Now Hiring:
Family Law Program Director

About The Commons Law Center

The Commons Law Center is on a mission to revolutionize access to basic legal services for underserved Oregonians, and we are looking for talented and passionate professionals to join us. We are a 501(c)(3) social enterprise that provides legal services on a sliding scale basis and practical training for new legal professionals.

Stabilizing civil legal services are available to Oregonians who live below 400% of the federal poverty level. Year after year, more than 60% of The Commons live at or below 125%, or on less than $34,688 per year for a family of 4. Practice areas include family law, tenant law, estate planning, and probate.

Modern business practices and technology help drive the costs out of legal services delivery. Philanthropic donations act like seed capital to stand-up new programs or strategically grow existing ones, with the goal that fee-generating activities become self-sustaining, or come close. Earned revenue supports 70-90% of the annual operating budget.

About the Family Law Program Director Role

The Commons Law Center seeks an attorney eligible for admission to Oregon to lead our Family Law Program as a Staff Attorney. The family law program’s goal is to enable an average, working-class Oregonian to afford family law help. Reducing the cost of services is essential. Experimenting with delivery approaches and new services are required.

The Commons is piloting a new family law coaching model to help break the mold of expensive, time-intensive, and traumatic family law trials. Using a coaching model, an attorney meets with a client to educate them about their case, right size their expectations, and advise them how to best represent themselves. Clients don’t “have a lawyer” in the traditional sense, but they have access to a lawyer, much like a person with health insurance has access to a doctor but not a personal doctor on-call.

All coaching is remote. Little, if any, litigation is required. This attorney could meet with clients from anywhere in Oregon and based on a flexible work schedule that accommodates their lives as well.

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Engage new clients, manage a caseload, and provide legal services to clients in Oregon;
• Train, supervise, manage, and provide quality control for new lawyer fellows and
  interns;
• Teach new lawyer and paralegal fellows to be excellent and competent service
  providers, respected by clients, opposing parties, courts, partners, and the communities
  they serve;
• Manage and report on program data and progress to partners and funders;
• Develop program infrastructure needed to scale service delivery, including document
  automation, memo templates, discovery guides, and new lawyer training materials;
• Oversee creation and delivery of culturally-specific education and outreach; and
• Leverage the organization’s tech stack to optimize workflow and communications.

Qualifications:

• An Oregon law license in good standing with 5-10+ years of experience.

Preferred qualities:

• Cultural competence; Spanish language skills valued
• Engage and be able to propel with mission of The Commons as a social enterprise
• Flexible and responsive to team and firm’s needs
• Great leader and team player
• Excellent communicator
• Ability to work remotely
• Detail-oriented
• Resourceful and analytical
• Excellent time management and organizational skills

Other Job Information: