Position Summary:

The New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice seeks a highly talented and motivated Policy and Legal Director to lead and build out a growing team in New Orleans with an intersectional legal practice. The Policy and Legal Director 1) Delivers strategic policy and legal tools including litigation, analysis, draft policy etc. to campaigns and programs that advance the NOWCRJ members’ collective goals, 2) provides support and accountability to attorneys 3) represent clients in complex cases that are strategic to the collective goals of NOWCRJ. The Policy and Legal Director will report to the Deputy Director of the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice and will work collaboratively with staff and members across the organizations.

 

About the Organization:

The New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice is a multi-racial membership based organization dedicated to building the power and participation of poor people in order to expand democracy and transform the economy. We organize directly affected people, and couple their courage with strategic legal, policy, and communications work to build campaigns that advance racial justice, immigrant rights, and a fair economy. Our members are black and immigrant workers and families in New Orleans and rural Louisiana. The Workers’ Center anchors three grassroots membership organizations: the Congress of Day Laborers, Stand With Dignity, and the Seafood Workers Alliance, as well as the strategic legal and policy department that innovates law and policy strategies that build grassroots power.  Over the last ten years, the Center’s organizing and policy victories have been highlighted in the New York Times, Time Magazine, and Newsweek. For more information go to www.nowcrj.org.

 

This position is based in New Orleans.

 

NOWCRJ’s Policy and Legal Department provides strategic policy and legal support to NOWCRJ’s membership in their efforts to build power. The department also protects members’ rights to organize and defends the NOWCRJ from legal attack. Our current work includes grassroots policy development to advance and protect benefit workers rights, wages and workplace conditions, curtail criminalization, local policy work on wages, strategic immigration and detention work, administrative advocacy, and campaign support. Practice areas include workers’ rights, civil rights, criminal justice, immigration, and benefits.

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PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Deliver strategic legal and policy work to campaigns and programs that builds member power.

  • Work with organizers to develop and provide legal strategies and tools that advance collective goals of the membership. 

  • Supervise staff members of the Legal Department to build NOWCRJ’s docket, in alignment with the organization’s strategic direction

  • Supervise Senior Researcher

  • Lead the development and execution of strategic litigation and policy including crafting ordinances, making interventions on State and Federal legislation and more in coordination with the organizing department

  • Represent clients, especially for particularly complex cases

  • Participating in strategy discussions, power mapping, action planning and support members in executing campaign fights

  • In coordination with the Deputy Director and Organizing Director manage legal department work and assure it is aligned with the organizational priorities

 

• Lead the Department Team

  • Ensure that the whole team has ambitious goals and work plans in place to meet them

  • Build innovative, disciplined, positive culture within the legal department

  • Coordinate planning process across the department and organization to keep work plans up to date

 

• Support NOWCRJ Team

  • Actively participate in and support the overall work of NOWCRJ including organization wide, events and campaigns

  • Support specific organizing campaigns of other programs in the organization as appropriate

  • Support the Executive Director in identifying, building, and maintaining the NOWCRJ’s resources

 

Other duties as needed

This is not a 9 to 5 job—long and varied hours, with early morning, evening, weekend work is required.

 

Salary Range: Competitive, commensurate with experience

Salary Structure: Full-time, Salaried

Benefits: Health, Dental, and Vision offered; The use of an organizational laptop

 

Key qualifications:

• Deep dedication to the leadership of directly affected people. Commitment to legal practice that empowers collective vision and action by low- income workers and communities of color.

• Desire and ability to integrate legal practice into an organizing model.

• Minimum 5 years demonstrated experience in labor, employment immigration, and/or civil rights law showing excellent skills and outcomes and innovative strategies. 

• Management or supervision experience including legal supervision, case development, and project management.

• Juris Doctor from an accredited school and active license to practice law in the state of Louisiana

• Ability to implement vision, think strategically, creatively problem solve, exercise good judgment, and lead change.

• Excellent analytical written and oral communication skills.

• A commitment to diversity; a personal approach that values the individual and respects differences of race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability and socioeconomic circumstance.

• Bilingual (Spanish/ English), bicultural experience a plus

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NOWCRJ is an equal opportunity employer.  Women, people of color and LGBTQ individuals strongly encouraged to apply.

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Applications will only be accepted electronically.  Please thoroughly answer the four (4) questions below and submit as an attachment, along with your resume as a separate document, in an email and send to careers@nowcrj.org. Type your first name, last name, and the position you are applying for in the subject line of your email. Please include a daytime phone number where we can contact you.  Application process will be open until the position is filled. 

 

1.      What about NOWCRJ’s work most excites or interests you?

2.      Have you ever been involved in any of the organization's campaigns, events, or membership before? If so, please share when/how.

3.      What is the biggest strength you bring to a team setting?

4.      What does liberation look like for your community?