Borough Director – Brooklyn

Description    
CLC Borough Directors are members of the Organization’s Leadership Team and play a critical role in advancing the rights of children in that borough. Collaborating with the Borough Directors citywide and other CLC leaders, the Borough Director seeks to effectuate the mission of CLC by providing ongoing supervision to staff attorneys and trial supervisors that ensures client-centered outcomes through competent, sensitive, zealous and timely advocacy. 
 
The Borough Director is responsible for managing a 17-person team of dynamic attorneys. The Director provides guidance and support to experienced team members as well as developing and mentoring newer staff. The Borough Director will provide legal and managerial leadership to ensure that CLC staff maintains a high standard of representation and client services. The Borough Director also communicates policies and protocols in a clear and timely manner both internally and externally. The Borough Director represents the organization with Court and Bar leadership, Task Forces, community meetings and other appropriate stakeholders.  The Director will build collaborative relationships with internal social work, paralegal and support teams as well as across the family court/children’s services sector to facilitate support and assistance for our clients. 
 
Essential Duties/Responsibilities 

• Provides day-to-day oversight of practice and guidance to staff, critical to achieving successful outcomes for clients in CLC’s practice areas. 
• Maintains a caseload of direct representation 
• Stays abreast of and communicates established CLC policies and practice guidelines to staff. 
• Assures policies and practices are followed, and stays current with changes to policies, processes and procedures. 
• Supports staff by providing them with the tools they need to effectively perform their jobs through onboarding, mentoring, on-the-job training, continuous feedback and coaching. 
• Recognizes the specific needs of each supervisee and develops staff member’s skills and knowledge through modeling of case handling, case supervision, and second seating trials to assure high quality practice. 
• Encourages interdisciplinary partnerships through modeling of collaboration and a holistic approach to each case, working with support staff, social work, paralegal and writing teams. 
• Models professional interactions within and outside the organization 
• Monitors and evaluates workload and staff performance to assure that standards and expectations are successfully achieved. 
• Ensures that relevant metrics are gathered on the macro and micro level and utilizes metrics to advance the mission of CLC. 
• Conducts regular case file reviews and provides in court supervision and support. 
• Analyzes legal issues, develops legal strategies and suggests affirmative litigation where appropriate 
• Collaborates with CLC Executive team and borough team counterparts, to assess and evaluate office and court needs. 
• Displays comfort using case management software and encourage staff and leaders to do the same. 
• Responds to client, court, community and staff concerns. 
• Represents CLC in meetings with other stakeholders and in the community. 
• Other duties as required and necessary to fulfill the mission of CLC. 

 
Key Qualifications and Competencies 

• Admitted to practice law in New York State 
• Minimum seven years legal practice experience; preferably in family and/or juvenile law. 
• History of interest in children’s rights. 
• Demonstrated litigation skills. 
• Strong interviewing, advocacy, practice and cultural competence skills. 
• Demonstrated commitment to public interest and policy. 
• Prior experience in a supervisory or management role is preferred, with the ability to guide and support a team effectively. 
• Effective communication (written and verbal), time management, and organizational skills. 
• Curiosity and eagerness to continue to learn new skills, grow professionally and take an optimistic approach to new challenges. 
• Demonstrated attention to detail along with outstanding initiative, analytical, critical thinking and problem resolution skills. 
• Proven ability to work independently with excellent judgment, diplomacy, professionalism and the ability to prioritize, track and manage multiple requests simultaneously, and meet deadlines. 
• Demonstrated ability to exercise complete discretion when working with confidential and sensitive information.