Director of Advocacy or Supervising Staff Attorney

About Spero Justice Center

Spero Justice Center’s mission is to end mass incarceration in Colorado by targeting one of its most entrenched and overlooked drivers: long prison sentences. Spero was founded in 2021 to fill a void in Colorado’s indigent defense and criminal legal advocacy landscape. Despite Colorado’s strong statewide public defender system and network of criminal legal advocates, no organization was dedicated specifically to fighting extreme sentencing practices or representing people serving life or long sentences.

In our early years, we met many people who had effectively been sentenced to die in prison but had not seen a lawyer in decades. At the state Capitol, sentencing reform measures tended to exclude people serving lengthy sentences and rarely applied retroactively, even though it is impossible to address our state’s incarceration crisis without including individuals whose sentences were imposed before these reforms were enacted.

Over the past five years, Spero has become a small but impactful force for justice. We provide free legal services to clients pursuing every available pathway out of prison in Colorado, including post-conviction litigation, clemency, parole, and medical/elderly parole. Generally, our clients have spent a significant amount of time—often decades—in prison. They include, but are not limited to, people serving life without parole for felony murder, criminalized survivors of gender-based violence, people sentenced under Colorado’s Habitual Criminal Act (our state’s three-strikes law), people sentenced to life or near-life sentences when they were young, and people who are elderly or disabled.

We also litigate systemically important cases at the trial and appellate levels. For example, we played a major role in a campaign to ban mandatory life without parole sentences imposed for felony murder under the state constitution. On the policy side, we advance legislation that creates and expands second chance opportunities for those serving long sentences. Spero was a key member of the coalition that passed SB 25-190, which overhauled Colorado’s medical parole process, and is currently working to pass second look legislation that, at the time of this posting, is awaiting the Governor’s signature.

Our culture is collaborative, warm, and creative. We balance an informal work environment with a very high standard of practice. In our direct representation advocacy, we deeply investigate our clients’ life histories and the circumstances that led to their incarceration. Often, our representation emphasizes themes like accountability, insight, growth, and service to others. Because we represent people who have been imprisoned for many years and have no other access to counsel, most of our clients have exhausted their appeals as of right. As a result, we often need to take a collaborative approach and convince a government decision-maker that our client should be given a second chance. As a result, we place a high value on skills including tact, emotional intelligence, and strong communication.

Spero is in a period of strategic growth and institutional development, and the successful candidate will play an important role in shaping the future of the organization.

Position Overview

Spero is seeking an experienced attorney who shares our values and collaborative ethos. The attorney’s primary responsibility will be supervising our direct representation docket. We staff most cases with interdisciplinary teams that may include attorneys, social workers, fact investigators, and paralegals, and the new attorney will join and lead many of those teams. This role is particularly well-suited for attorneys who are interested in creative, interdisciplinary, client-centered advocacy beyond traditional direct appeals litigation.

In addition to working on individual cases, the attorney will conduct the overall management of our direct representation caseload. This includes supervising our intake process, staying informed about the status of every active case, and ensuring that cases are progressing strategically and effectively. When the attorney is not directly assigned to a case team, they will still provide mentorship, regular check-ins, and strategic guidance to the staff leading the matter.

The successful candidate will also lead and participate in systemic advocacy projects. The contours of each systemic project are different, but examples of this sort of work might include drafting appellate briefs and presenting oral argument, organizing amicus campaigns, developing civil litigation to expand access to parole, or advocating for expanded use of the Governor’s clemency power. If the second look legislation mentioned above is signed into law, the attorney will also play a pivotal role in implementing the new law across the state. This work will include training attorneys across the state to file petitions under the new law, engaging with prosecution offices to encourage their use of prosecutor-initiated resentencing, coordinating Spero’s second look advocacy efforts, litigating early test cases, and working with stakeholders to ensure that this law benefits as many people as possible.

Spero does not require that the successful candidate have prior experience practicing in Colorado or providing post-conviction representation. However, the attorney must be eligible to become licensed to practice law in the State of Colorado, capable of supervising less experienced lawyers, handling evidentiary hearings, motions practice, and appellate argument, conducting mitigation investigation, working with experts, and completing other essential components of criminal defense practice.

Required Qualifications

• JD from an ABA-accredited law school.
• At least eight years of experience practicing law.
• Significant experience in criminal defense and/or civil rights litigation.
• Membership in the Colorado bar or ability to secure membership in the Colorado bar within one year of employment.
• Deep commitment to criminal legal change, to social and racial justice, and to challenging life and lengthy sentences.
• Valid driver’s license and ability to travel independently to visit clients incarcerated in the Colorado Department of Corrections.
• Excellent writing, editing, and research skills.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively and respectfully with incarcerated clients, including those convicted of serious offenses and who have experienced mental illness, serious trauma, and poverty.
• Demonstrated ability to work respectfully and effectively across differences, including race, ethnicity, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, ability, and socioeconomic circumstance.
• This role may occasionally require evening or weekend work during active litigation, legislative sessions, or clemency-related deadlines, although we strive to maintain a sustainable and supportive work environment.

Desired Qualifications

• Demonstrated ability to initiate, lead, and complete complex projects.
• Interest and prior experience in mentoring, supervising, and training early-career attorneys.
• Experience conducting in-depth life history investigations and presenting mitigation evidence to legal decision-makers.
• Excellent in-court advocacy skills at the trial and appellate levels.
• Prior lived or professional experience relating to incarceration.
• Strong organizational and project management skills, including an ability to work independently, meet deadlines, and manage large amounts of information.