time off and holidays, summer half-day Fridays, excellent comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance, one month sabbatical after 5 years, CLEs, tech/security budget.
- As a nonprofit, CLDC employment qualifies staff for federal loan forgiveness.
- We are invested in your growth. We provide a range of opportunities for all team members to grow and evolve, including a staff political education series, individual professional development budget, and leadership training and coaching.
•We are invested in your wellbeing. While we are result-driven and high-performing, we are also committed to having a humanistic workplace that is people-centered, respects difference, and is positive and affirming.
Required Education:
Juris Doctor
Additional Information:
Hybrid/Remote is allowed.
Summary
CLDC is currently seeking a California bar-licensed movement attorney with a minimum of three years of criminal defense experience and an environmental and/or social justice movement background, to work on activist criminal defense, activist grand jury witness representation, and related cases. We are looking for a well-rounded movement attorney who brings hard work, initiative, commitment, and passion for our work, our clients, and the progressive movements we support and defend. Strong trial skills and the ability to work well with diverse teams of activists, lawyers, and legal workers are required. Dedication to movement-building and an understanding of movement infrastructure and legal risk assessment strongly desired. The movement attorney will report to the Legal Directors, and will work on all aspects of our case work, including intake, drafting motions and briefs, working with legal teams and defendant groups, and litigating cases at trial and on appeal. The movement attorney may also work on and/or gain experience litigating our civil rights impact cases and SLAPP defense cases if desired, and as allowed by the criminal case load. In addition, the movement attorney will contribute to our Dissent & Democracy program by helping develop and present our public education trainings (Know Your Rights & Risks).
Movement-Aligned Criminal Defense
Our cases are in state and federal courts around the country; therefore the ability to work on cases pro hac vice and learn and apply new laws and court rules will be necessary. Ideally this attorney will lead our movement legal work in under-served areas in California.
Client intake and communication.
Complex legal research and discovery practice.
Motion practice, including innovative constitutional challenges and necessity defenses.
Trial practice and sentencing litigation.
Occasional appellate, habeas corpus, and other post-trial work.
Working in conjunction with legal teams and defendant groups to foster movement lawyering, litigation strategy, and movement-building.
Communications and Engagement
Provide CLDC Know Your Rights and Risks (KYRR) and related movement trainings, workshops, and public presentations.
Develop and revise CLDC-branded materials and movement legal resources.
Ability to effectively communicate complex messages with diverse audiences through large group public speaking as well as small group and one-on-one consultations.
Partner with the communications team to contribute to storytelling, narrative, and outreach work.
Engage in coalition and movement collaboration meetings.
Enthusiastically represent CLDC’s purpose and values as an external and internal leader.
Required Experience and Qualifications:
3 years minimum experience as a criminal defense attorney.
Admitted to practice law in good standing in California; ideally at least one federal bar admission at the time of application.
Strong litigation, research, and writing skills.
Strong legal ethics comprehension.
Jury trial experience and skills.
Ability to meet deadlines and perform multiple tasks while maintaining attention to detail.
Demonstrated commitment to environmental and/or social justice movement(s), broadly defined.
Excellent diverse people skills, culturally appropriate, anti-racist, anti-oppression orientation.
Good communicator; Strong team member.
Must be available and able to travel (12 to 30 days per year), including overnights, throughout the continental U.S. Must be available for some evening and weekend work activities.
Physical capabilities: Able to work at a computer consistently for at least eight hours a day (with lunch and other appropriate breaks), 40 hours per week.
Preferred Experience and Qualifications
Fluency in a second language relevant to our work; Spanish speakers strongly encouraged to apply; differential pay offered.
Experience in community organizing work and/or social justice activism.
Experience with security culture and digital security.
Experience working for a nonprofit, especially legal services.
Experience and/or willingness to learn and assist in organizational fundraising.
The Civil Liberties Defense Center (CLDC) is a nonprofit organization that supports movements that seek to dismantle the political and economic structures at the root of social inequality and environmental destruction. We provide litigation, education, and legal and strategic resources to strengthen and embolden the success of those movements. Our motto is “We’ve got your back until all are free.” We have provided pro bono activist defense to more than 5,500 social, environmental, and climate justice activists, as well as providing free Know Your Rights & Risks trainings to more than 11,500 people. CLDC’s staff attorneys have over 55 years of combined movement litigation experience as well as experience with intersectional movement organizing work.
