Senior Staff Attorney

The Regents of the University of California on behalf of their Los Angeles Campus · United States

Job Summary Statement: The UCLA Voting Rights Project (VRP) seeks an emerging legal advocate to serve as a senior staff attorney. The UCLA Voting Rights Project is the flagship project of LPPI and works to ensure an accessible and equitable system of voting for all Americans through impact litigation, research, and clinical education to expand access to the ballot box. Reporting to the Legal Director, the senior staff attorney will play a critical role in the Voting Rights Project, developing and litigating high-impact cases, managing an ongoing docket of cases and matters, leading drafts of motions and pleadings, and working with other departments to accomplish organizational goals. This position will also manage and supervise a staff attorney, law student fellows with clinical work. The Senior Staff Attorney will be responsible for: Develop and engaging in impact litigation in the federal and state courts, including conducting pre-litigation legal research and legal analysis, conducting factual investigations and witness interviews, preparing litigation strategy memoranda, preparing pleadings, and being involved in other stages of litigation. As Senior attorney, this position will be the lead counsel for UCLA LPPI VRP on a number of cases and matters, and be the responsible attorney when they are assigned as lead. Supervise administrative staff, staff attorney, paralegals, law students, legal fellows, interns, and volunteers. Collaborate with VRP colleagues to implement integrated advocacy efforts drawing on a mix of legal, research, communications, and legislative advocacy functions, and serve as a resource on legal matters to colleagues. Collaborate on scholarly research for law reviews and participate in panels and symposia as a legal expert. Leads the drafting on all amicus briefs in cases of constitutional significance, both in federal and state courts. Assist in developing communication materials, including press releases, op-eds, articles, blog posts, and social media assets. Is available to press to give interviews and answer questions about legal research, voting rights policy and litigation Assist with fundraising and development pitches, drafting and submission of grant proposals and reports, and other tasks needed to promote the organization and its mission. Develop equitable and reciprocal relationships with scholars, external community-based organizations, other lawyers and law firms, and elected officials. Type of Supervision Received/Exercised: The senior staff attorney will be a central, key member of the organization, reporting to the Legal Director. The senior staff attorney will consult and work in coordination with other members of the Voting Rights Project team, including staff, strategic communications advisors, and undergraduate and graduate student fellows to complete their job duties.

• 3 years Experience representing individuals, organizations or governmentalunits. (Required)
• 3 years At least 3 years of trial and/or appellate litigation experience in federal or state courts, or, in the alternative, one year or more of judicial clerkship experience. (Required)
• 3 years Experience in drafting high quality legal briefs and memoranda,conducting legal research. (Required)
• 3 years Experience examining an expert witness, under oath, in a directand cross-examination in voting-related lawsuit in state or federalcourt, during trial or deposition. (Required)
• Actively participated in a minimum of 7 federal or state lawsuits related specifically to voting rights. (Required)
• Authored or co-authored amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court related specifically to votingrights. (Required)
• Interpersonal skills and ability to maintain cooperative relationships and ongoing communicationswith persons of diverse social, educational, and cultural backgrounds. (Required)
• Ability to travel locally, nationally and internationally. Willingness to work occasional evenings andweekends. (Preferred)
• Excellent command of Spanish-- highly proficient in spoken and written Spanish. (Preferred)
• Ability to manage time and workload effectively and complete assignments promptly amidconflicting demands, multiple deadlines, competing requirements, and changing priorities. (Required)
• Highly organized with strong skills in using project management tools to compile information in themost efficient and informative, manage project tasks, and track progress and information. (Required)
• Ability to both take direction and work independently with minimal direction, making independentdecisions, establishing priorities, and following through on assignments. (Required)
• Skilled at working as part of a team and collaborating with other individuals on a variety of levels. (Required)
• Working knowledge of online legal research. (Required)
• Working knowledge of web-based collaboration and project management systems, including GoogleDrive, Google Apps, and Doodle. (Required)
• Working knowledge of social media platforms and social media management systems, especiallyTwitter and LinkedIn. (Preferred)

• Juris Doctor (JD) Degree in good academic standing from an accredited college oruniversity. (Required)

• Background Check: Continued employment is contingent upon the completion of a satisfactory background investigation.
• Age Requirement: Candidate(s) must be 18 years or older to be eligible to be hired.
• COVID and Flu Vaccinations: The position is subject to providing evidence of inoculation.