News and Announcements

Bay Area Legal Aid (BayLegal) works with our clients to advocate for their legal rights and remove legal barriers to health, safety, and stability through representation, legal advice and information, referrals, community education, and advocacy for low-income individuals and families throughout seven Bay Area counties.

As a regional anti-poverty civil law firm that has been serving our local communities since the 1960s, we are committed to working alongside our clients and community partners to address inter- generational poverty and social inequality. We have built upon our origins as separate neighborhood legal services organizations into a regional non-profit law firm with over 150 employees. We practice in multiple legal substantive areas to help our clients protect their livelihoods, their health, and their families. BayLegal works to prevent domestic violence and sexual assault, increase economic stability, protect consumers, expand access to healthcare, and prevent homelessness. Our clients include the working poor, families with children, foster youth, seniors, immigrants, veterans, individuals impacted by the criminal and juvenile legal system and persons with disabilities. By serving clients at a wide range of access points, including our six regional county offices, our mobile advocacy clinics, and our nationally recognized legal hotlines, BayLegal has a unique viewpoint to identify patterns of illegal practices and barriers to our clients’ rights in need of broader advocacy and potential impact litigation. BayLegal strives to create equitable access to resources and services to build a foundation from which our clients can thrive.

BayLegal’s Youth Justice Team (YJT) includes attorneys and a social worker who advance the rights of youth throughout the San Francisco Bay Area by providing civil legal services to young people experiencing homelessness, youth who are involved with the foster care and juvenile justice systems, commercially sexually exploited youth, and young people with disabilities. The attorneys represent youth in a diverse range of legal issues, including foster care entry, public benefits, guardianships, education advocacy, immigration relief, and other civil legal practice areas. We believe that all young people should be treated with respect and have the resources they need to meet their goals. To that end, we engage in civil legal representation, social work, community collaborations, and systemic advocacy, in partnership with the young people we serve.

Position: BayLegal seeks an attorney with a strong commitment to public interest and social justice to become the Supervising Attorney of our Youth Justice Team. The Supervising Attorney is responsible for supervising the legal work of the YJT staff, ensuring high quality legal services for youth in a wide range of civil legal areas in which the team practices. As a member of BayLegal's management team, you will report to the YJT Managing Attorney and work in collaboration with other supervising attorneys and staff throughout the firm. The Supervising Attorney works with the Managing Attorney to further develop and implement the vision and direction of BayLegal’s Youth Justice work. The position will be based in one of BayLegal’s regional offices, including work in our Oakland office and travel throughout the Bay Area as necessary to best supervise the team’s work and engage in advocacy for youth. See COVID-19 Temporary Remote work description below.

As a Supervising Attorney you will have the opportunity to:
• Learn about and engage with the diverse legal needs of low-income communities in the broader Bay Area and the unique legal needs and issues youth encounter and contribute to BayLegal’s work and mission to reduce homelessness, enhance stability, break systemic cycles of poverty, and address social injustice.
• Provide day-to-day legal supervision and support to attorneys together with the YJT Managing Attorney.
• Carry a reduced caseload representing youth.
• Conduct training, mentoring, evaluation, and professional development of unit staff.
• Develop, support, and engage in collaborations with community partners to address systemic barriers facing BayLegal's client community.
• Engage the team in annual planning, periodic reviews of priorities, and responses to emerging issues in the client community, together with the YJT Managing Attorney
• Work with BayLegal's development, grants and contracts, and communications teams to promote BayLegal's mission and resource development.
• Engage in other tasks and projects that further BayLegal's mission and operations as a non- profit.

Requirements/Qualifications/About the Successful Candidate:
• Humility in working with colleagues and 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/or limited English proficiency.
• Five or more years practice as a licensed attorney with experience developing projects and leading diverse teams.
• Membership in good standing in the California State Bar.
• Direct service experience, particularly with youth and in the YJT’s primary substantive areas.
• Knowledge of and demonstrated commitment to practices addressing secondary trauma, burnout, and sustainability for staff.
• Legal supervision experience strongly preferred.
• Positive attitude, sense of humor and proactive problem-solver.
• Strong personal work ethic and ability to organize time, manage diverse activities, and meet critical deadlines.
• Excellent writing, editing, and proof-reading skills, with ability to be detail-oriented.
• Strong interpersonal skills and an ability to work collaboratively with a dynamic team and recognize, address, and resolve interpersonal conflict.
• Ability to develop and implement effective training and mentorship programs for new staff.
• Ability to take decisive action and ensure accountability.

Temporary COVID-19 remote work: Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, all BayLegal employees are primarily working remotely. While BayLegal has implemented detailed health and safety protocols to minimize risk of exposure and has an evolving plan for reopening our local offices, we anticipate remaining primarily remote throughout much of 2021. All employees are expected to be available to travel to BayLegal offices and services locations as needed and in compliance with public health advisories. Employees are expected to reside in California and must be able to commute to the physical BayLegal base location or service delivery location within the San Francisco Bay Area. While BayLegal remains primarily remote, all employees are issued BayLegal computers and provided appropriate supplies. BayLegal has implemented and continues to explore additional technologies to make working remotely as efficient and connected as possible. All employees receive a flat-rate monthly amount to reimburse for work-related use of personal IT equipment, including internet, and home. BayLegal is opened to providing flexibility regarding work schedules and part-time or full-time employment to the extent feasible for the position.

Compensation and Benefits: We offer a diverse, family friendly environment, and compensation based on competitive public interest salaries along with a generous benefits package. The estimated starting annual salary range for this position is: $85,000 - $115,000 (placement in range determined primarily by years of related experience). BayLegal's benefits package includes 100% employer covered medical, dental, and life insurance for employees and up to 40-50% for dependents; long term disability insurance; stipends for bilingual employees whose language skills are used in the provision of work tasks; student debt repayment program; dependent childcare employer contribution program and 401k retirement plan following first year. Paid leave policy includes: sick leave; parental leave; 14 holidays each year and vacation (starting at 13 days and increasing with additional years of employment).

Applications: BayLegal thrives on our diversity, and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a culturally diverse workplace and strongly encourage women LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex, Asexual) and QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) individuals, veterans, individuals who have been impacted by the criminal justice system, persons with disabilities, and persons from other underrepresented groups to apply. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Please send (1) cover letter including response to question below (no page limit), (2) resume, (3) references, JOB POSTING and (4) writing sample to: Human Resources Department, e-mail to jobs@baylegal.org. Please reference Youth Justice Supervising Attorney in the subject of your email.

As part of your cover letter, please address the following: BayLegal’s clients are low- and very low-income members of our communities. They include LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex, Asexual) and QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) individuals, the working poor, seniors, people who are limited English proficient, veterans, persons with disabilities, survivors of abuse and exploitation, individuals impacted by the criminal and juvenile justice systems, and people who are experiencing or at risk of homeless, and persons from other underrepresented groups. To ensure our organization is best serving these populations, BayLegal strives to promote an evolving set of behaviors and attitudes amongst our staff, as well as policies that enable us to work effectively in all cross-cultural situations, with clients, with our coworkers, and with the community. We see this as a commitment to enhance the provision of our services to all clients; to raise the level of positive client outcomes; and to create an inclusive and respectful workplace in which differences are acknowledged and valued.

How do you think your experiences, professional or otherwise, have prepared you to serve our client base effectively and to contribute to our commitment to humility, inclusion, and diversity? Feel free to think broadly about your response to this question, applying various aspects of your life and personal experiences.