About the Colorado Economic Defense Project (CEDP) & CED Law
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered unprecedented eviction risk for U.S. renters. We formed the Community Economic Defense Project (CEDP) in April 2020 as a direct response. Over the past few years, our community organizing project has evolved into a large housing stability organization that operates a continuum of care model focused on stopping eviction and displacement.
Serving over 1,000 households per month, we bring together housing lawyers, economists, data analysts, policy-experts, organizers, and technologists to provide four services:
- Rental Assistance: For the vast majority of our clients, CEDP provides rental assistance and we offer negotiation services. We use public funds to pay back and future rent, reinstate leases, and avert evictions through rental debt settlements alone.
- Legal Services: CED Law offers eviction defense services, foreclosure defense services, affirmative litigation, and community legal education and support to encourage settlement and stabilize tenants and homeowners.
- Rehousing and Case Management: Where legal services do not work, we provide rehousing support services through ERA funding and agency referrals.
- Advocacy: More broadly, we go case to cause. We work with our clients to tell their stories and amplify their voices into policy change. In the 2020-2021 legislative session, for example, we drafted and, in coalition with other stakeholders and community organizations, passed the renters’ rights legislation that caps late fees, penalizes abusive landlords, and gives Coloradans access to the warranty of habitability without paying a bond.
Our model has been cited as a best practice by the White House, HUD, the Urban Institute, and in the media.
As COVID moves from pandemic to endemic, CEDP and CED Law are working to stabilize families who have been left behind and fight community wealth stripping through a broader Community Economic Defense model. As our team continues to scale our services for those at risk of eviction, we are also beginning to build a comprehensive economic, legal, and policy response to foreclosure across Colorado. Similar to CEDP’s work on rental housing, this effort will seek to provide homeowners at risk of foreclosure with a continuum of care that includes navigation and advisory services, targeted payments, legal support, and the ability to participate in advocacy.
More about the Role
CED Law currently consists of an eviction defense team, a new foreclosure team, and is continuing to expand the services offered to tenants and homeowners in Colorado. We have grown into an important pillar in the housing community by establishing reputation and trust with those we serve. At the same time, evictions in Colorado have exceeded pre-pandemic highs and continue to skyrocket across the Denver metro area and beyond each month.
To manage the significant increase in demand for our services, CED Law seeks a dedicated intake specialist to process intakes, connect tenants with attorneys to assist when appropriate, and develop and provide high quality legal information resources when attorney assistance is not possible. The role places a strong emphasis on quality customer service and swift, insightful identification of legal issues.
In this role you will:
- Be responsible for moving legal intakes for the law firm, including eviction defense and affirmative work, through our intake pipeline and obtaining the necessary information for supervising attorneys to assign cases, which may include calling and emailing applicants and accessing court and CEDP files to obtain additional information alongside the firm’s paralegals
- Assess income eligibility and determine whether we can assist by utilizing CED Law’s objective scoring system and running conflict checks
- Identify and recommend a course of action including scope of service to supervising attorneys assigning cases
- Determine appropriate contract assignment for and convert cases from the intake pipeline to our case management system and assist directors and paralegals with closing out cases
- Identify legal issues and the scope of the case to be able to assess the needs of the applicant
- Develop and provide high quality legal information tools, resources, and referrals for those we cannot serve, both in general and particularized to individuals’ situations
- Identify flaws and inefficiencies in the intake system, collaborate with CED Law leadership to develop improvements, and implement those improvements
- Be available onsite in the Denver metro courthouses and our Denver office to conduct intakes with people in person up to two times per week.
The successful candidate will have:
- A deep understanding, familiarity, and experience with housing work, and particularly eviction defense, in order to identify issues in potential cases and provide legal information particularized to those situations and/or gather the appropriate information for an attorney to work on the case
- Experience and/or familiarity with the legal field
- Ability to have hard conversations and manage expectations of individuals in crisis with empathy and understanding
- Exceptional organizational skills
- Ability to manage and stay on track with many discrete tasks
- Ability to identify gaps in our processes and develop systems to fill those needs
- Strong writing skills and ability to distill complicated legal information into simplified written resources for pro se individuals
- Familiarity with Clio desired but not required
- Familiarity with legal e-filing platforms desired but not required
- Juris doctor and litigation experience as an attorney desired, but not required. This position will not include the practice of law, but someone with a legal education who has the desire to apply those skills outside the traditional practice of law would be a good fit.
Position Requirements
- 3+ years’ experience in relevant fields such as legal, housing, advocacy, organizing, or social work
- Experience with housing, eviction defense, and forcible entry and detainer law
- Demonstrated passion for social and racial justice
- Strong desire to center client and community needs
- Excellent interpersonal communication skills
- Excellent writing and communication skills
- Ability to travel within Denver Metro area and surrounding suburbs
- Ability to succeed working a hybrid model (the firm will provide a home office setup along with access to our office space in downtown Denver)
- Strong organizational abilities
- Knowledge of MS Office suite, Clio, and Google Suite desired
- Other language fluency not required but a strong plus and eligible for additional stipend
Additional Details:
- Candidates must reside in Colorado, ideally within the greater Denver Metro area. The position includes competitive pay, flexible time off, benefits package (including medical, dental, vision), and 401k.
- A competitive salary grade of $67,500 per year
- CEDP is an equal opportunity employer, committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Employment decisions are made without regard of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status.