Experienced Staff Attorney, Youth Defense Practice (Manhattan)

The Center for Family Representation Inc. (CFR) is an award-winning, innovative law and policy organization that serves primarily Black and Brown families and youth in Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx with an interdisciplinary legal defense model that serves more than 2400 clients every year. In 2024, CFR will expand our family defense practice to Richmond County. CFR was originally founded in 2002 to dramatically change the trajectory of indigent parents being prosecuted by the City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). Our goal is to defend and protect our clients’ rights, reduce the harm of family separation and prevent or minimize the time any child spends in the foster system. 

CFR provides interdisciplinary family defense with a model that was unique at our founding and that is now being replicated nationally: we assign every client an attorney and a social work staff member, and teams have the support of parent advocates, who are parents with direct personal experience of being investigated and prosecuted by ACS. CFR was the first agency in the country to integrate parents with lived experience into legal teams and now has 7 parent advocates working in all three of our family defense locations. CFR’s Community Advocacy Project represents parents during a child protective investigation (to avoid court involvement where possible) and assists parents in clearing their names from state maltreatment records.

As an agency committed to securing justice for families, we built the Youth Defense practice (YDP) to defend youth at risk of family separation through incarceration. YDP uses the same interdisciplinary model to represent youth being prosecuted in Queens and Manhattan in Supreme Court Youth Parts, during Probation Adjustment and in Delinquency proceedings in Family Court. CFR’s Home for Good program provides legal and social work services to CFR clients in immigration, civil legal services and criminal defense matters, to afford clients an efficient and well-coordinated one-stop solution to a range of issues that threaten family stability. 

Recognized as experts in our fields, we annually train over 500 practitioners in the city, state and around the country on strategies to promote family preservation and interdisciplinary representation, and we provide community based “Know Your Rights” presentations to parents, youth and service providers. We advocate at the city, state and national level for policies that reduce the harm of family separation, and promote parent engagement and justice for youth and families.

Current opening:

CFR has an immediate opening for a Staff Attorney in its Youth Defense Practice (YDP).

Under the supervision and guidance of CFR’s Youth Defense Supervisors, the Staff Attorney’s core responsibilities will be to represent clients charged on juvenile delinquency matters in Family Court, as well as clients charged as adolescent and juvenile offenders (AO and JO) on cases in the Supreme Court Youth Parts whose cases are being removed to family court. 

The candidate will receive training on youth and family defense. 

The candidate will work collaboratively with legal teams, composed of attorneys, social work staff, investigators, and paralegals (clients’ legal teams may also involve staff from CFR’s immigration or housing/public benefits units). 

The position will be based out of Manhattan, however candidates should expect to occasionally appear in Queens or the Bronx. 

The candidate should also expect to maintain new and evolving youth defense data in Case Management System and client legal notes; keep files up to date; keep additional data related to deliverables for private funders supporting the Youth Defense Practice, and/or to meet with prospective and current funders; and help to inform and grow CFR’s Youth Defense Practice. This person may also participate in community based outreach and presentations for families whose youth are impacted by or are at risk of juvenile justice involvement. 

The ideal candidate will enjoy the opportunity to wear multiple hats, learn a lot and enjoy working with teams.

Qualifications:

• Candidates for this position should have a minimum of 5 years of experience as an attorney.
• Candidates for this position do not need to have any direct experience working with children but candidates should have some experience working in family and/or criminal court or other relevant legal experience.
• Candidates who are bilingual in Spanish, or another language, are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Candidates should be able to demonstrate strong interpersonal and communication skills, an ability to work as part of a team and a desire to share in both the exhilaration and challenges of a growing endeavor.