Legal and Policy Assistant

Legal and Policy Assistant at the American Humanist Association + Center for Freethought Equality

Job Type: Full-time

Reports To: Legal Director + Policy Director (split position)

Location: Remote possible, preference for hybrid in DC (1-2 days a week in office)

Compensation: $50,000 - $55,000, depending on experience. Excellent benefits including fully paid medical, dental, and vision insurance and retirement plan with 3% match - more below.

To Apply: fill out the application form here: https://forms.gle/fgwKZcKNDe2LyCZV6

Who You Are:

You’re ready for a fight. Specifically: you’re ready to be part of a team that’s unapologetically leading the charge to push back against authoritarianism and defend core American values - freedom of conscience, equality, dignity, and reason.

And you want to do it directly - squaring up against Christian Nationalists in courts, Capitols, and campaigns, stopping bad legislation and serving good lawsuits.

You like being the person who helps all the pieces fall into place seamlessly: a detail-oriented taskmaster who makes sure all the trains run early and an inquisitive researcher who looks at a problem from multiple angles. You like being in the room where it happens but have no problem operating from behind the scenes, supporting driven and talented leaders. You get excited about the idea of coordinating a team’s logistics and helping others to do their best work.

Does that sound like you? Good. We’ve been waiting.

Who We Are:

Hi! Nice to meet you. We’re the American Humanist Association and the Center for Freethought Equality.

Humanists believe in people. We believe that people have inherent worth and dignity, without needing to be saved or redeemed. We believe that people can do anything as long as we live in a society where people are free to think freely and pursue rational truth. And we believe the highest good is to help other people live lives of freedom and flourishing.

Humanists have always moved America. Kristen Bell, Gloria Steinem, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Steve Wozniak, Joyce Carol Oates, A. Philip Randolph, John Dewey, Margaret Atwood, Abraham Maszlow, Jamie Raskin - these are some of the American visionaries whose humanism led them to envision new frontiers for advancing human worth and dignity.

For over 80 years, the AHA has been the epicenter of the humanist movement. We promote humanism as a community and worldview that “nothing in particular,” “spiritual but not religious,” atheist, and agnostic folks can belong to, believe in, and fight for. We fight the radical religious right in the courts, Congress, and the streets, organizing our thousands of members and 230+ chapters nationwide to fight for the separation of church and state, make the moral case for progressive public policy, and take direct action to improve their communities. We train hundreds of secular chaplains and celebrants who perform marriages and work in hospitals, college campuses, and prisons.

The Center for Freethought Equality is the advocacy and political arm of the AHA. In addition to our policy advocacy at the federal and state level, CFE, and its political action committee, has been instrumental in expanding the number of elected officials who publicly identify with our community. Prior to the 2016 elections, only 5 state legislators identified with our community. Today 3 members of Congress and over 70 state legislators do so; however, we need another 1,500 to reach parity with our population.

We’ve got hella work to do.

The Role:

This is a split position that supports both the Legal Director at the American Humanist Association and the Policy Director at our affiliated c4 advocacy organization, the Center for Freethought Equality.

Both parts of the role involve substantial administrative and research work, and regularly involve interacting with external constituents. It’s a great role for someone who is detail-oriented, a strong writer and researcher, and adept at managing multiple projects and responsibilities at once.

It is likely that within 1-2 years there will be an option for this role to move from a split position to a full-time role on either the legal or policy teams. Advancement is possible with strong performance.

Legal Assistant responsibilities include:

• Providing administrative support for the Legal Director, including:
  • Calendaring dates for cases
  • Maintaining and updating case files and databases
  • Assisting with formatting and conforming legal documents
  • Note taking
• Drafting form letters and other communications on behalf of the Appignani Humanist Legal Center
• Screening violation reports and conducting intakes with clients
• Conducting legal research relevant to AHLC cases

Policy Assistant responsibilities include:

• State Policy Advocacy: Conducting policy research, drafting briefing materials, and coordinating meetings with stakeholders and elected officials
• Outreach to Elected Officials: Research candidates for the PAC to contact, reach out to candidates and elected officials, review candidate questionnaires, and maintain databases
• Accounting, Compliance + Database Management: Support accounting and financial reporting for the Center for Freethought Equality and its PAC, including making bank deposits and liaising with compliance (campaign accounting) company, researching state lobbying disclosure departments and tracking lobbying time and expenditures; maintain membership databases
• Communications + Fundraising: Draft and contribute to promotional and fundraising materials for the CFE and PAC

For DC-based candidates, there may be occasional opportunities to support the CFE’s federal advocacy work.

