Overview
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, and the Bronx with an interdisciplinary legal defense model that serves more than 2400 clients every year. In 2024, CFR will expand our family defense practice to Richmond County. 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 7 parent advocates working in all three of our family defense locations. 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 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.
Current opening:
Under the supervision and guidance of the Litigation and Appeals Supervisor, the Appellate Staff Attorney will pursue and defend interim and final family defense appeals in the Appellate Divisions of the First and Second Departments. Appellate Staff Attorneys will be able to review the lower court record in order to identify issues to be raised on appeal, as well as prepare briefs and orally argue appeals in family defense cases. Appellate Staff Attorneys will also pursue writs (habeas and mandamus) and seek stays where appropriate. Appellate Staff Attorneys are expected to stay abreast of Appellate Division rules and practices, as well as properly maintain data and client legal notes in CFR’s case management system.
Appellate Staff Attorneys will prepare written work that is clear and concise, well-organized, accurate in citation, creative and persuasive. Appellate Staff Attorneys will also communicate effectively with clients and family defense teams about the status of appeals, as well as the impact of events in the family court on appeals.
Qualifications:
- Candidates must be admitted to practice law in the State of New York and have at least 2 years of relevant legal experience in Article 10/TPR family court proceedings and/or appeals.
- Candidates must have excellent written and oral advocacy skills, a proven ability to prioritize requests and meet deadlines, an ability to work collaboratively in teams, and excellent communication and interpersonal skills.