Attorney

Do you want to spend your time generating innovative litigation for economic and social justice, working with social change organizations to fight illegal, unfair, and deceptive private conduct that hurts employees and consumers? Do you enjoy a collaborative atmosphere that encourages unconventional thinking and risk-taking? Would you like to work at an organization with the litigation chops of a boutique firm and the roving agenda of an attorney general? If so, read on!

Our Organization

A nonprofit organization founded in 2018, Justice Catalyst Law develops cutting-edge, interdisciplinary impact cases and legal strategies that advance economic justice. We specialize in fighting corporate or private actor abuses by applying multiple areas of law to new contexts. We bring a diverse set of nonprofits, advocates, and law firms together to develop, investigate, and litigate bold cases with broad impact. Our mission is to expand the legal system’s potential to provide meaningful accountability for the most powerful, and to bring justice and sustainable change to the communities that are most often left behind by our economic systems, with attention to racial and other longstanding inequities.

We seek to maximize our justice impact by generating and developing innovative case ideas and assembling the partners and teams to litigate them. Many of our cases involve novel application of antitrust or consumer law to counter private actors’ exploitation of workers, consumers, and other vulnerable groups. For a sample of our cases, please visit https://justicecatalyst.org/issues

Justice Catalyst Law is a new, innovative organization with a growing list of accomplishments, and we are looking for someone who will explore, build, and grow with us. We are a small, but highly collaborative, team of 8 people with a start-up culture and room to grow. We value an experimental mindset and encourage unconventional thinking and risk-taking. We value employee relationships, growth, and well-being, and strive to create an equitable, inclusive organization where everyone is a leader and a supporter. We are hardworking and dedicated, and we hold each other accountable, but we also care about one another. We take our work seriously, but we also love to laugh and have fun together — and we all care deeply about making the world a better place.

Justice Catalyst Law works closely with Justice Catalyst, a nonprofit organization that supports innovative legal work and runs a fellowship program for new attorneys seeking employment in public interest fields at nonprofits, government agencies, and other offices.

Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We believe that a variety of perspectives and backgrounds enriches and maximizes our work. We aim to assemble an applicant pool that is reflective of the world that we live in — one that is diverse in race, color, age, religion, ancestry, national origin, ethnicity, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, economic background, professional background, mental and physical abilities, and other traits that make us who we are.

We are also an organization made up of lawyers and non-lawyers, and an organization that works with advocates, organizers, and clients from every walk of life. The right person for this role will be committed to listening to and learning from people with different life experiences and expertise.

JCL is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to any status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. We strongly encourage anyone who is interested in this opportunity to apply.

The Role 

The attorney will be responsible for leading a subset of Justice Catalyst Law’s litigation and non-litigation projects. The attorney will work in collaboration with our team to generate and investigate new projects and cases. Pursuant to JCL’s management philosophy, the attorney will have the opportunity to build meaningful leadership capacity by developing internal processes and enhancing JCL’s external partnerships and profile.

Starting Date: Accepting applications on a rolling basis

Manager: Legal Director

Location: Strong preference for NYC or Washington D.C. Other locations may be considered in exceptional circumstances. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our team has been working remotely since March 2020, and we will likely be remote for most of 2021. The timing of our return to our offices will depend on the comfort of our team members and the recommendations from public health officials.

Schedule: (full-time) 40-hours per week, generally Monday-Friday 9:30am – 6:00pm

Core Responsibilities

• Manage a subset of developing and/or filed cases, including planning and executing high-level legal and litigation strategies, overseeing all tasks and deadlines, coordinating among team members and outside partners, and ensuring quality and progress of cases
• Contribute significantly to organizational strategy
• Generate new cases and projects
• Conduct factual investigations, including outreach to potential clients, interviewing witnesses, and online factual research
• Conduct litigation, including legal research, writing, and case management
• Find and forge relationships with key allies, including advancing case ideas to potential partners and co-counsel
• Other duties assigned by the Legal Director and/or Executive Director

Core Skills 

• Excellent legal research and factual investigation skills
• Excellent self-direction, initiative, and organization
• Project management
• Very strong people and listening skills; compassion, empathy, and enthusiasm for working in a highly collaborative environment; excellent written and oral presentation skills
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, experimental work environment and to adapt to shifting priorities and strategies
• Creative thinking

Required Qualifications

• J.D. and bar admission to any U.S. jurisdiction
• At least 4 years of legal experience, including some affirmative complex civil litigation experience

Desired Qualifications

• Expert understanding of bedrock legal principles in complex civil litigation, including class action
• Substantive expertise in one or more of the following areas of law: antitrust, consumer, civil rights, labor, employment, corporate, securities, whistleblower, data / privacy
• Interest in, or connection to, groups working in one or more of the following areas: government contracting, consumer financial products, workplace fissuring, the prison-industrial complex, fintech
• Proficient Spanish speaking, reading, and writing

Compensation and Benefits

Justice Catalyst Law offers a competitive salary and benefits package which includes an employer-sponsored medical, dental, and vision plan, a matching 401k plan (up to 4% of base salary), professional learning and development opportunities, paid bar and legal organization membership dues, flexible hours and ability to work remotely, and a generous vacation policy.

To Apply

Please submit a resume and brief personal statement to the attorney position at: https://justicecatalyst.org/about/join-our-team/

Your personal statement should address:

1. Why you want this job
2. What in your background makes you specifically qualified for this job
3. Your approach to thriving as part of a team
4. How you might add diversity, of any kind, to the JCL team (Please note that this is optional)
5. The professional accomplishment of which you are most proud