Legal Counsel, Director of Blackstone Professional Development

We need to produce HTML fragment with headings

for sections: About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements, Qualifications, Skills, Benefits, Pay, Schedule. Only include sections that have real specific content. Must not repeat job title heading. Must not include Job ID etc. Must preserve all substantive info. Remove boilerplate like EEO, etc. Must not include placeholder sections like "commensurate with experience". Must not create Pay/Schedule/Benefits unless posting actually states them. The posting includes Pay & Benefits section with details: competitive compensation, benefits list, paid time off, 12 paid holidays, salary range for Lansdowne VA. So we can have Pay and Benefits sections separate? The instruction: Use

for section headings (e.g. About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements, Qualifications, Skills, Benefits, Pay, Schedule). So we can have separate Pay and Benefits headings if content exists. The posting includes both Pay and Benefits details. So we should include both. We also need About the role: maybe from intro paragraphs: "Make a difference with us! At Alliance Defending Freedom, we believe God has brought you here for His purpose—to stand for truth and defend the God-given right to live and speak it. Together, we protect religious freedom, free speech, the sanctity of life, marriage and family, and parental rights. Review our Statement of Faith to ensure we’re a fit for you. Locations: Lansdowne, VA / Dallas, TX Team Overview The Blackstone Legal Fellowship is a rigorous formation..." That's a lot. We need to preserve substantive info but not repeat job title. The job title is likely "Director of Professional Development". Not to repeat as heading. So we can include About the role paragraph summarizing mission and overview. Responsibilities: list from Key Responsibilities bullet points (though they are paragraphs). We need to extract duties and put into

• . The responsibilities are many; we can break into items. Requirements: Minimum Qualifications: J.D., active license in at least one US state bar, capable of meeting admission requirements in relevant jurisdiction within one year; 5+ years experience in public policy advocacy, governmental relations/affairs, or legislative work at federal or state level. Qualifications: Preferred Qualification list: written and oral communication with law students, hiring partners, sitting judges; professional network development; complex program management on fixed calendar; staff leadership and development; sustain extended travel and full summer residency; operate without direction. Skills: maybe not explicitly separate; but we could combine some of preferred qualifications as Skills. However instruction: Use sections only when posting has real specific content. There's no explicit "Skills" heading but we could infer skills from preferred qualifications. Might be better to not create Skills section if not explicitly stated. The posting does not have a separate Skills heading; but we could treat "Preferred Qualification" as Skills? The instruction says use headings like Skills if posting has real specific content for it. The posting includes "Preferred Qualification" bullet list which are skills/qualifications. Could map to Skills section. But we also have Qualifications section for minimum qualifications. So we could have Qualifications (minimum) and Skills (preferred). That seems appropriate. Benefits: list of benefits: 100% covered medical and dental insurance, medical and dependent care reimbursement, paid disability, long-term care, life insurance, 401(k) plan with 4% company match, paid time off, 12 paid holidays each year. Pay: mention competitive compensation, not disclosing specific salary ranges, competitive with top non-profit law firms, salary range for Lansdowne VA: $142,600—$156,900 USD. Also note that actual salary may vary based on experience, skills, qualifications, office location. We should preserve that. Schedule: Not mentioned explicitly. There's mention of sustained travel, full summer residency, regional travel rest of year. Could infer schedule but not explicit. The instruction: never create Pay/Schedule/Benefits sections unless posting actually states them. Schedule not explicitly stated, so we should not include Schedule section. We must not include boilerplate like EEO, etc. Also remove duplicated lines, application instructions, cookie/navigation/legal etc. The posting includes "Want to Know More About ADF? This salary range is reflective..." etc. We should keep the salary range info but remove fluff like "Want to Know More About ADF?" maybe it's not substantive? It's a call to action; could be considered application instruction? Might be considered boilerplate. Safer to omit that line. Keep the salary range info. We need to output only HTML fragment, no /, no markdown fences. Let's craft:

  About the role

  At Alliance Defending Freedom, we believe God has brought you here for His purpose—to stand for truth and defend the God‑given right to live and speak it. Together, we protect religious freedom, free speech, the sanctity of life, marriage and family, and parental rights. Review our Statement of Faith to ensure we’re a fit for you. Locations: Lansdowne, VA / Dallas, TX. The Blackstone Legal Fellowship is a rigorous formation for gifted Christian law students whose judgment and moral imagination are rooted in the rule of law, and who go on to shape law and culture—courtrooms, boardrooms, legislatures, and law schools are the visible examples, but the reach is wider: agencies and regulatory bodies, state and federal government, media and publishing, medicine and bioethics, technology, education, ministry, and the institutions that have not yet been built. The Director of Professional Development owns the quality of the counsel that shapes those decisions. The role does not place Fellows into positions. It equips them to discern, prepare for, and compete for opportunities of real consequence, and it builds the curriculum, advisor network, and institutional relationships that deliver that counsel to a full class each summer and to a growing body of alumni in practice.

