Law graduate Paralegal

The Center for Family Representation Inc. (CFR) is an award-winning, innovative law and policy organization that serves primarily Black and Brown families and youth in Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island with an interdisciplinary legal defense model that serves more than 2400 clients every year. CFR was originally founded in 2002 to dramatically change the trajectory of indigent parents being prosecuted by the City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). Our goal is to defend and protect our clients’ rights, reduce the harm of family separation and prevent or minimize the time any child spends in the foster system.

CFR provides interdisciplinary family defense with a model that was unique at our founding and that is now being replicated nationally: we assign every client an attorney and a social work staff member, and teams have the support of parent advocates, who are parents with direct personal experience of being investigated and prosecuted by ACS. CFR was the first agency in the country to integrate parents with lived experience into legal teams and now has 8 parent advocates working in all four of our family defense locations.

Practice Areas

CFR’s Community Advocacy Project represents parents during a child protective investigation (to avoid court involvement where possible) and assists parents in clearing their names from state maltreatment records.

As an agency committed to securing justice for families, we built the Youth Defense practice (YDP) to defend youth at risk of family separation through incarceration. YDP uses the same interdisciplinary model to represent youth being prosecuted in Queens, Bronx and Manhattan in Supreme Court Youth Parts, during Probation Adjustment and in Delinquency proceedings in Family Court.

CFR’s Home for Good program provides legal and social work services to CFR clients in immigration, civil legal services and criminal defense matters, to afford clients an efficient and well-coordinated one-stop solution to a range of issues that threaten family stability.

Recognized as experts in our fields, we annually train over 500 practitioners in the city, state and around the country on strategies to promote family preservation and interdisciplinary representation, and we provide community based “Know Your Rights” presentations to parents, youth and service providers. We advocate at the city, state and national level for policies that reduce the harm of family separation, and promote parent engagement and justice for youth and families.

CFR is seeking a Law Graduate for our Queens office who will be part of hiring classes due to begin in Fall 2026.

Responsibilities

Work as part of CFR’s interdisciplinary legal teams (comprised of attorneys, social work staff, paralegals and parent advocates) to provide our clients with high quality legal defense and meet objectives such as keeping children out of the foster system, shortening lengths of stay for children in the foster system, promoting quality visiting arrangements and ensuring that families receive services that are well-tailored to expediting safe and lasting reunification

Represent parents in Family Court who are respondents in Article 10 and all related supplemental proceedings, including Termination of Parental Rights proceedings.

Pursue interim appeals on behalf of CFR’s clients

Keep case data, client legal notes and files up to date

Participate in CFR’s policy initiatives

Work collaboratively with CFR's Home for Good teams

Law Graduates joining CFR can expect intensive training on CFR’s Cornerstone Advocacy model, family court, the child welfare/family regulation system, client interviewing, and other critical skills. CFR is dedicated to providing ongoing professional development in best practices in all these areas in a variety of training forums for all staff.

Qualifications

Law school graduates or current 3Ls who will take the bar for the first time in July 2026 (for our Spring and Fall 2026 hiring classes). Law graduates who have passed the bar exam and relevant exams and are pending admission.

Demonstrate strong interpersonal and communication skills, an ability to work as part of a team and a desire to share in both the exhilaration and challenges of a growing endeavor.

Prior experience with public benefits, housing, criminal defense or immigration is preferred.

Individuals who apply should be able to demonstrate strong interpersonal and communication skills and a commitment to interdisciplinary representation of parents.

Prior to their start date candidates are required to have completed all exams required for admission to the Bar.

Salary & Benefits

Starting salary: $84,900

CFR offers a generous compensation package, including a competitive base salary as well as health, 403(b) and vacation benefits. The salary, benefits, and employment policies relevant to this position are governed by the Collective Bargaining Agreement between CFR and the CFR Union, part of ALAA (Association of Legal Aid Attorneys) UAW 2325.

CFR strives to create an inclusive and antiracist environment for all of its staff, and candidates from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply; CFR is an Equal Opportunity Employer. CFR is a primarily in-person workforce. This role is based in our Queens, Manhattan, Bronx, or Staten Island offices. CFR has a generous telecommuting policy that allows staff the flexibility to work from home when there are no in-person client or organizational obligations.

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