Senior Attorney for Judicial Strategy
Posted on:
August 13, 2013
Application deadline:
September 12, 2013
Posted by:
Center for Reproductive Rights
CENTER BACKGROUND
The Center for Reproductive
Rights (the "Center"), a global human rights organization founded in
1992 with expertise in constitutional and international law, seeks a
Senior Attorney for Judicial Strategy for the U.S. Legal Program, to be
based in its New York City headquarters. This new position will play a
major role in the Center's aggressive campaign to restore robust
constitutional and legal protection for reproductive rights throughout
the U.S.
The Senior Attorney for Judicial Strategy will join the team of an
innovative and cutting-edge organization committed to promoting the
equality, reproductive health, and self-determination of women
throughout the world. National-level courts, regional human rights
courts, and United Nations bodies have increasingly recognized that a
woman's right to reproductive autonomy and reproductive healthcare are
basic human rights that must be protected. The Center for Reproductive
Rights has played a key role in these groundbreaking victories and works
with attorneys and advocates in the U.S., Latin America, Africa, Asia,
and Europe. The Center's groundbreaking litigation and advocacy has
transformed how reproductive rights are understood by courts,
governments, and human rights bodies, and its undivided focus on
reproductive rights has given it unparalleled expertise in the use of
constitutional, international and comparative human rights law to hold
governments accountable for failing to ensure women's access to critical
reproductive healthcare services.
In the U.S. Legal Program, the Center's preeminent litigation team
has helped millions of women and their families by striking down
abortion bans and other access restrictions, securing government
insurance coverage for abortions, and protecting teens' access to
emergency contraception and confidential reproductive healthcare
services and information. During the past 21 years, Center attorneys
have been counsel in virtually every major U.S. Supreme Court case about
reproductive rights. The Center's complementary legislative advocacy
initiatives and strategies have helped local advocates fight restrictive
abortion legislation in over 25 states as well as promote reproductive
rights and access to health care for millions of women. Through our
human rights advocacy, the Center has been able to foster the
integration and adoption of human rights principles in the domestic
sphere while systematically norm-building and elevating local
reproductive health issues within international treaty monitoring bodies
and partner organizations. The Center's Law School Initiative –
launched in 2008 – promotes legal scholarship and teaching on
reproductive health and human rights to shape the thinking of the next
generation of lawyers, judges, and policymakers.
THE POSITION
The Senior Attorney for Judicial Strategy will be joining the Center
at an exciting time for the institution and at a critical time for
reproductive rights globally. As opponents of women's rights are
mounting a scorched-earth campaign to turn back decades of hard-won
progress, the Center is fighting back with short-, medium-, and
long-term strategies, embodied in a new strategic plan launched in 2012,
which includes a particular focus on reversing the erosion of
reproductive rights protections across the U.S. and establishing the
right to affordable reproductive healthcare in the U.S. A key component
of our strategic plan is to restore heightened protections for abortion
rights, as promised to American women in the landmark decision of
Roe v. Wade
(1973). We have recently received a grant that allows us to scale up
for high impact for this effort, in which the Senior Attorney will play a
key role.
Over the next four years, we will implement a focused campaign to
influence court doctrine on access to abortion services. This campaign
will include development of the theoretical foundation, empirical data,
and powerful allies needed to move the jurisprudence. Our continued
litigation in the courts will be strengthened by systematically building
new allies and support among elite institutional players that influence
the federal courts, including legal academics, the bar, the legal
press, professional organizations, and think tanks, and by promoting a
national narrative about these state attacks that gets away from the
conversation about the merits of the individual laws the anti-choice
forces are passing to a broader story about what is at stake for women
both in the facts on the ground and the implications for their dignity
and respect under our Constitution. This work will be managed by the
Special Counsel & Director of Judicial Strategy and integrated with
work of new and existing staff within the Center's U.S. Legal Program
and Communications Program.
RESPONSIBILITIES
The Senior Attorney for Judicial Strategy's main responsibilities will include:
- Contributing to the development of the Center's strategies for
development of legal theories and engagement of key influencers in order
to change the jurisprudential landscape
- Developing and sustaining strategic relationships with key
influencers (including key government actors, legal media, legal
academics, think tanks, and professional organizations)
- Collaborating with Director of Pro Bono Services and other
Center staff to engage members of the private bar in work advancing the
Center's strategies
- Developing, drafting, and eliciting participation by key
influencers in opinion pieces, blogs and other materials for placement
in legal media, in collaboration with Center communications staff
- Implementing strategies to develop and enlist amicus support for our desired changes in legal doctrine
- Creating white papers and other materials to advance and support favorable legal theories and jurisprudential changes
- Engaging in legal and factual research and overseeing others in their research
- Providing strategic and practical support for litigation undertaken to move the jurisprudence
- Representing the Center externally through public speaking,
participation in conferences and coalition meetings, with media, and
with funders
- Assuming additional duties as assigned
QUALIFICATIONS
- JD degree
- Minimum of 5 years legal experience (but 7 or more strongly preferred), including some litigation experience
- Creative and strategic thinker with good judgment and excellent legal analytical capabilities
- Excellent communication skills, both orally and in writing
- Strong interpersonal skills and track record of
effectively working collaboratively within an organization and with
external partners
- A high level of energy, self-confidence, initiative, and
follow-through; ability to recognize and act on opportunities in a
fast-paced environment
- Principled, ethical, professional, and committed to exceptional work quality and standards
- Strong commitment to the Center's mission, purpose, and values
- Experience with reproductive rights issues and/or with
constitutional issues is a strong plus; experience with other issues
relating to human rights, civil rights or racial and social justice is a
plus
- Must be available for some travel
HOW TO APPLY
Please send a cover letter, resume, writing sample, and contact information for three references (email preferred) to:
resumes@reprorights.org.
Please indicate "Senior Attorney for Judicial Strategy", [your last
name] and Code 196" in the subject line. The cover letter, resume,
writing sample, and reference information should be sent as attachments.
Please mention in your cover letter where you saw this opportunity.
Center for Reproductive Rights
Attn.: Senior Attorney for Judicial Strategy - Code 196
120 Wall Street, 14th Floor
New York, NY 10005
