Attorney

Staff Attorney

Housing | Buffalo Office

STATUS: Full-time | 35+ hr/wk

FLSA CLASSIFICATION: Exempt

CATEGORY: Union

Organization Overview

Neighborhood Legal Services, Inc. (NLS) is the largest provider of civil legal services in Western New York, with a central office in Buffalo and offices in Batavia, Lockport, and Niagara Falls. NLS helps thousands of clients each year in many different areas, including housing, public benefits, domestic violence, disability rights, and other civil legal matters. NLS represents individuals and families facing eviction, seeking access to food or rental assistance, navigating safety concerns, and addressing barriers related to poverty and inequality. We invite candidates to use their talents and skills to help people and strengthen systems that affect low-income communities.

Summary of Responsibilities:

The Staff Attorney will maintain a caseload serving low-income clients in housing law matters, including evictions, housing conditions, and discrimination. The Staff Attorney will handle all aspects of legal representation, including client communication, pleadings, legal research, file maintenance, coordination with support staff, hearings, and trial work. The position also supports grant and contract requirements through casework and helps foster pro bono involvement with the private bar.

Essential Functions:

• Provide a spectrum of legal assistance, from advice and counsel by phone to affirmative litigation, across a wide range of housing-related issues.
• Identify systemic problems that affect clients' rights and address those challenges through affirmative advocacy, impact litigation, and policy work.
• Collaborate and coordinate with NLS staff and community partners to ensure effective referrals and holistic service delivery.
• Conduct community outreach, education, and training.
• Ensure that all written work product is grammatically correct, carefully edited, well written, and appropriate for its audience.
• Develop relationships and collaborate with public and private community partners, including governmental agencies, courts, and community-based organizations, to support integrated services and address systemic barriers facing client communities.
• Demonstrate cultural humility when working with low-income clients across the spectrum of diversity, including race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, immigrant status, religious identity, physical and mental disabilities, and limited English proficiency.
• Develop substantive knowledge of areas of law that affect clients.
• Maintain current knowledge of developments in law, civil procedure, civil litigation, and advocacy strategies.
• Develop substantive knowledge of the social and economic forces that create poverty and inequality in the United States.

Core Skills:

• Communicate effectively with clients, co-workers, community partners, opposing counsel, judges, and court staff.
• Analyze legal issues, perform legal research, and develop case strategy.
• Gather facts, provide appropriate advice and referrals, draft necessary documents, and negotiate settlements when appropriate.
• Represent clients effectively in city, county, state, and federal courts, as well as administrative hearings.
• Address issues in a timely manner.
• Organize and maintain appropriate documentation of activities.
• Show commitment to bringing justice to low-income Western New York residents.
• Use computers and related technology as needed, including word processing and email.
• Demonstrate good judgment, initiative, resilience under stress, willingness to work as part of a team, and an overall positive attitude.
• Engage in progressively more complex litigation and demonstrate creativity in advocacy.
• Maintain contacts with community agencies and local client groups.
• Speak to community groups and prepare presentation materials.
• Prioritize and implement NLS policies and procedures appropriately.
• Follow supervisory instructions and perform other appropriate functions when necessary.

Core Competencies

• Strong personal work ethic and ability to organize time, manage diverse activities, and meet critical deadlines with minimal supervision.
• Excellent writing, editing, and proofreading skills, with strong attention to detail.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work collaboratively with a dynamic, multi-sector team.
• Curious and self-directed, with the ability to anticipate client and community partner needs.
• Cultural humility when working with low-income clients across the spectrum of diversity, including race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, immigrant status, religious identity, physical and mental disabilities, and limited English proficiency.
• Familiarity with diverse communities is a plus.

Qualifications

• Juris Doctor degree and admission to the New York State Bar, or pending admission.
• Previous experience working with low-income and/or underserved communities preferred.
• Second-language fluency preferred.
• Legal services background or knowledge of general civil legal work preferred.

Working Conditions and Physical Requirements:

• Work in an office environment including working at workstation, attending meetings;
• Traveling to meetings and hearings off-site;
• Use of computer and other office machines such as fax, photocopiers and telephones; and Ability to work in the evenings and weekends as required to serve clients.

DISCLAIMER

This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities. Duties may change at any time with or without notice.

Compensation and Benefits

Salary is based on bar admission and years of experience, with placement within Steps 1 through 22 of the salary scale. Step 1 correlates to the first year of admission to the bar of any state and the date the employee began practicing law in that state. Each progressive step reflects an additional year of experience.

Prior credited experience is calculated from the date of admission to the bar and the date the employee began practicing law in that state. If the employee did not begin practicing law within six months of admission, prior experience will be calculated from the date the employee began practicing law.

Current salary steps include but are not limited to:

Step 1 - $71,000.00

Step 5 - $78,156.78

Step 10 - $90,338.62

Step 15 - $101,873.70

Step 22 - $120,913.76

Full-time position with a 35-hour work week and reduced summer hours.

NLS offers a comprehensive benefits package to its employees. This includes health, dental, and vision insurance; a generous PTO policy that includes three weeks of vacation time, 12 paid holidays, and a week of PTO between Christmas and New Year's; reduced summer hours; sick and personal leave; life insurance; a pension plan; HRA and Flexible Spending Accounts; paid memberships; and professional development.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

Neighborhood Legal Services provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.