Litigation Support Attorney - Children and Family Law Division

About the role

The Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), the Massachusetts public defender agency, is seeking a Litigation Support Attorney for the Children and Family Law Division (CAFL).

Responsibilities

• Drafting model motions, supporting memoranda, and other legal and clinical research memoranda
• Conducting legal and clinical research on new and existing legal trial and appellate strategies
• Collecting, generating, and assessing the need for new legal and non-legal resources for staff and private panel attorneys
• Maintaining, organizing, and further developing a bank/library system for storing, organizing, and disseminating resources
• Designing and delivering training workshops for staff and private panel attorneys regarding newly-created and currently-available resources
• Collaborating with private counsel (including resource attorneys and mentors) and staff on projects related to these functions
• Assisting the CAFL Trial Panel Support Unit, the CAFL Appellate Panel Support Unit, and CAFL Training in other training events, as needed
• Regularly attending CAFL APSU and TPSU unit meetings
• Assisting with analyzing, drafting, and responding to proposed policies, regulations, and court rules
• Advising trial and appellate panel members about case strategy
• May maintain a small caseload of child welfare trial and/or appellate clients

Qualifications

• A minimum of 3 years’ full-time experience representing children and parents in child welfare/family regulation matters
• Strong writing, research, organizational, collaborative, and communication skills
• Some appellate experience (including work on final or single justice appeals)
• The ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously, both independently and collaboratively
• The capacity for close attention to detail
• Strong interpersonal and analytical skills
• A demonstrated commitment to the principle of zealous advocacy in the representation of indigent persons in family regulation/child welfare cases