Senior Staff Attorney & Homelessness Prevention Unit

Senior Staff Attorney Housing & Homelessness Prevention Unit

About Public Law Center

Founded in 1981, The Public Law Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit providing free legal services to low-income residents and other nonprofits in Orange County. Every year, Public Law Center serves about 4,000 clients annually through staff and volunteers, providing tens of thousands of hours of legal services worth over $30 million. Our services include counseling, individual representation, community education and strategic policy advocacy and impact litigation to challenge societal injustices.

About The Role

The Public Law Center (PLC)’s Housing and Homelessness Prevention Unit seeks an energetic, passionate advocate to join our team in fighting for justice for low-income tenants and self-represented litigants in Orange County through innovative, collaborative, community-centered lawyering to address inequities and pursue access to affordable housing.

PLC’s Housing and Homelessness Prevention Unit provides high-quality, direct representation, in addition to coordinating and supervising pro bono representation, of tenants in cases involving evictions or unlawful detainers, discrimination, harassment, housing voucher disputes, affordable housing advocacy, and other issues related to housing.

PLC’s Unit also participates in community education, community-based clinics, and local and statewide advocacy.

PLC is seeking a highly skilled Senior Staff Attorney to support the Unit with ensuring the provision of quality legal services by handling their own direct services cases and other legal services, such as community outreach and education, legal advocacy and/or impact litigation and will also collaborate with attorneys, paralegals/administrative staff, clients, and external partners.

What You’ll Do

• Handle a diverse caseload on behalf of low-income tenants, including eviction defense, discrimination, habitability, subsidized housing cases, administrative hearings, impact cases, and other issues arising in landlord/tenant relationships and land use laws. In-court representation required.
• Assist with impact litigation and/or policy advocacy.
• Monitor changes and ensure compliance with laws and regulations affecting housing legal services.
• Some training and mentoring of less-experienced staff, including through co-counseling on direct services cases and impact work.
• Participate in internal office initiatives and external events and activities.
• Prepare and conduct trainings and community presentations and otherwise assist with or coordinate community outreach and education efforts.
• Full-time position with occasional evening and weekend work required.
• Other duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities

• Occasional supervision of volunteers, including undergraduate students, law clerks, pro bono attorneys, etc., through training, technical support, and interim direct supervision to ensure high-quality legal services are provided to PLC’s clients.

Qualifications

• Active membership in the California State Bar or eligibility to practice under State Bar Multijurisdictional Practice Program.
• A minimum of five years’ experience, with at least three years of state court litigation experience. Experience in housing and unlawful detainer cases preferred.
• Proficiency with everyday office software, including Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, etc.), case management system (Legal Server), and others.
• Strong public speaking skills and ability to communicate with a variety of audiences, including community members, volunteer attorneys, court staff, and judges.
• Must be able to work from the office several days a week, and for request for partial remote work to be granted, must be able to work in a distraction-free and confidential environment.…