Borough Director, Queens

The Children's Law Center (CLC) is a non-profit legal services organization that advocates for children's rights across New York City. We represent children in custody, visitation, guardianship, paternity, family offense, and related child protective (abuse or neglect) proceedings in the Family Courts and the Integrated Domestic Violence Parts of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, and in appeals therefrom. CLC represents over 5,000 children annually in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, providing holistic and zealous representation and support in the Court, the community and the legislature.

Through our work in the courtroom and the community, we empower our clients, reduce the negative impact of family dissolution and court involvement, and promote wellbeing for young people. We are dedicated to addressing our clients' complex social justice challenges to create conditions that allow them to thrive. We are our clients' 'outside voice.'

Description

CLC Borough Directors are members of the Organization’s Leadership Team and play a critical role in advancing the rights of children in that borough. Collaborating with the Borough Directors citywide and other CLC leaders, the Borough Director seeks to effectuate the mission of CLC by providing ongoing supervision to staff attorneys and trial supervisors that ensures client-centered outcomes through competent, sensitive, zealous and timely advocacy.

The Borough Director is responsible for communicating current policies and protocols both internally and externally in a clear and timely manner and providing staff with ongoing training and the tools necessary for their professional development. The Borough Director will provide legal and managerial leadership to ensure that CLC staff maintains a high standard of representation and client services. The Borough Director will also represent the organization with Court and Bar leadership, Task Forces, community meetings and with other appropriate stakeholders. The Director will build collaborative relationships across the family court/children’s services sector to facilitate support and assistance for our clients.

Essential Duties/Responsibilities:

• Provides day-to-day oversight of practice and guidance to staff, critical to achieving successful outcomes for clients in CLC's practice areas.
• Maintains a caseload of direct representation
• Stays abreast of and communicates established CLC policies and practice guidelines to staff.
• Assures policies and practices are followed, and stays current with changes to policies, processes and procedures.
• Supports staff by providing them with the tools they need to effectively perform their jobs through onboarding, mentoring, on-the-job training, continuous feedback and coaching.
• Recognizes the specific needs of each supervisee and develops staff member's skills and knowledge through modeling of case handling, case supervision, and second seating trials to assure high quality practice.
• Encourages interdisciplinary partnerships through modeling of collaboration and a holistic approach to each case, working with CSDA, social work, paralegal and writing teams.
• Models professional interactions within and outside the organization
• Monitors and evaluates workload and staff performance to assure that standards and expectations are successfully achieved.
• Ensures that relevant metrics are gathered on the macro and micro level and utilizes metrics to advance the mission of CLC.
• Conducts regular case file reviews and provides in court supervision and support.
• Analyzes legal issues, develops legal strategies and suggests affirmative litigation where appropriate
• Collaborates with CLC Executive team and borough team counterparts, to assess and evaluate office and court needs.
• Displays comfort using technology and encourage staff and leaders to do the same.
• Responds to client, court, community and staff concerns.
• Represents CLC in meetings with other stakeholders and in the community.
• Other duties as required and necessary to fulfill the mission of CLC.

Position Requirements

Key Qualifications and Competencies:

• Admitted to practice law in New York State
• Minimum seven years legal practice experience; preferably in family and/or juvenile law.
• Demonstrated litigation skills.
• Strong interviewing, advocacy, practice and cultural competence skills.
• Demonstrated commitment to public interest and policy.
• In-depth knowledge of family court, custody, domestic violence and child welfare.
• Prior experience in a supervisory or management role is preferred, with the ability to guide and support a team effectively.
• Effective communication (written and verbal), time management, and organizational skills.
• Curiosity and eagerness to continue to learn new skills, grow professionally and take an optimistic approach to new challenges.
• Demonstrated attention to detail along with outstanding initiative, analytical, critical thinking and problem resolution skills.
• Proven ability to work independently with excellent judgment, diplomacy, professionalism and the ability to prioritize, track and manage multiple requests simultaneously, and meet deadlines.
• Demonstrated skills as a regular user, of software, technology, and online resources including knowledge of databases, Westlaw, Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook including calendaring, task, etc.), Internet searches, etc.
• Demonstrated ability to exercise complete discretion when working with confidential and sensitive information.