Now Hiring:
Tenant Eviction Defense New Lawyer Fellow

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) nonprofit organization that provides legal services on a sliding scale basis, free community legal education, and practical training for new legal professionals.

Last year The Commons: 

• Launched an eviction defense program, hired a team to staff it, and worked with other nonprofits and legal service providers to adapt to shifting needs.
• Helped persuade Portland Housing Bureau to extend its support for the Housing Asset Preservation Program beyond the pilot phase, enabling our team to continue creating pro bono estate plans for the City’s historic African American community. 
• Doubled down on unbundled, or limited scope, legal services to break the mold of expensive, time-intensive, and traumatic family law trials. 

This year, we hope to engage in community-wide conversations about the future of the legal profession, from bar exam reform to limited licensure for paralegals, to share our experiences and ideas. Internally, our team is focused on doing our best work – not the most work, not the biggest work – the work that sustains, elevates, and empowers the people we serve and those working in public service. Because we are a learning organization, we strive to empower every one of our team members with the tools, the support, and the autonomy to further our overall mission.

About the Tenant Eviction Defense New Lawyer Fellow Role

The Commons Law Center seeks a licensed Oregon attorney in their first few years of practice to join our Tenant Eviction Defense Program as a Fellow Attorney. We designed our three-year fellowship program to train new lawyers in law practice methods that financially sustain them while expanding legal services to underserved communities. Fellow Attorneys in the Tenant Eviction Defense are counselors, advisors, strategists, problem solvers, and litigators.

Roles & responsibilities:

• Help develop program infrastructure to scale service delivery, including document automation, workflow management systems, templates, and forms;
• Commit to learning how to provide limited scope legal services;
• Do extensive, substantive legal work to protect tenants from eviction, including legal research, discovery compilation and analysis, asset distribution calculations, negotiations, and trial preparation–formal and informal–such as memos, witness exams, motions, etc.;
• Regularly litigate in multiple counties, navigating local rules, customs, and cultures;
• Collaborate with the program team, including director, other fellows, paralegals, and clerks, and with the broader organization to deliver and improve services;
• Support community legal education program development, including outreach, curriculum building, networking, volunteer recruitment, and ambassadorship;
• Use the organization’s tech stack to optimize workflow and communications;
• Use and help build the organization’s internal knowledge base regarding substantive legal and operational issues;
• Manage communication with clients, opposing parties, attorneys, and witnesses; and
• Help make it fun because life is too short for work to be a bummer.
  

Requirement:

• Oregon law license in good standing

Other Job Information:

Career Path:

Our goal is for lawyers to leverage their three-year fellowship to confidently step into their next career phase. That might involve starting your own practice, working for another firm, or even staying on with The Commons to help build our organization in a more senior role.

Wherever you envision your career path taking you, we hope you’ll consider starting it with The Commons Law Center. We are one of the only places where you will learn an entrepreneurial approach to lawyering, gain new skills using organized training pathways, and help shape the future of legal services while you grow as a lawyer. All while providing critical services to communities that need them.