Advocacy Policy Counsel

Advocacy Policy Counsel

The Advocacy Policy Counsel plays an important role in the Public Advocacy department to advance ACLU of Massachusetts' mission to defend and promote civil rights and civil liberties in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The focus of this role is to conduct legal research and analysis, legislative drafting, and projects to support the organization's legislative, policy, and non-litigation advocacy work; identify and inform ACLUM advocates of the civil rights and civil liberties implications of state and municipal government actions and proposed new legislation/policy/ordinances;

contribute to local and statewide campaigns in priority issue areas; and foster relationships and collaboration with external stakeholders. This position reports to the Political Director, and works closely with colleagues within the Advocacy department, as well as other advocates across departments, to achieve statewide legislative and specific municipal-based ACLUM program objectives.

The ideal candidate for this position brings enthusiasm and passion to the work; equally enjoys policy research, analysis, relationship building, and proactive collaboration with organizational partners; and is comfortable working across issue areas in a fast-paced environment. Strong candidates will have demonstrated the ability to conduct complex legal research and analysis, draft legislation for national, state, or municipal contexts, work with coalitions, and write and present clearly and convincingly about issues related to civil rights and civil liberties for both expert and general audiences.

Essential Duties

• Conduct legal, policy, and legislative research to inform ACLUM advocates about the civil rights and civil liberties implications (federal, state, constitutional, and statutory) of government actions related to ACLUM priority issue areas.
• Review, analyze, and synthesize the constitutional, civil rights, and civil liberties implications of existing and proposed state legislation, executive branch orders, municipal policies/ordinances, and similar matters, with close attention to how they impact voting rights and election law, due process, immigrants' rights, racial justice, reproductive rights, rights of people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ rights.
• Develop and draft local and state legislation, policies and ballot measures, policy models, non-litigation advocacy letters, and public education materials for ACLUM advocates to use in educating policymakers, community partners, and ACLUM staff.
• Design and lead public records requests in support of priority advocacy campaigns, and assist with reviewing, categorizing, and synthesizing documents obtained, researching civil rights and civil liberties implications of the documents, and communicating those implications to ACLUM staff.

Public Education, Coalition Work, and Community Engagement

• Engage in direct civic engagement and coalition building to further ACLUM's legislative and field-focused advocacy efforts.
• Draft civic engagement, public education, and communications materials in consultation with the Legislative, Field, and Communications teams.
• Present research findings, analysis, and other learnings to educate internal and external stakeholders.
• Forge and maintain productive working relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including issue area experts, cooperating attorneys, community organizations, public interest groups, civil rights groups, government officials, advocacy coalitions, and academics, to engage them in ACLUM work and support collaborative projects.
• Collaborate on ACLUM projects with staff across departments, as assigned, as well as colleagues at other ACLU state affiliates and the National ACLU.

Strategic Advocacy Projects and Campaigns

• Engage in designing non-litigation advocacy campaigns at the national, state, and municipal levels to advance civil rights and civil liberties in agreed-upon ACLUM priority issue areas and campaigns, as assigned by the Political Director and in collaboration with other ACLUM advocates.
• Help to implement strategic local and statewide advocacy campaigns to defend and advance civil rights and civil liberties in ACLUM priority issue areas.
• Plan and manage advocacy projects to respond to threats and advance law and public policy in areas including, but not limited to voting rights and election law, due process, immigrants' rights, racial justice, freedom of speech and assembly, religious liberty, racial justice, reproductive rights, rights of people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ rights, and other civil rights and civil liberties.

Other Responsibilities

• Special projects and other tasks, as assigned by the Political Director.

Qualifications, Experience and Attributes

• Juris Doctor or advanced law degree required.
• Minimum of six years' experience in legal system advocacy or practice.
• Direct experience working on issue-based public advocacy campaigns.
• Expertise in election, campaign finance, ballot initiative, and related state and…