**About CFR**
The Center for Family Representation Inc. (CFR) is an award-winning,
innovative law and policy organization that serves primarily Black and Brown
families and youth in Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx with an
interdisciplinary legal defense model that serves more than 2400 clients every
year. CFR was originally founded in 2002 to dramatically change the trajectory
of indigent parents being prosecuted by the City’s Administration for
Children’s Services (ACS) and our goal is to reduce the harm of family
separation and prevent or minimize the time any child spends in foster care.
CFR provides interdisciplinary family defense to parents charged by ACS with a
model that was unique at our founding and that is now being replicated
nationally: we assign every client an attorney and a social work staff member,
and teams have the support of parent advocates, who are parents with direct
personal experience losing children to foster care and safely reunifying their
families. CFR was the first agency in the country to integrate parents with
lived experience into legal teams. In 2015, CFR expanded its practice to
provide legal and social work services to parents in immigration, civil legal
services and criminal defense matters.
In addition, CFR’s Juvenile Justice Practice represents youth in Queens and
Manhattan in Supreme Court Youth Parts, during Probation Adjustment and in
Delinquency proceedings in Family Court. CFR’s Community Advocacy Project
represents parents during a child protective investigation (prior to court
involvement) and assists parents in clearing their names from state
maltreatment records. We annually train over 500 practitioners in the city,
state and around the country on strategies to promote family preservation and
interdisciplinary representation and we provide community based “Know Your
Rights” presentations to parents, youth and service providers. We advocate at
the city, state and national level for policies that promote parent engagement
and justice for youth and families.
In the Summer 2022 CFR opened an office in the Bronx and became a conflict
provider for family defense respondents in the Bronx.
**
About the Position**
CFR designed the **Senior Staff Attorney** position to create additional
professional development opportunities for experienced staff attorneys that go
beyond direct client representation and case management and to provide CFR
with additional supervisory, administrative, and program support. Candidates
for Senior Staff Attorney should be able to demonstrate strong litigation and
client counseling skills, the ability to model best practices, and a
willingness and aptitude for taking on an additional leadership and managerial
role at CFR. Professional development opportunities will include supervision
of staff and interns and could also include increased training opportunities
and responsibilities, recruitment and management of CFR’s legal internships,
assisting in grant management, and working with supervisors and executive
staff on strategic planning and overall management and improvement of the
practice. All senior staff are expected to demonstrate an aptitude for
productive problem-solving, a commitment to CFR’s current DEI work, and a
desire to contribute to the stewardship of CFR; this includes the ability to
positively and productively contribute to the work culture at CFR in
communications and work with staff at all levels, including progressive
discipline where necessary. Candidates for senior staff also need to be well
organized in order to work efficiently and effectively beyond their own
caseload.
Responsibilities May Include:
* Direct supervision of one to two staff attorneys and holding/writing professional development reviews for any directly supervised staff;
* Meaningful participation in routine and special supervision meetings;
* Recruitment and programming for law interns and/or fellows and coordinating assignments of interns and/or fellows;
* Assistance with training and technical assistance for new and existing staff and for outside participants and professionals;
* Representing CFR in external policy efforts, including serving on committees, task forces, etc. and helping to inform CFR’s policy priorities;
* Input and assistance with development efforts;
* Coordination of special projects/initiatives;
* Providing second seat opportunities for new and less experienced attorneys, acting as lead attorney with newer attorneys, and second seating on particular cases;
* Intake/sup-of-the-day supervision in court;
* Periodically leading Case Practice and Attorney Workgroup meetings;
* Additional writing, i.e. appeals, practice memos, and development materials;
* Back-up to supervisors on writing assignments and case appearances with non-admitted attorneys and/or less experienced attorneys;
* Input and assistance with internal administrative routines and protocols as well as participation in CFR-wide committees and initiatives, including those related to diversity and hiring/recruitment of staff.
Candidates for the Senior Staff Attorney position must have at least three
years of experience representing indigent parents in Article 10/TPR family
court proceedings and/or in related work with child welfare, court systems, or
other relevant advocacy roles. Candidates should be able to demonstrate strong
programmatic skills, the ability to model best practices, and a willingness
and aptitude for taking on an additional leadership role at CFR. Candidates
for Senior Staff also need to be well organized in order to work efficiently
and effectively beyond their own caseload.
**Deadline:** 11:59pm EST on November 7, 2022