PAST OPPORTUNITIES, THESE POSITIONS ARE NOW FILLED
SENIOR STAFF ATTORNEY
COMMUNITY JUSTICE PROJECT, INC. - MIAMI, FLORIDA
We are seeking a full-time Senior Staff Attorney with a minimum of 5 years experience. This is an exciting opportunity to be a part of a team of passionate, creative social justice lawyers engaged in a critical practice and committed to accompanying organized communities in their pursuit of justice and equity.
Community Justice Project grounds itself in a community lawyering (or movement lawyering) approach. We collaborate closely with community organizers and grassroots groups in Black and Brown communities because we believe that a more democratic, just and equitable society can only truly come about through grassroots organizing and social movement. We are a part of that social movement in Florida and strive to support organizing through our varied and often innovative legal work.
We use an intersectional lens to advocate for racial justice and human rights. Substantively, our work is oriented towards being responsive to what communities determine to be their needs. We have a fast-paced work environment that strives to be nimble and responsive to communities even when unexpected events occur. We believe that lawyers must ground their legal advocacy in community-based efforts and that without the strength and backing of an organized and informed community, legal gains ring hollow. As a result, we are seeking a lawyer who is comfortable confronting a wide range of legal issues using a variety of legal tools in an evolving environment.
The Senior Staff Attorney will have a strong background in, and passion for, addressing the historical and structural roots of injustice, including gender, racial and economic oppression. The Senior Staff Attorney will have experience in working closely with community organizations and organizers in undertaking social justice campaigns. The Senior Staff Attorney will also have significant experience in litigation and policy advocacy in support of those campaigns. A strong candidate for the position will be both rigorous in their advocacy and innovative about how we as lawyers can be better at supporting community-defined objectives. The Senior Staff Attorney will work closely with our client organizations and will support and supervise the work of entry level lawyers and law students.
Our community partners include Dream Defenders, Florida Immigrant Coalition, WeCount!, Miami Workers Center, Family Action Network Movement, and the New Vision Drivers Association of Florida. We support them and others in a range of campaigns, including: protecting immigrants’ rights through challenging ICE detainers; expanding tenants’ rights and affordable housing; combating climate gentrification in Miami; supporting workers’ struggles against wage theft and other workplace abuses; ending the money bail system; and advocating for equitable disaster recovery.
Job responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Oversee the work of and supervise entry level lawyers and legal interns;
• Advise, counsel, and represent organizers, community organizations and individual clients in social justice organizing campaigns and associated litigation.
• Stay up to date on state and federal laws and policies pertaining to social justice issues identified by our community partners;
• Conduct community legal education and in-depth clinics on key topics for our community partners;
• Support communications and public relations campaigns;
• Design and participate in CJP-sponsored programming and events for the broader public, like salons;
• Conduct administrative tasks as needed.
Qualifications:
• J.D. from an ABA-accredited law school
• Admission to the Florida Bar (or passing the next available bar exam)
• A strong grounding in intersectionality, racial justice and economic justice scholarship and advocacy.
• Fluency in Spanish and/or Haitian Creole a plus
• Experience or interest in working with artists, graphic design and creative activations also a plus.
Compensation:
• Competitive salary and benefits.
To Apply:
• Send a resume, cover letter and three references all in one PDF document saved as YourName_SeniorSA to info@communityjusticeproject.com. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until filled.
CJP is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer and actively recruits people of color, women, people with disabilities, returning citizens and LGBTQIA+ people.
2020 COMMUNITY JUSTICE PROJECT
artist residency program
The Community Justice Project is seeking applications for its inaugural Artist Residency program this year. There will be two cycles of the residency (one artist per cycle), each lasting approximately 3-months and open to artists of all backgrounds and disciplines. The first cycle will start in Late Winter/Early Spring 2020, and the second will start in Fall 2020.
We're looking for South Florida artists who are passionate about using their art to advance social justice and who seek to accompany the communities that Community Justice Project supports. With this residency program, we hope to find those artists who believe, as we do, that grassroots organizing and social movements are central to social change and we must use the tools we have at our disposal to support them. The ideal candidate will have a passion and willingness to support these movements and will struggle with us to engage and amplify their voices.
As community lawyers, we find that our legal tools are vastly inadequate when attempting to educate and shift broader consciousness about the historical and structural inequities faced by the communities most marginalized in Miami - the low wage workers, the housing insecure, and the undocumented, among others. To be more effective as advocates for these communities, we ask ourselves, how might we better wield the power of art in service of social change? How can we facilitate the translation of the artist's critique into changes in the material conditions of the folks with whom we work and the policies that shape those conditions? While these questions guide us in our pursuits, we anticipate and look forward to tackling the nuances of this collaboration together and in community.
RESIDENCY TERM
Cycle I: Feb/Mar 2020 - Apr/May 2020 | Cycle II: Oct/Nov 2020 - Dec 2020/Jan 2021
PROGRAM STRUCTURE AND FUNDING
While there is no requirement that the Artist in Residence be with us on a fixed daily schedule for this residency (we want to leave plenty of time for artistic production) we expect that the Artist in Residence will be available for staff meetings, attend community meetings, rallies, actions and hearings, and generally be present in our office space as necessary. The Artist in Residence will receive approximately $4,500 for the three month residency, and will have a separate budget of $1,000 for the execution of their community-based projects and supplies. The Artist in Residence will also be paired with a local artist who will serve as an advisor and sounding board, available to assist with brainstorming and implementation. We, along with a jury panel of other local artists and leaders, will conduct interviews of finalists to select TWO artists for the 2020 Community Justice Project Artist Residency Program.
APPLY IMMEDIATELY
Fill out our on-line application here. Deadline is January 27, 2020. Direct inquiries to denise@communityjusticeproject.com with “Artist Residency” in the subject line.
JURY PANEL MEMBERS (to date)
Vivian Azalia, Dejha Carrington, william cordova, Torrance Gettrell, Rosie Gordon-Wallace, Aja Monet, Carmen Pelaez
ADVISORY POOL MEMBERS (to date)
Vivian Azalia, Chad Bernstein, Christopher Carter, william cordova, Jason Fitzroy Jeffers, Aja Monet, Carmen Pelaez
CJP is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer and actively recruits people of color, women, people with disabilities, returning citizens and LGBTQIA+ people.