Public Rights Project Staff Attorney, Elections

Overview

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION: Public Rights Project (PRP) is a public interest legal nonprofit, headquartered in Oakland, with a remote team based throughout the United States. Our mission is to close the gap between the promise of our laws and the lived reality of our most vulnerable communities. Since 2017, we have been working at the intersection of community organizing and state and local government enforcement to build a scalable, equitable community-based enforcement model to protect civil rights and advance economic justice.

PRP launched its Election Protection Hub (EPH) to support local elections officials as they fight to protect the voting rights of their residents and secure safe and fair elections. The EPH provides training, technical assistance, and legal backup to election administrators to enable them to respond to election threats quickly and effectively. In addition, PRP’s EPH participates in broader election protection and pro-democracy coalition work, both to support litigation by partner organizations and to more effectively coordinate resources to defend against efforts to undermine free elections, threaten marginalized communities, and threaten the rule of law.

JOB SUMMARY

Public Rights Project seeks to hire a Staff Attorney to join the EPH. The Staff Attorney will staff PRP’s in-house efforts to represent and advise state, local, and tribal governments and elected officials in support of election administration and the expansion of voting rights. The Staff Attorney will be assigned to support PRP government partners in particular states. The Staff Attorney will therefore serve as a “state lead,” and will be expected to become an expert in election administration, voting rights, and political developments in their assigned state.

This includes conducting regular outreach to government and non-government partners in the assigned states. The Staff Attorney may also assist with litigation and programmatic matters within PRP’s wider programmatic portfolio. However, the majority of their time would be housed within the EPH. Although this position does not incorporate formal supervisory responsibilities, the Staff Attorney will sometimes lead teams and may review the work of other attorneys, alongside more independent work or work as a contributor to other case teams.

This position reports to the Elections and Government Partnership Director. This position will also work closely with the Chief Program Officer and other program team directors.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Advise, counsel, and represent PRP government clients on particular matters;
• Conduct legal research and provide guidance and analysis of laws on elections, voting, and state constitutions across a range of jurisdictions;
• Conduct outreach to recruit local government officials to join as EPH partners;
• Draft, review, edit, and provide feedback on analytic and persuasive written work product, including legal technical assistance;
• Identify opportunities for EPH advocacy and strategize pathways to action;
• Advise on case selection and strategy;
• Support litigation in state and federal courts;
• Support PRP’s communications about the EPH, including through public speaking, conversations with the press, and drafting press statements, “explainers,” and op-eds;
• Work well independently and collaboratively.

QUALIFICATIONS

There are innumerable ways to learn, grow, and excel professionally. We respect this when we review applications and take a broad look at the experience of each applicant. This said, we are most likely to be interested in your candidacy if you can demonstrate the majority of the qualifications and experiences listed below:

• Licensed to practice law in a jurisdiction of the United States
• At least 4 years of relevant experience as an attorney. Relevant experience may include government enforcement, complex civil litigation, and/or advice to government officials
• Election law and/or election administration experience is strongly encouraged, but not required.
• Prior experience working in AZ, CA, GA, MI, NC, NV, NY, PA, TX, WI, and VA state courts and/or their corresponding federal circuits is preferred.
• Litigation…