Staff Attorney (0-2 years experience), Family Defense Practice (Staten Island)

The Center for Family Representation Inc. (CFR) is an award-winning, innovative law and policy organization that serves primarily Black and Brown families and youth in Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island with an interdisciplinary legal defense model that serves more than 2400 clients every year. CFR was originally founded in 2002 to dramatically change the trajectory of indigent parents being prosecuted by the City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). Our goal is to defend and protect our clients’ rights, reduce the harm of family separation and prevent or minimize the time any child spends in the foster system.

CFR provides interdisciplinary family defense with a model that was unique at our founding and that is now being replicated nationally: we assign every client an attorney and a social work staff member, and teams have the support of parent advocates, who are parents with direct personal experience of being investigated and prosecuted by ACS. CFR was the first agency in the country to integrate parents with lived experience into legal teams and now has 8 parent advocates working in all four of our family defense locations. CFR’s Community Advocacy Project represents parents during a child protective investigation (to avoid court involvement where possible) and assists parents in clearing their names from state maltreatment records.

As an agency committed to securing justice for families, we built the Youth Defense practice (YDP) to defend youth at risk of family separation through incarceration. YDP uses the same interdisciplinary model to represent youth being prosecuted in Queens and Manhattan in Supreme Court Youth Parts, during Probation Adjustment and in Delinquency proceedings in Family Court. CFR’s Home for Good program provides legal and social work services to CFR clients in immigration, civil legal services and criminal defense matters, to afford clients an efficient and well-coordinated one-stop solution to a range of issues that threaten family stability. 

Recognized as experts in our fields, we annually train over 500 practitioners in the city, state and around the country on strategies to promote family preservation and interdisciplinary representation, and we provide community based “Know Your Rights” presentations to parents, youth and service providers. We advocate at the city, state and national level for policies that reduce the harm of family separation, and promote parent engagement and justice for youth and families.

Current opening:

Staff Attorneys’ primary responsibilities include:

Responsibilities

• Work as part of CFR’s interdisciplinary legal teams (comprised of attorneys, social work staff, paralegals and parent advocates) to provide our clients with high-quality legal defense and meet our clients’ objectives such as keeping children out of the foster system, shortening lengths of stay for children in the foster system, promoting quality family time arrangements, and insuring that families receive services that are well-tailored to expediting safe and lasting reunification

• Represent parents in Family Court who are respondents in Article 10 and all related supplemental proceedings, including termination of parental rights proceedings

• Pursue interim appeals on behalf of CFR’s clients in collaboration with CFR’s appeals team

• Keep case data, client legal notes and files up to date

• Participate in CFR’s policy initiatives

• Actively engage in CFR’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives

• Work collaboratively with CFR's Home for Good teams as required by clients’ needs

• Participate in CFR’s community engagement activities for Staten Island families

Attorneys joining CFR can expect intensive, interdisciplinary training on CFR’s Cornerstone Advocacy model, family court, the family regulation system, client interviewing, and other critical skills. CFR is dedicated to providing ongoing professional development in best practices in all these areas in a variety of training forums for all staff. 

Salary information:

The salary for a newly admitted Staff Attorney is: $82,400/year.

The salary for a Staff Attorney with two years of relevant work experience is: $86,200/year.

• Admitted to practice law in the State of New York; or passed the New York State bar exam and pending admission

• Applicants who are currently attending law school should apply for CFR's Law Graduate position.

• Prior experience with public benefits, housing, criminal defense or immigration is preferred

• Fluency in Spanish or other languages and experience with public benefits, education, housing or immigration is preferred

• Applicants should demonstrate strong interpersonal and communication skills, a commitment to interdisciplinary representation of parents and a desire to share in both the exhilaration and challenges of a growing endeavor.

CFR strives to create an inclusive and antiracist environment for all of its staff. Candidates from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply. CFR is an Equal Opportunity Employer.