Requirements:

Non-negotiable:

• Excellent attention to detail - you’re great at keeping track of responsibilities for yourself and others, a strong proofreader, and someone who goes the extra mile to make sure the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed
• Strong research skills - able to use digital tools to learn quickly about complex issues and succinctly summarize them for an audience
• Strong writing skills - you make your points clearly and cleanly at minimum; ideally, you’re capable of powerful writing that inspires people and moves them to take action
• Able to task-switch easily and work on many projects in a given day
• Reliable - you finish what you start and meet deadlines consistently
• Confident relationship-builder, able to manage strong working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders, making people feel valued and welcomed regardless of identity or background
• Ambitious and driven: You dream big for yourself and the places you work for, aiming high, working hard, and always asking “What can we do better?”
• Intrepid and fearless: You’re comfortable with failure, unafraid of rejection, and always up to (thoughtfully, strategically) court a little controversy.

Ideal (the successful applicant will definitely have some, but likely not all, of these):

• Experience working as a legal assistant or paralegal (including internships or coursework in these areas)
• Awareness of best practices in legal record keeping, in particular; best practices for organizing a digital legal practice
• Professional experience in legal and/or policy research

Nice To Have, But Not Necessary:

• Experience with/connection to the humanist/secular movement or affiliated movements like Unitarian Universalism (but willingness and enthusiasm to learn is an absolute must)
• Experience working on political campaigns
• Experience working with political fundraising and campaign finance/compliance
• Experience with legislative advocacy campaigns
• Experience organizing volunteers, especially in an advocacy context

We Don’t Care About:

• Your degrees or where you went to school
• Your years of experience (tenure doesn’t matter, demonstrated success does)

Hiring Process:

You can start by applying here: https://forms.gle/fgwKZcKNDe2LyCZV6

We like to share our full hiring process for transparency. However, please note that all parts of this process, including timelines, may change.

Stage 1: Application + Resume (Applications open through 4/16)

• All applicants will fill out the hiring application, responding to several short-answer questions and submitting a resume. (No cover letters. Who likes cover letters?)
• Responses to short-answer questions will be anonymized and rated by a panel of interviewers.
• All candidates will receive a response regardless of whether or not they are invited to an interview.

Stage 2: First-Round Interviews - likely 8-10 candidates (Week of 4/21)

• Candidates invited to a first-round interview will meet with the hiring managers (Legal Director + Policy Director) for a 45-minute video call. This is a mutual interview - we’ll start with any questions you have for us, and then ask questions about your skills, experiences, and interest in the role, so we can both determine if this is a potential fit.
• We will let all candidates know about their status after second-round offers have been made and accepted.

Stage 3: Paid Work Sample - likely 4-5 candidates (Week of 4/28)

• Candidates selected will be asked to complete a paid work sample (2-4 hours of time, at the timing of your choosing). This exercise will help us evaluate your ability to produce relevant legal and policy research and writing in a time-limited environment.
• We will pay applicants an hourly rate of $25, based on the advertised salary range for this position, for their time spent on this project.

Stage 4: Final interviews - likely 2-3 candidates (Week of 5/5)

• Finalists will have a 1-hour panel interview with the four team members with whom you’ll work most closely: the AHA’s Legal Director, Policy Director, Policy Manager, and Political + PAC Manager.
• Finalists will also meet with AHA’s Executive Director for a 30-minute interview and opportunity to ask any questions you may still have about us and the role.
• We will make an offer to our top candidate, and let other candidates know their status when the offer has been accepted.

Our goal is to make offers around or shortly after May 12th and have the candidate start in late May, though we can be flexible on the start date for the right candidate.

Compensation:

Salary:

This position is in our Assistant salary range, which is $50,000 to $55,000, depending on experience. We provide employees with cost of living increases every year based on the CPI; additional merit raises are available for excellent performance.

Benefits:

We offer generous benefits, including:

• Fully paid medical, dental, and vision insurance, and the option to enroll dependents with the AHA/CFE covering 50% of the premium
• 403b plan - and we’ll match your contributions up to 3% of your salary
• Fully employer-paid short-term and long-term disability insurance, and life insurance
• Partial cell phone reimbursement ($45/month) and, for fully remote employees, partial home internet reimbursement ($65/month)
• Flexible Spending Account and pre-tax commuter benefits available
• Professional development budget available

PTO:

We want you to work hard on the clock and have plenty of flexibility to live a full life off of it. In general, we tend to be flexible around working arrangements and hours to meet staff needs, but here are our formal policies.

• Earned PTO: 18 days PTO in your first year, increasing by one day a year until you reach 25 days.
• Holidays: 12 paid holidays, plus the days between December 25th and January 1st.
• Flex time: 3 hours of additional “flex time” off each week to schedule as you please, to account for doctor’s appointments, errands, or just starting your weekend a bit early.
• Parental leave: Two months of leave at full pay and an additional month of leave at 75% pay for new parents.
• Comp time: Time off is earned on a 1:1 basis for evening and weekend events worked and work travel outside of regular hours. (We anticipate this position will travel 1-2 times a year if based in or near DC, and 3-4 times a year if fully remote.)