Private Panel Support Attorney - CAFL Trial Panel Unit

Job Description

The Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), the Massachusetts public defender agency, is seeking two skilled and experienced child welfare attorneys to serve as Private Panel Support Attorneys in the Children and Family Law Division’s (CAFL) Trial Panel Support Unit (TPSU). The TPSU provides leadership, oversight, and support to the 700-plus private attorneys who represent CPCS clients in family regulation/child welfare cases and other civil matters involving children, young adults, and their families.

Private Panel Support Attorneys in the TPSU help CAFL private panel attorneys throughout the state provide high-quality, zealous representation to children, young adults, and indigent parents in all CAFL cases.

Private Panel Support Counsel are eligible for a hybrid work schedule. The positions may be seated in Boston, Worcester, or at another CPCS office location, depending on the needs of the TPSU, the attorneys, and available and appropriate space.

Attorneys who have practiced in the Boston Juvenile Court and Worcester County Juvenile Courts are highly encouraged to apply.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION MISSION STATEMENT

CPCS is committed to protecting the fundamental constitutional and human rights of our assigned clients through zealous advocacy, community-oriented defense, and the fullness of excellent legal representation. We are dedicated to building and maintaining strong professional relationships, while striving to accept, listen to and respect the diverse circumstances of each client, as we dedicate ourselves to meeting their individual needs. It is our CPCS mission to achieve these goals, and in furtherance thereof, we embrace and endorse diversity, equity and inclusion as our core values as we maintain a steadfast commitment to: (1) Ensure that CPCS management and staff members represent a broad range of human differences and experience;

(2) Provide a work climate that is respectful and supports success; and (3) Promote the dignity and well‑being of all staff members. CPCS leadership is responsible for ensuring equity, diversity, and inclusion. The ability to achieve these goals with any level of certainty is ultimately the responsibility of each member of the CPCS community.

CPCS is the state agency in Massachusetts responsible for providing an attorney when the state or federal constitution or a state statute requires the appointment of an attorney for a person who cannot afford to retain one. The agency provides representation in criminal, delinquency, youthful offender, family regulation, guardianship, mental health, sexually dangerous person, and sex offender registry cases, as well as in appeals and post-conviction and post-judgment proceedings related to those matters.

The clients we represent are diverse across every context imaginable and bring many unique cultural dimensions to the matters we address. This reality creates a critical need for CPCS staff to be culturally competent and able to work well with people of different races, ethnicities, genders and/or sexual orientation identities, abilities, and limited English proficiency, among other protected characteristics.

CPCS’s Children and Family Law Division provides attorneys to children and adults in care and protection, termination of parental rights, child requiring assistance, and guardianship‑of‑a‑minor cases, as well as in other civil matters involving children and young adults in which there is a right to an attorney. At the trial level, the vast majority of CAFL clients are represented by private attorneys who are part of CAFL’s trial panel, and most trial‑level CAFL cases are heard in the Juvenile Court.

CAFL’s client‑directed legal advocacy plays a critical role in cases involving families. CAFL private attorneys and staff protect the rights of parents and children to remain together whenever possible and their…