San Francisco Housing Practice Team focus on preserving housing for tenants who are low-income in San Francisco. As part of the San Francisco’s Tenant Right to Counsel Initiative, the team provides full-scope legal representation to tenants in unlawful detainer proceedings. To that end, we engage in civil legal representation, social work, community collaborations, and systemic advocacy, in partnership with the young people we serve.
Position: BayLegal seeks an attorney with a strong commitment to public interest and social justice to join our Housing Law practice group in San Francisco. This position is based in our San Francisco office and involves traveling throughout the county and potentially the Bay Area as necessary to best serve our low-income clients. BayLegal seeks an attorney with a strong commitment to public interest and social justice to join our Housing Law practice group in San Francisco. This position is based in our San Francisco office and involves traveling throughout the county and potentially the Bay Area as necessary to best serve our low-income clients.
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Learn and advocate for the diverse legal needs of undeserved and vulnerable communities in San Francisco and the broader Bay Area to reduce homelessness, enhance stability, and address social justice.
- Provide full-scope legal representation to low-income tenants in unlawful detainer proceedings, including propounding and responding to discovery, conducting depositions, pre/post-trial motions, trials, and appeals;
- Represent tenants in administrative proceedings before the San Francisco Housing Authority and other agencies;
- Advocate for tenants on issues of fair housing, substandard conditions, and VAWA;
- Identify systemic problems that affect our clients’ housing rights and address these challenges through affirmative litigation and policy work;
- Staff Off-Site Legal Clinics to conduct intakes, provide legal advice, assess for further services;
- Collaborate with the local and national tenant advocacy community;
- Provide workshops and technical assistance to community partners and our client community on housing law, tenants’ rights, and a broad range of civil legal issues;
- Develop relationships and engage in collaboration with a range of public and private community partners, including governmental agencies, courts, and community-based organizations, to ensure integrative services and address systemic barriers facing BayLegal’s client community;
- Work with BayLegal’s development, grants and contracts, and communications team to promote BayLegal’s mission and resource development; and
- Engage in other tasks and projects that further BayLegal’s mission and operations as a non-profit.
Requirements/Qualifications/About the Successful Candidate:
- Humility in working with colleagues and clients across the spectrum of diversity, including race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, immigrant status, religious identity, physical and mental disabilities, and/or limited English proficiency
- Must have received or be willing to receive and maintain up to date COVID-19 vaccination (including boosters) by date of hire to be considered. Proof of vaccination required.
- Membership in good standing in the California State Bar or admitted to practice in another state and eligible to practice in California for 3 years under the California State Bar rules for the Registered Legal Services Attorney Program and willing to take the bar exam at the next available sitting.
- Three years of experience as a practicing attorney
- Experience providing direct legal services, including court room experience
- Multi-lingual in languages commonly spoken by our client communities preferred
- Experience organizing time, managing diverse activities, and meeting critical deadlines with minimal supervision.
- Excellent writing, editing, and proof-reading skills, with ability to be detail-oriented
- Sense of humor, curious and self-directed
- Demonstrated experience simultaneously managing cases in different practice areas.
HYBRID WORK OPTION: BayLegal is committed to the health and safety of our staff, clients, and community. Being accessible to our client communities and reducing barriers for them to access our services is integral to our mission and commitment as a direct services community-based law firm. BayLegal has health and safety protocols to minimize risk of exposure. BayLegal has an evolving plan to continue to safely increase in-person services and activities in our offices and community-based advocacy sites. Currently, most BayLegal employees work a hybrid model including on-site and in-person work and working from home on a part-time basis. BayLegal expects all employees to reside in California and at a distance allowing them to commute to their physical BayLegal base location, and to other service delivery locations as needed, during the standard work week.
Compensation and Benefits: We offer a diverse, family friendly environment, and compensation based on competitive public interest salaries along with a generous benefits package. BayLegal’s benefits package includes 100% employer covered medical, dental, and life insurance for employees and up to 40-50% for dependents; BayLegal student debt reimbursement program; long term disability insurance; employee assistance program; wage differentials for multi-lingual employees whose non-English language skills are regularly used in the provision of work tasks and pass a request test of fluency and/or proficiency; dependent childcare employer contribution program; employer paid CA Bar license and/or social work license fees; and 401k retirement plan with BayLegal contribution following first year. BayLegal has a generous paid leave policy which includes sick leave; parental leave; 15 holidays each year; 3 floating holidays each year (days chosen by employee); and vacation (starting at 13 days and increasing with additional years of employment). This is a union position (Bay Area Legal Aid Workers, “BALAW”), and the salary for this year ranges from $74,629 – $122,795+ ($58,680 – $83,382+ for Advocates) depending on years of experience based on theBayLegal union positions salary scale for 2022-2026.
Applications: BayLegal thrives on our diversity, and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a culturally diverse workplace and strongly encourage women, LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex, Asexual) and QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) individuals, veterans, individuals who have been impacted by the criminal justice system, persons with disabilities, and persons from other underrepresented groups to apply. We are committed to equal employment opportunity and providing reasonable accommodations to qualified candidates and employees pursuant to applicable law. We value and encourage diversity and solicit applications from all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, gender, sex, age, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, medical condition, military and veteran status, gender identity or expression, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. If you require a reasonable accommodation as part of the application process, please contact BayLegal’s Human Resources Manager at (510) 250-5225.
BayLegal will begin reviewing applications upon receipt and continue until the position is filled. Please submit (1) cover letter including response to question below (no page limit), (2) resume, (3) references, and (4) writing sample through our career application portal.
As part of your cover letter, please address the following:
BayLegal’s clients are low-income and very low-income members of our communities. They include LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex, Asexual) and QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) individuals, the working poor, seniors, people who are limited English proficient, veterans, persons with disabilities, survivors of abuse and exploitation, individuals impacted by the criminal justice system, and people who are experiencing or at risk of homeless, and persons from other underrepresented groups. To ensure our organization is best serving these populations, BayLegal strives to promote an evolving set of behaviors and attitudes amongst our staff, as well as policies that enable us to work effectively across cultures, with clients, with our coworkers, and with the community. We see this as a commitment to enhance the provision of our services to all clients; to raise the level of positive client outcomes; and to create an inclusive and respectful workplace in which differences are acknowledged and valued.
How do you think your experiences, professional or otherwise, prepared you to serve our diverse client base effectively, collaborate effectively with colleagues from different backgrounds than your own, and to contribute to our commitment to humility, inclusion, and diversity? Feel free to think broadly about your response to this question, applying various aspects of your life and personal experiences.