  Responsibilities

  • Assess and invest in judgments about individual Blackstone summer interns and Fellows’ capacity, trajectory, and professional fit, and calibrate those judgments over time against actual career outcomes.
  • Develop and maintain the assessment framework used across the professional development function, including the signals that predict success.
  • Deliver candid, specific assessments to Blackstone summer interns and Fellows regarding the capabilities standing between them and the positions they are pursuing.
  • Set the intellectual direction of the professional development curriculum and own its design, sequencing, and annual revision across all phases of the Fellowship.
  • Determine what is taught, by whom, and what is removed, informed by doctrinal developments, hiring market conditions, and Fellow outcomes.
  • Establish and enforce quality standards for all workshops, seminars, guest lectures, and outside speakers.
  • Teach the portions of the curriculum where the Director's own judgment and experience are the substance.
  • Oversee the summer internship program, including placement, employer expectations, performance standards, and evaluation.
  • Own clerkship outcomes end‑to‑end, including application strategy, materials review, recommender cultivation, and interview preparation.
  • Build and maintain relationships with federal chambers and clerkship alumni sufficient to ensure Fellow applications receive serious consideration.
  • Advise Fellows on decisions with long‑term consequences, including first position selection, transitions, and the choice among private practice, government service, academia, and public interest litigation.
  • Counsel Fellows on sustaining conviction and effectiveness under institutional pressure during the early years of practice.
  • Cultivate the employer relationships that establish the standing of the Blackstone credential in advance of any individual application.
  • Serve employers actively recruiting Fellows, and protect the credential by advancing only candidates who meet the standard.
  • Place Fellows deliberately, prioritizing strategic position over volume of placements.
  • With the Alumni Team track Fellow career trajectories and treat departures from the field as a diagnostic input to program design.
  • Recruit senior practitioners and accomplished Fellows into a structured external advisory network.
  • Train advisors on the standard of counsel expected, and hold the network to consistent candor and quality so that Fellow outcomes do not depend on advisor assignment.
  • Sustain institutional relationships with law schools, student organizations, faculties, government agencies, and the public interest bar.
  • Represent the Fellowship at regional events and conferences.
  • Lead as a servant leader by training, coaching, and developing professional development staff.
  • Coach in specifics and deliver corrective feedback early rather than at scheduled review.
  • Meet regularly with direct reports to discuss progress and conduct Career Path Discussions.
  • Foster a team culture of trust, candor, and innovation in which staff can identify what is not working without hesitation.
  • Approve PTO requests, time cards, and expense reports.
  • Work with ADF recruitment to ensure Fellowship intake reflects the standards the professional development function requires.
  • Coordinate across ADF teams so that the function meets the needs of Fellows, internal partners, and employers.
  • Participate in Fellowship leadership planning and contribute to organizational strategy on legal talent development.

  Requirements

  • J.D., active license in at least one US state bar, and capable of meeting admission requirements in relevant jurisdiction within one year.
  • 5+ years of experience in public policy advocacy, governmental relations/affairs, or legislative work at the federal or state level.

  Qualifications

  Minimum qualifications are listed above under Requirements.

  Skills

  • Written and oral communication with law students, hiring partners, and sitting judges.
  • Professional network development — relationships with judges, practitioners, and academics durable enough to draw on for a Fellow's benefit.
  • Complex program management on a fixed calendar set by the clerkship cycle and academic year rather than internal preference.
  • Staff leadership and development, including setting standards and delivering corrective feedback early enough to matter.
  • Ability to sustain extended travel and full summer residency, including full participation in the Blackstone summer program and regional travel the rest of the year.
  • Capacity to operate without direction, setting the agenda rather than receiving it, with judgment evaluated over years rather than weeks.

  Benefits

  • 100% covered medical and dental insurance.
  • Medical and dependent care reimbursement.
  • Paid disability.
  • Long‑term care insurance.
  • Life insurance.
  • 401(k) plan with a 4% company match.
  • Paid time off.
  • 12 paid holidays each year.

  Pay

  While specific salary ranges are not disclosed, compensation is competitive with top non‑profit law firms. For the Lansdowne, VA location the good‑faith estimate is $142,600—$156,900 USD; actual salary may vary based on candidate’s experience, skills, qualifications, and office location.

  We must not include Schedule section. Ensure no extra headings like "About the role" duplicated? It's fine. Check for any boilerplate: we removed "Want to Know More About ADF?" and "This salary range is reflective of a position based in Lansdowne, VA." Actually we kept that info but rephrased. We removed "This range is a good-faith estimate, and the actual salary may vary based on the candidate’s experience, skills, qualifications, and office location." We kept similar. Good. We must not repeat job title as heading; we didn't. We must not include Job ID/requisition numbers; none. We must preserve all substantive information: we captured mission, locations, overview, responsibilities,