Staff Attorney - Community Schools Project

Council Bluffs, Iowa, Iowa Legal Aid seeks attorneys to join our Council Bluffs office, to help grow our Community Schools Project and to support other important work in our regional offices. Duties may be split between these two roles. For the schools project, contingent on funding, the Staff Attorney will join our existing team and will have the opportunity to provide a broad range of direct legal services through school-based clinics. Our regional office work is a diverse practice, where we prioritize work involving housing, domestic violence, income maintenance, health care, individual rights, and consumer issues to help secure our clients’ most essential needs. The Community Schools Project: Children living in poverty face special challenges in school because their families often lack basic needs such as stable housing, food and income security and physical safety. These destabilizing conditions are known to cause poor outcomes in school. The Community Schools Project, an innovative partnership between Iowa Legal Aid, public schools, and other stakeholders, is designed to alleviate these problems and achieve meaningful change. We work inside and outside the school helping families with legal issues related to housing, domestic violence, and income security that impact school attendance, performance and disciplinary issues. We partner with social services organizations in the community to help connect families with a wide variety of resources. Iowa Legal Aid currently has established Community Schools Projects in Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, and Davenport. The cornerstone of the project is our onsite legal aid clinics where attorneys meet with school families on a regular basis. Project Responsibilities: The successful candidate will be responsible for helping to establish and maintain the school-based legal clinic and assist in building the project to full scale. Responsibilities include coordinating with school staff and existing and future project partners. General Regional Office Responsibilities: Through free legal assistance and community legal education, Staff Attorneys bring hope, dignity, and justice to low-income and other vulnerable Iowans. Legal assistance at Iowa Legal Aid ranges from advice and brief service to full representation before administrative agencies and state and federal trial and appellate courts. Staff attorneys appear in court frequently and serve clients out in the community through expungement and pro se divorce clinics, our Eviction Diversion Project Help Desks, and targeted outreach events. Applications: To apply, submit letter of application, resume, law school transcript (recent graduates only), recent representative writing sample, and names, addresses and phone numbers of at least three professional references. Qualifications: Applicants must be graduates of law school and licensed to practice law in Iowa, be eligible for admission on motion, or be available for the next scheduled bar examination. Prior experience in the practice of law or working with poverty law issues is preferred. Applicants must possess a demonstrated interest in poverty law and have a strong commitment to providing a full range of legal services to low-income people. Individuals with Spanish or other language skills are encouraged to apply. The current entry level salary is $61,800. Non-entry level salaries depend on years of relevant experience. Excellent fringe benefits are available, including a generous leave, insurance, and retirement package.