Mitigation Specialist​/Investigator

We are hiring a full-time investigator/mitigation specialist for our Knoxville office, Capital Habeas Unit (CHU). The CHU represents clients in federal courts in Tennessee and clients in six states who have been sentenced to death by state or federal courts.

CHU investigators/mitigation specialists work collaboratively with a team of attorneys, paralegals, and other investigators/mitigation specialists under the supervision of the CHU supervising assistant federal defender. This position is responsible for identifying, locating, and interviewing witnesses; completing fact and mitigation investigations in support of habeas and clemency efforts; and identifying, collecting, and reviewing a vast array of records. We expect all members of the client’s team to contribute to strategy discussions.

Investigators/ mitigation specialists are expected to take ownership over cases; proactively brainstorm, propose, and complete creative investigation tasks; and comply with the ABA standards for capital mitigation specialists.

Salary is commensurate with years of experience and qualifications in accordance with the Defender Organization Classification System and the Federal Judicial Salary Plan (JSP). The current starting salary range is $74,678 to $163,514 annually.

FDSET offers a generous benefits package, which includes paid vacation and sick leave, 11+ paid annual holidays, medical, dental, vision, life/AD&D, long-term disability, EAP, HSA/FSA, hospital, critical illness, accident, identify theft protection, and 401K retirement. FDSET provides medical (employee-only plans), dental, vision, basic life/AD&D, and long-term disability at no monthly premium cost to employees.

A partial remote work week is available to employees after an initial probationary period.