Chief Legal Officer

Position Summary

Reporting to the President & CEO and as a key member of the SPLC executive team, the Chief Legal Officer will be a thought partner and collaborative visionary responsible for shaping, leading and managing a strategic, innovative litigation docket at the federal, state, and regional level.

Effectively managing a large and experienced legal team – and collaborating across issues, areas, and departments - the CLO will direct and implement the organization’s impact legal and litigation strategy at a time when the work of the SPLC has never been more vital.

The successful candidate will have a history of deeply credible and meaningful legal leadership experience in the civil rights space, with leadership in litigation and advocacy.

• Provide strategic thought partnership on legal objectives, strategies and priorities to the President and CEO, the Executive Team, the Board, the Legal Department’s leadership team, and other members of the organization.
• Participate in organization-wide strategic planning, including leading the development and expansion of new strategies, resources, and policy work.
• Demonstrate change leadership, shaping, guiding and managing the SPLC’s litigation strategy while supervising the effective and impactful operations of the Legal Department, including:
• Managing and supporting the litigation strategies across the various practice groups.
• Ensuring the Legal Department provides the highest quality legal representation in support of and consistent with the organization’s mission, strategic framework, and values.
• Developing and overseeing any needed structural changes in the Department, including areas of practice, new projects, and the size and locations of the legal staff.
• Reviewing financial reports and developing and overseeing the annual department budgets in compliance with the SPLC’s administrative and financial management policies and practices.
• Recruiting, hiring, coaching, developing, mentoring, training, and motivating a team of highly skilled and collaborative litigation professionals, including attorneys and non‑attorney professionals.
• Working with the organization’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning team to assess outcomes and impact of the Legal Department.
• Actively participate in work to promote justice and equity, and incorporate a DEIA lens on the Legal Department’s internal and external work.
• Serve as an enterprise leader, bringing an organization‑wide perspective to legal strategy and decision‑making, and ensuring alignment of litigation priorities with the organization’s broader strategic, policy, and communications objectives.
• Build relationships and reinforce existing partnerships internally and externally, to further organizational objectives and maximize impact, including other human rights and social justice organizations, stakeholders and supporters, and outside pro bono counsel.

• This leadership position requires an accomplished attorney with a distinguished professional record in pursuing justice and strengthening civil rights. The successful candidate will exhibit a longstanding passion for, and commitment to, the work of the organization and for contributing in a meaningful way to its strategy, long‑term goals, and impact.
• Candidates must be able to see the big picture in determining and driving a unified litigation strategy consistent with, and in support of, SPLC’s mission, vision, and values.
• They will bring empathy and vision to lead, inspire and manage a large, experienced and complex legal team, along with experience and understanding of leadership in a geographically dispersed, multi‑racial, multi‑generational setting, fostering justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.
• In addition to exceptional legal expertise and excellent leadership and management skills, the Chief Legal Officer must be a practical problem solver with strong organizational skills and business acumen. They will thrive in a fast‑paced, dynamic, innovative, collaborative and high‑energy environment.
• Balancing strategic vision with operational excellence, they will be a trusted and approachable advisor, cultivating strong, collaborative…