Senior Staff Attorney
Muslim Advocates
- Washington DC
- Permanent
- Full-time
- Provide technical expertise/assistance to partners
- Participate in ongoing advocacy coalitions
- Develop relationships with grassroots and organizational partners and related, shared advocacy
- Develop and present Know Your Rights (KYR) guidance
- Develop trainings for advocates
- Federal and/or state/local policy advocacy, as required
- Screen and follow up on intakes
- In-depth, complex legal research and writing for both litigation and non-litigation advocacy
- Oral advocacy and communications/media/public advocacy relating to both litigation and non-litigation work
- Litigation work, including but not limited to: identifying and weighing potential legal claims/arguments/strategies; client contact, advisals, and communications; drafting pleadings, motions, and briefs; strategizing for and conducting written and oral discovery; strategizing for, exploring, and guiding settlement negotiations
- Oversee interns and fellows
- Sound professional judgment
- Rigorous critical-thinking skills
- Strong oral and written communication skills
- Exceptional time-management and organizational skills
- Demonstrated ability to work and collaborate effectively in a remote environment as part of a team, with clients, and with myriad partners and allies
- Consistently demonstrating initiative and accountability for all areas of your work
- Ability to receive and implement feedback effectively
- Flexibility and adaptation in response to shifting priorities
- At least 5 years of practice experience as an attorney
- Subject-matter expertise and advocacy experience in one or more of the following areas:
- immigration detention-and-deportation system
- criminal legal system
- prisoners’ rights and carceral abolition
- legal frameworks concerning putative national security
- students’ rights under the First Amendment and under Title VI of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964
- low-wage workers' rights
- litigation and advocacy under:
- constitutional and statutory civil-rights frameworks, including: disability rights
- the Federal Tort Claims Act
- transparency frameworks (the Freedom of Information Act and state/local equivalents)
- Demonstrated experience in:
- movement and client-centered lawyering
- intersectional racial and social justice work
- participating in, maintaining, expanding, and building advocacy coalitions
- Understanding and fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace and beyond
- Experience litigating in federal and state courts, including in complex civil litigation
- Experience with federal and state/local policy advocacy
- Experience preparing administrative complaints directed to civil-rights bodies within federal and state/local agencies
- Fluency in ASL (American Sign Language), ISL (International Sign Language), and/or one or more non-English languages (with a preference for Arabic, Urdu, Dari, Farsi, Pashto, Tajik, and/or Uzbek)
- Demonstrated experience in:
- applying cultural humility in interactions with others
- applying trauma-informed approaches in interactions with others
- a resume
- a list of references, including:
- at least one and up to three people who have supervised you (ideally within the past 5-10 years),
- at least one person with whom you’ve professionally collaborated (ideally within the past 5-10 years, and ideally including 1+ non-attorney advocates/allies),
- and, if applicable, at least one person whose work you have supervised (ideally within the past 5-10 years)
- two legal-writing samples no greater than 20 pages in length each and that are an accurate reflection of work that you did either exclusively or predominantly. (Please either certify that the work is yours exclusively or otherwise specify who supervised the drafting/editing and whether we may contact them).