Staff Attorney, Medical Legal Community Partnership

BACKGROUND: Philadelphia Legal Assistance’s Medical-Legal-Community Partnership (MLCP) integrates legal advocates into public health settings to meet the health-harming legal needs of patients. Core to the model is the co-location of an inter-professional team of healthcare providers, social workers and legal staff, who collaborate in a hands-on, consistent manner to meet the complex, inter-related needs of underserved populations.

The MLCP Attorney will work on-site at one of the MLCP sites listed below and collaborate with the healthcare team to address the legal aspects of patients’ medical and social service needs that so often undermine access to care. The MLCP Attorney will provide generalist legal services, in the areas of health insurance access and income supports, Public Benefits (Medicaid denials, etc), housing safety and security, utility shutoff prevention, family stability and child welfare issues, domestic violence and other health-harming legal issues.

Philadelphia Legal Assistance (PLA) currently operates an MLCP in order to provide collaborative, free legal assistance to patients on-site at the following locations in the City:

• Health Center 2 at 1700 S Broad Street;
• Health Center 3 at 555 S. 43rd Street;
• Health Center 4 at 4400 Haverford Avenue;
• Health Center 5 at 1900 N 20th Street;
• Health Center 6 at 321 W Girard Avenue;
• Health Center 9 at 131 E Chelten Avenue;
• Health Center 10 at 2230 Cottman Ave;
• Strawberry Mansion Health Center at 2840 W Dauphin Street;
• Delaware Valley Community Health (DVCH) Maria de los Santos Health Center (MDLS) at 401 West Allegheny Avenue;
• Girard Medical Center (GMC) at 801 West Girard Avenue;
• Esperanza Health Center (EHC) at Kensington and Allegheny (K&A) 861 E. Allegheny Ave; Fairhill Site (5th Street) 2940 N. 5th Street and Hunting Park (HP) 4417 N. 6th Street;
• Einstein Medical Center (EMC) Community Practice Center and Pediatric and Adolescent Ambulatory Center 5501 Old York Rd and
• Temple Physicians at Nicetown 4350 Germantown Avenue and Liberty Square 1300 W. Lehigh Avenue and Temple Pediatrics at 3223 North Broad Street.

This position is primarily based on site, with some limited remote work. Applicants will need access to a phone and internet connection for remote work, a laptop will be provided. MLCP staff who are working on site have all received COVID vaccinations.

QUALIFICATIONS: PLA seeks a candidate for the position of MLCP Attorney with the following qualifications:

• Law degree and admission to a PA Bar, or a willingness to take the PA bar exam (when available). Candidates of all levels will be considered.
• Fluency in Spanish highly encouraged.
• Flexibility to work in multiple physical locations and a variety of work spaces
• Demonstrated commitment to providing sensitive, respectful, culturally competent, trauma-informed appropriate legal aid to patients of diverse backgrounds.
• Demonstrated passionate commitment to providing high-quality legal advocacy and representation for low-income, culturally diverse populations.
• Demonstrated collaborative approach to legal service delivery, including delivery of legal services in conjunction with other types of professional services.
• Very strong communication skills.
• Experience working in a medical-legal partnership or a similar, inter-professional model a plus.

RESPONSIBILITIES: PLA seeks a candidate for the position of MLCP Attorney, who will assume the following responsibilities:

• Provide legal consultation and direct representation to patients referred by health center staff (physicians, nurses, social workers, public benefits counselors, and other staff).
• Research rights and available benefits for clients.
• Collaborate with Health Center administrators, providers and staff to:
• Work toward achieving full integration of legal staff into healthcare team through consistent contact, communication and collaboration to advance patient health, using a team-based approach;
• Identify health patterns that warrant policy change and advocate to change to improve the patients’ and community’s health;
• Help plan and coordinate trainings for health center staff on substantive medical-legal issues;
• Participate in all health center staff activities, including staff meetings and retreats.
• Supervise paralegals and National Health Corp volunteers as needed.
• Engage in systems advocacy efforts with other legal aid and public health organizations.
• Track cases through a web-based legal case management system and assure entry of data necessary for program evaluation.
• Communicate and collaborate regularly with the MLCP Supervisor about case acceptance, case strategy and operational and other programmatic issues.

SALARY AND BENEFITS: Salary is commensurate with years of experience based on union scale. For example, Law clerk (less than 1 full year practicing law without bar passage) salary is currently $59000 annually. Attorney 1 (less than 1 full year practicing law with bar passage) salary is currently $68500 annually. Attorney VI (five years practicing law) salary is $81800 annually. PLA offers a generous benefit package in addition to salary: health insurance premiums paid in full for employee and family, cash incentives for health insurance opt out, vacation, personal, and sick leave, thirteen (13) paid holidays, 403(b) retirement plan with employer contribution based on years of service, paid parental leave, life insurance and short and long- term disability benefits.

Philadelphia Legal Assistance (PLA) is an equal opportunity employer.

PLA values a diverse work environment and strongly encourages women, people of color, people who identify as LGBTQ, people with disabilities, people who have experienced poverty or homelessness, and people who have had prior contact with the juvenile, criminal, or child welfare systems to apply. PLA invites all applicants to include in their cover letter a statement about how your unique background and/or experiences might contribute to the diversity, cultural vitality, and perspective of our staff and legal services practice. Interested applicants should email Cover Letter, Resume, References, and a Legal- writing sample, preferably in one PDF document to: work@philalegal.org .

Application deadline is rolling. However, the position will be filled as soon as an appropriate candidate is identified.