Corridor Program Managing Attorney

Job Description

Job Description

Dependency Advocacy Center (DAC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, provides interdisciplinary family defense legal services to indigent parents and children involved with Santa Clara County’s child welfare system and the juvenile dependency court. Our adult clients face the risk of permanent separation from their children due to allegations of abuse and neglect. Substance use disorder, intimate partner violence, and mental health concerns are commonly presenting issues, often rooted in the layered effects of poverty, marginalization, and intergenerational trauma.

DAC was founded on the belief that traditional legal advocacy is insufficient to adequately represent our parent and youth clients. Our approach to holistic family defense utilizes an interdisciplinary team of attorneys, social workers, and mentor parents to create client-centered legal strategies designed to support the family’s long-term success.

Dependency Advocacy Center provides zealous legal representation to indigent clients in the juvenile dependency system to promote timely reunification and preservation of families in a safe, healthy environment. DAC believes that every parent and child entering the dependency system has a right to be treated with dignity, compassion, and respect.

This is a full-time managing attorney position for DAC’s innovative program, Corridor. Corridor is a collaborative endeavor with Santa Clara County’s Adult Probation designed to help parents with criminal justice system involvement break the cycle of criminal justice and child welfare system involvement. Corridor clients may have open dependency court cases or may be at risk of entry into the child welfare system.

As part of an attorney-led interdisciplinary team, the Corridor Managing Attorney works closely with the Corridor team, comprised of an attorney, two social workers and three mentor parents to provide holistic support that meets each client’s unique circumstances.

In addition, Corridor program responsibilities include weekly case staffings with the interdisciplinary Corridor team, networking and outreach to local community-based organizations, and ongoing data collection for purposes of evaluating and sustaining the program. An understanding of the unique barriers and challenges faced by parents with criminal justice system involvement is needed to support clients with either an open dependency case or those who are at risk of entering the formal child welfare system.

• Working closely with the interdisciplinary team and supervising the Corridor staff attorney;
• Facilitating staffing of all Corridor prevention and open cases in collaboration with the team;
• Developing Know Your Rights materials;
• Acting as the liaison with the Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS) and Adult Probation;
• Coordinating outreach efforts and building networks with community partners;
• Working with executive management to ensure all programmatic needs are met, including data collection, budget oversight, and team protocol.

In addition, the managing attorney will take on a limited caseload of clients as appropriate, and as required by the needs of the program.

• Member in good standing of the State Bar of California;
• High degree of professionalism and strong commitment to social justice;
• Experience working with and advocating for marginalized communities on issues such as housing, family law, criminal defense law, mental health, domestic violence, public benefits, immigration and child welfare system involvement;
• Ability to work collaboratively and lead an interdisciplinary team that includes social workers and parents with lived child welfare experience;
• Ability to work compassionately and respectfully with clients in crisis;
• Ability to network and build partnerships with community-based organizations
• Trained in cultural competency, motivational interviewing and trauma informed service delivery
• Familiarity with data entry and reporting preferred
• Management experience preferred
• Bilingual Spanish speaking preferred

Salary Range:…