Managing Attorney Job Opportunity

Fair Work Center/Working Washington seeks a Managing Attorney dedicated to advancing the rights of workers across the state. The Managing Attorney will help lead our organization’s efforts to ensure that low-wage, immigrant, and contingent workers know their rights and can enforce them. They will oversee a talented unionized staff of four and manage complex matters on the clinic’s docket. We are looking for an attorney energized by the opportunity to strategically use their legal training to build power for working people in Washington. This position reports to the Legal Director.

About Fair Work Center & Working Washington

We build worker power through education, organizing, advocacy campaigns, and legal services. We know that advancing workers’ rights requires taking on the racism embedded in our economy. We have a history of making transformative demands for working people and winning big. We are a national leader in organizing delivery workers in the gig economy, continue building pathways to enforce Seattle’s domestic worker bill of rights, and train hundreds of workers a year about their rights on the job. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic we have advocated for hazard pay for frontline workers, health and safety enforcement, and access to unemployment for gig and immigrant workers.

Our Legal Clinic works to ensure that workers know their rights under city, state, and federal law and that employers are held accountable to labor standards. We provide free individual consultations, pro se assistance, representation in administrative enforcement processes, and maintain an active strategic litigation docket. Over the past five years we have served thousands of workers and have recovered more than $1.5 million in unpaid wages. In addition to direct representation our attorneys provide policy analysis, research, and enforcement strategy support to our campaigns, working closely with our organizing and education teams.

 

Position Responsibilities 

Clinic Staff Management

  • Providing supervision and support for the individual dockets of each team member
  • Supervising and co-counseling with staff attorneys as needed on individual cases
  • Overseeing initial consultations and advice provided
  • Implementing case management procedures and ensuring compliance with ethical standards
  • Coordinating data collection for grant reporting and to track clinic impact
  • Participating in the organization’s ongoing work to advance its commitment to racial equity

Individual Representation  

  • Maintaining an active docket of cases in line with current clinic priorities
  • Managing complex representation, including litigation and administrative advocacy
  • Establishing and maintaining co-counsel agreements with outside attorneys

Strategic Enforcement   

  • Recommending to the Director potential cases for strategic enforcement, including litigation, legislative reform, and impact administrative advocacy
  • Helping to set the strategic direction of the clinic by identifying priority industries, issues, or worker populations, and opportunities to advance those priorities in coordination with the rest of the organization
  • Providing technical support and analysis to legislative and regulatory efforts
  • Supervising staff in execution of strategic enforcement assignments connected to current campaigns, organizational priorities, emergent equity and access to justice issues, and in conducting such assignments themselves


 Candidate Qualifications 

Required 

  • Demonstrated commitment to economic, racial and social justice
  • Admission to the bar in Washington, or ability and willingness to obtain admission in Washington as soon as possible
  • Five years of practice in labor and employment law, including administrative advocacy, litigation, and/or negotiation
  • Excellent legal analysis and writing skills 
  • Demonstrated ability to mentor, supervise, and manage staff
  • Aptitude for developing and implementing systems to deepen the team’s impact

Preferred 

  • Demonstrated ability to develop and lead policy analysis initiatives, including research, legislative analysis, and policy drafting
  • Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in a multidisciplinary team 
  • Proficiency in a second language, particularly Spanish or Somali 
  • Experience working with labor organizations or workers centers

 

Salary Range: $85,000 – $95,000, commensurate with experience.

This is an overtime exempt management position based in our Seattle or Yakima office; it requires some evening and weekend work and occasional travel throughout the state. Our team is currently working remotely due to COVID-19. The position comes with robust benefits, including health insurance, vision, dental, retirement with automatic employer contribution, and commuter benefits. 

How to Apply

Interested applicants should submit a cover letter, resume, and writing sample (not to exceed 10 pages) to jobs@fairworkcenter.org with the applicant’s last name and “Managing Attorney” in the subject line. In your cover letter, let us know why you’re interested in this role and which skills you believe will make you successful in it. Submissions will be accepted reviewed on a rolling basis. 

Commitment to Equity – Fair Work Center/Working Washington is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We strongly encourage people from communities most negatively affected by historical and ongoing inequity to apply, particularly: people of color, immigrants, women and feminine- identified people, lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, trans, and gender non-conforming people, and people with disabilities. We seek candidates whose lived experiences reflect the lived experiences of the workers we support. If you need disability, language or other accommodation in the application process, please contact Zhi Chen at zhi@fairworkcenter.org.