Oversight Counsel - Appellate Panel Unit, CAFL

Overview

The Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), the Massachusetts public defender agency, is seeking an experienced attorney to help promote the high-quality representation of children and adults in family regulation/child welfare appeals. The attorney will be a core member of the Children and Family Law Division’s Appellate Panel Support Unit (APSU), which provides support, oversight, and training for approximately 150 private attorneys who represent children and adults in family regulation/child welfare appellate matters.

The selected attorney may be seated in Boston, Worcester, or at another CPCS office location, depending on the needs of the APSU, the attorney, and available and appropriate space.

We fight for equal justice and human dignity by supporting our clients in achieving their legal and life goals. We zealously advocate for the rights of individuals and promote just public policy to protect the rights of all.

Our Values

Courage
• Accountability
• Respect
• Excellence

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.

AGENCY OVERVIEW

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.

CHILDREN AND FAMILY LAW DIVISION OVERVIEW

CPCS’s Children and Family Law Division (CAFL) provides attorneys to children and indigent 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. It also provides counsel in appeals of these cases. 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.

On appeal, most CAFL clients are represented by private appellate attorneys on CAFL’s appellate panel.

OFFICE OVERVIEW

CAFL’s Appellate Panel Support Unit (APSU) provides support and oversight for approximately 150 private CAFL appellate panel attorneys. The CAFL appellate panel handles approximately 90% of all CAFL final and interlocutory (single justice) appeals. The APSU assigns appellate counsel to children and indigent parents (and occasionally other parties) in care and…