Staff Attorney, Justice Project

Who We Are:

Situated at the forefront of the national stage in the racial justice movement, Advancement Project is a cutting-edge, no-holds-barred national organization dedicated to building local power in communities of color. Centered on a movement lawyering approach, defined as community-centered racial justice lawyering, Advancement Project supports power building in grassroots organizations working to eliminate oppressive structures in our laws and institutions and shift narratives towards transformative change.

From ending the school-to-prison pipeline to the fight to expand the right to vote, from calling for a complete overhaul of how we view the police and carceral state, to fighting for immigrant justice, Advancement Project impacts real change from the ground up. Building on more than 25 years, we continue to evolve our strategic thinking and creativity to imagine a more just world in which people of color can thrive, be safe, and free – and we are excited to bring on new talent to forward our vision.

• Pioneering the movement to end the school-to-prison pipeline and winning significant victories in several school districts nationwide to reform disciplinary policies and practices and remove police from schools entirely, including building and nurturing a grassroots movement of parents and youth. This work led to federal guidance on racial discrimination in school discipline.
• Launching the National Police Free Schools Campaign with the Alliance for Education Justice, supporting local youth‑led campaigns to end policing in their schools, and calling for national demands for change for safety in public schools.
• Serving as legal counsel in a key 2000 presidential election case in Florida, successfully challenging North Carolina’s 2013 voter suppression law, and being a founding member of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition that won the ballot initiative to strike down the state’s ban on voting for those with felony convictions. AP supported legislative efforts to pass the Virginia Voting Rights Act, the first state voting rights statute of its kind in the South.
• Supporting the Close the Workhouse Campaign in St. Louis, led by Action St, Louis, and securing an agreement with the city to close a jail and reinvest money into the community.
• Working with survivors of Hurricane Katrina from New Orleans to ensure their voices were heard in the process of reconstructing the city.

We are seeking a creative problem solver, strong advocate, and skilled attorney in its Washington D.C. office to serve as a Staff Attorney in the Justice Project. The Justice Project provides support to grassroots racial justice campaigns seeking not simply to reform, but to wholly dismantle systems that criminalize and incarcerate people of color. We aim to help impacted communities define the terms and control how peace is realized in their streets and neighborhoods and to re‑imagine public safety for themselves.

This position will report to the Justice Project Program Director and will be a member of the union with compensation determined by the union compensation structure.

The staff attorney focuses on developing relationships with racial justice organizations to support their campaigns and build power in their communities. This work may include identifying and recommending how to respond to legislative and legal developments, providing legal research, litigation, analysis, and writing. The staff attorney will provide support to grassroots partners and collaborate with and across teams to do so.

The staff attorney will investigate racial justice issues related to the wholesale transformation of the criminal legal system, including through data, anecdotal, and other factual collection, and analysis in the communities where our partners work. They will work closely with our partners to support their campaigns and build their base in coordination with our communications and organizing departments. This role also assists investigations and litigation efforts, including discovery, motion writing, coordinating litigation tasks with…