About the Community Economic Defense Project (CEDP) & CED Law
Our mission
We partner with low-income and working people to build economic and racial equity. We do this by confronting economic abuse and investing in community wealth. We use an ever-evolving set of legal, economic and advocacy tools to challenge and dismantle unjust systems, building quickly towards a world where all people have what they need to live and thrive.
Our Organization
The Community Economic Defense Project (CEDP) is a Colorado-based nonprofit. Launched in 2020 as the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project, our organization was formed to keep our neighbors housed during the pandemic. Working with clients, we built a “one-stop-shop” approach to eviction, foreclosure, and homelessness prevention that centers the legal and financial needs of housing-insecure families and uses a variety of tools to keep them housed.
Our team now serves more than 1,000 people per month, bringing together housing lawyers, economists, data analysts, policy-experts, organizers, and technologists to serve our clients. In the previous two years, we have distributed more than $200 million in aid and served more than 40,000 Coloradans. We have also contributed to the passage of major legislation to prevent eviction, stop economic abuse, and make credit and life-saving medication cheaper. CEDP’s model has been cited as a best practice by the White House, HUD, the Urban Institute, and in the media.
Building on our work to stop evictions, CEDP has further expanded its integrated services model to include disaster response, predatory towing, debt collection, benefit access & navigation, long-term rental assistance, and homelessness response. Similar to CEDP’s work on rental housing, these efforts offer a continuum of care that includes navigation and advisory services, targeted payments, legal support, and the ability to participate in advocacy.
More about the Role:
CED Law, the law firm at CEDP, is seeking an experienced eviction attorney to oversee CED Law’s courthouse clinics and manage our courthouse eviction defense clinic program.
A successful candidate will have experience with CED Law’s eviction clinics and a desire to maintain and build new relationships to improve and evolve the program in the immediate future. All program work will be guided by the ultimate goal of providing high quality legal support to the most tenants possible given the current level of resources. The best-fit candidate for this role will have three or more years of experience in litigation, managing and developing projects, leadership, and administrative oversight. The role will be directly supervised by one of CED Law’s Directors of Eviction Defense.
To further ensure success, candidates are expected to work comfortably under pressure with tight deadlines in a fast-paced environment. The Clinic Program Supervisor must exercise sound judgment and have strong written and verbal skills as well as the ability to collaborate with peers and managers to adapt and improve processes.
In This Role You Will:
- Develop vision, goals, and priorities for CED Law’s clinic program by maintaining our current program and working to evolve and improve it in the immediate future with the assistance of the Directors of Eviction Defense and Chief Legal Services Officer.
- Oversee and coordinate CED Law’s various courthouse eviction defense clinics, including developing and training attorneys on clinic processes with the assistance of the Directors of Eviction Defense and Managing Paralegal, staffing the clinics every week, and ensuring that clinic supplies are stocked and technology is working.
- Directly supervise 1-2 administrative staff, including the clinic legal assistant, who will be present at the clinic 3 times per week. Supervision of administrative staff duties will include weekly check-ins, training on clinic processes, supervising in person on clinic days where needed and appropriate, and professional growth and development.
- Attend CED Law’s eviction defense clinics 2-3 times per week in an attorney and/or lead capacity where you will work directly with individuals and groups of clients on a limited representation basis and/or provide supervision to the clinic legal assistant and leadership at clinics.
- Leadership duties at clinic will include making sure processes are running efficiently, setting expectations with tenants who are waiting for assistance, establishing work and process flow, identifying areas for improvement on the ground, providing coverage to administrative staff during breaks, being available to discuss case or client issues with attorneys and paralegals on-site with the assistance of Directors and Managing Paralegal, addressing last minute supply issues, and being available for de-escalation needs between staff and tenants.
- Serve as the point of contact for current internal and external clinic relationships, including courthouse personnel, partner organizations, and the CEDP Eviction Diversion Clinic Team, with the assistance of Directors of Eviction Defense and Managing Paralegal.
- Occasionally assist with clinic administrative work, including developing and maintaining intake forms and representation agreements, inputting clinic cases into CED Law’s case management system and tracker excel sheets, sending out representation agreements, filing affirmations, and converting clinic cases, with the support and assistance of other administrative staff including the clinic legal assistant.
- Maintain an appropriate average of cases closed per month developed in conjunction with firm-wide goals by CED Law Directors, which may require occasionally working on cases outside the clinic setting or providing coverage to other attorneys in the law firm when needed.
- Take on new, and modify existing, duties and responsibilities, as the clinic program evolves, grows or shifts focuses.
Requirements:
- Colorado Bar admission and JD
- Ability to travel to and work at CED Law’s various courthouse clinics in and around the Denver metro area, requiring in-person work 2-3 times per week and potentially more as needed.
- Familiarity and expertise with CED Law’s current clinic programs and structure.
- Minimum three years of experience as a practicing attorney with an emphasis in litigation and housing/eviction defense work.
- Project management or other leadership roles are a plus.
- Excellent client-relations skills and ability to handle client problems and complaints respectfully and professionally. Proven ability to manage administrative work and follow administrative procedures and policies closely with attention to detail.
- A strong desire to work in a collaborative environment centered on social and racial justice and equity.
- Must have excellent organizational skills, a supportive, client-focused attitude, and a passion for overseeing and developing projects.
- A creative, self-driven mindset with the ability to enhance existing programs is essential.
- Must be able to collaborate effectively with people from diverse backgrounds and adapt to new environments.
- A process-oriented approach and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, evolving organization are required.
- Strong interpersonal communication skills and proficiency in MS Office (especially Excel), CLIO, and payment processing systems are necessary.
- Familiarity with Google Suite is preferred.
- Spanish language skills are desired but not required.
Additional Details:
- Candidates must reside in Colorado, ideally within the greater Denver Metro area. The position includes competitive pay, flexible time off, benefits package (including medical, dental, vision), and 401k.
- A competitive annual salary of $92,500 a year.
- Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis but must be received by October 25, 2024.
- The estimated time to complete the recruitment process will be by November 1, 2024.
- As in-person work is sometimes required, all employees at CEDP & CED Law are expected to maintain current vaccination status in keeping with CDC recommendations.
- CEDP is an equal opportunity employer, committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status.
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