Overview

The Center for Family Representation, Inc., (CFR) is an award-winning, innovative law and policy organization that was founded in 2002 to dramatically change the trajectory of indigent families impacted by child welfare and to reduce the number of children entering foster care. CFR introduced a new model of legal services to parents charged with abuse or neglect: we assign every client an attorney and a social work staff member, and teams are additionally supported by Parent Advocates. CFR’s Parent Advocates are parents with direct personal experience of being impacted by the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), such as having been investigated or prosecuted by ACS or lost temporary custody of their children to foster care or otherwise due to the ACS involvement. CFR was the first agency in the country to integrate parents with lived experience into legal teams. Beginning with just a handful of staff, CFR now has more than 120 staff serving more than 2400 parents annually in Manhattan and Queens. CFR has been the primary, county-wide provider of legal services to indigent parents in Manhattan Family Court since 2007 and in Queens Family Court since 2011. In 2015, CFR expanded its practice to provide legal and social work services to parents in immigration, civil legal services and criminal defense matters. In 2019, we launched two new initiatives: a Youth Defense Practice that provides holistic, interdisciplinary defense to youth being prosecuted in the Family Court, and in the Youth Parts in Manhattan and Queens Supreme Courts; and a Community Advocacy Project, to represent parents during a child protective investigation (prior to court involvement) and to assist parents in clearing their names from state maltreatment records. We regularly train over 500 practitioners annually around the country on strategies to promote family preservation and on holistic, interdisciplinary representation and advocate at the city, state and national level for policies that promote parent engagement and justice for families.

CFR has an immediate opening for a Senior Staff Attorney in its Youth Defense Practice (YDP). 

Primary responsibilities:

Under the supervision and guidance of CFR’s YDP Supervisors, the Senior Staff Attorney’s core responsibilities will be to represent clients charged on juvenile delinquency matters in Family Court, as well as clients charged as adolescent offenders on cases in the Supreme Court Youth Parts, including Youth Part cases that are subsequently removed to Family Court. 

The Senior Staff Attorney will:

  • work collaboratively with legal teams, composed of attorneys, social work staff, investigator, paralegals and parent advocates (clients’ legal teams may also involve staff from CFR’s immigration or housing/public benefits units);
  • maintain a caseload concentration in Queens, however candidates should expect to occasionally appear in Manhattan, to directly represent clients and to supervise other YDP staff;
  • maintain new and evolving youth defense data in CMS and client legal notes; 
  • keep files up to date; 
  • keep additional data related to deliverables for private funders supporting the Youth Defense Practice, and/or to meet with prospective and current funders; 
  • and help to inform and grow CFR’s Youth Defense Practice. 

Qualifications:

  • All Senior Staff Attorneys are expected to demonstrate an aptitude for productive problem-solving, a commitment to CFR’s current DEI work, and a desire to contribute to the stewardship of CFR; this includes the ability to positively and productively contribute to the work culture at CFR in communications and work with staff at all levels, including progressive discipline if necessary.
  • Candidates for supervisor also need to be well organized in order to work efficiently and effectively beyond their own caseload and to effectively supervise multiple staff, with possibly varying levels of experience.
  • Candidates for this position should have a minimum of 3 years experience representing indigent clients in juvenile delinquency proceedings, matters in the Youth Part, or other relevant legal experience, and/or adult criminal defense, including representation of clients on pre-trial suppression hearings, trial, sentencing and or disposition hearings, on both misdemeanor and felony cases. 
  • Candidates who are bilingual in Spanish, or another language, are strongly encouraged to apply. 
  • Candidates should be able to 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. 

Senior Staff and Supervisory salaries are determined based on the Base Salary Scale + pre-determined stipends per management level.

For a Senior Staff Attorney, a typical range for a candidate with three to ten years experience would be $82,100 to $101,600. 

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