This hiring notice is cross-posted on our employment page and our Idealist account.
About Us: The Abolitionist Law Center (ALC) is a nonprofit law firm fighting to defend prisoners and abolitionists, and a community organizing project aiming to build a world without police and prisons. Our work is currently based in Pennsylvania, where we have sued the Department of Corrections, local jails, and the Commonwealth to defend prisoners from abuse and to win release for as many people as possible. Our organizing work is statewide and focused on abolishing the use of solitary confinement and ending life without parole sentences (aka death by incarceration), among other things. As the movement to end racist state violence and abolish police and prisons has grown, so has our work.
Position Overview: The Abolitionist Law Center is hiring a full-time paralegal for our Pittsburgh office. The paralegal will assist our legal department in managing correspondence with incarcerated people, tracking human rights violations in jails and prisons, and assisting in litigation. The paralegal will work with incarcerated clients and their communities and advocates to challenge state violence in all its forms and contribute to building powerful movements for liberation.
Responsibilities:
· Manage, database, and respond to correspondence from incarcerated people.
· Work with ALC attorneys on litigation-related tasks, including organizing and reviewing discovery, conducting research, and assisting with client communication.
· Visits with clients and potential clients who are incarcerated.
· Assist in investigations into conditions of confinement in jails and prisons in Pennsylvania.
· Attending weekly staff meetings, providing feedback to leadership and staff to improve organizational effectiveness.
· Commitment to an abolitionist politics and movement-lawyering approach to our work that seeks to replace punitive justice with healing justice, promotes decarceration and the elimination of the use of jails/prisons to deal with social problems, and centers the political agency and organizing activity of those individuals and communities most impacted by the criminal legal system.
Requirements:
· Exceptional organizational skills, capable of maintaining voluminous case and correspondence files.
· Able to track, organize, and respond to a large amount of correspondence.
· Excellent writing ability.
· Legal research skills are a plus.
Salary and Benefits: This position will be based in Pittsburgh and is expected to require both remote (work-from-home) and in-person (office) work. The starting salary for the paralegal position is $50,000 per year, with a health insurance benefit of up to $450/month and 35 days (280hrs) of paid time off annually.
Reports to: Legal Director
Start date: July 1, 2022 – open until filled. *Flexible start, early to mid July.
Application Process: Please send your resume, three professional references, and a detailed cover letter explaining your interest in the position as a single PDF to bretgrote@abolitionistlawcenter.org.
Applications will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis. This position remains open until filled. Applicants are encouraged to apply as early as possible to receive priority consideration.
Abolitionist Law Center is an equal opportunity employer. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, women, LGBTQI-GNC people, and formerly incarcerated people are strongly encouraged to apply.
To learn more about our staff and board members, click here.