The Sustainable Economies Law Center is excited to add 1-2 new members to our team! We are looking for full-time (30 hours per week) core staff members to help us bolster our legal work serving worker cooperatives, worker self-directed nonprofits, housing cooperatives, and land rematriation and land justice organizations.
The specific subject areas of the legal work can adapt and evolve over time based on organizational need and your interests. At the moment, we want to increase our ability to serve the transactional legal needs of the organizations mentioned above. We are looking for an attorney(s) with experience in some or all of the following legal topics such that they would be comfortable mentoring others:
Nonprofit, small business, worker cooperative, hybrid nonprofit/for-profit entity, and social enterprise entity formation and tax status selection.
Worker cooperative conversions (aka mergers and acquisitions, business restructuring and reorganization, etc.).
Real estate acquisition and financing.
Small business and/or worker cooperative finance and securities law compliance.
Labor and employment law.
Nonprofit federal tax-exempt status.
Land use regulations.
We expect that new staff’s roles will break down approximately as follows:
70% of their time doing legal research, writing, advising, and education (including external training and internal staff mentorship). This will include serving clients through our Resilient Communities Legal Cafe, providing counsel to our existing long-term clients, identifying new clients furthering worker justice and/or community ownership of jobs, and public policy research and bill drafting.
30% of their time contributing to the overall governance and operations of our collectively-managed organization. This will include attending all-staff “General Circle” meetings, contributing to annual grassroots fundraising efforts, participating in and leading internal staff trainings, taking on administrative or finance related roles, supporting with our nonprofit legal compliance, and more.
Candidacy Period: The person/people hired for this position will undergo a 6-month candidacy period, providing an onramp to become a Steward of the organization. To become an organizational Steward, one must be flexible, kind, compassionate, independently motivated, be willing to engage in conflict resolution, and have strong collaboration and communication skills, among other things. This period will give them time to get oriented and grow into the position, and work with a team of three people to get and give feedback, ultimately evaluating whether becoming a Steward of the Law Center is a good fit for them and the organization. More information on our Candidacy Period is here.
We are looking for people with a strong commitment to social, racial, and economic justice, a depth of experience in transactional law, and excitement about joining a democratically governed organization. More specifically, we’re looking for someone who has a knack for legal issue spotting, research, writing, and advising. Above all, we are looking for someone who possesses and practices curiosity, kindness, diligence, solidarity, and integrity. A full list of the qualities we seek in applicants is here.
Black, people of color, transgender and gender nonconforming people, people from poor and working class backgrounds, people with disabilities, and women are encouraged to apply.
If you don’t think you have every one of these skills or experience, that’s okay! Please don’t let that stop you from applying. You might be the person we’re looking for!
Licensed to practice law in California
At least five years of experience practicing law
Strong legal research and writing skills
Enjoys working with clients
Ability to work well independently and with limited direction or supervision
Enjoys working in teams: co-counseling clients and mentoring less experienced lawyers
Strong organization skills (including project, time, and task management)
Ability to communicate legal information for a popular audience
Lived experience or experience working with communities of color, poor and working-class communities, immigrant communities, and other marginalized groups
Desire to engage with democratic decision-making in the workplace
Ability to have difficult conversations and/or resolve conflict with coworkers
Previous experience advancing workplace democracy
Spanish fluency/native speaker
Our mission is to cultivate a new legal landscape that supports community resilience and grassroots economic empowerment. We provide essential legal tools - education, research, advice, and advocacy - so communities everywhere can develop their own sustainable sources of food, housing, energy, jobs, and other vital aspects of a thriving community.
We are a worker self-directed nonprofit. This means that we use democratic governance and decision-making systems that provide all staff with a voice in the direction of the organization, their own work flow, and the conditions of the workplace. We expect that all core staff who are Stewards of the organization participate in decision-making that affects the entire organization.
We share roles and responsibilities. Most staff take on a diversity of roles within the organization, based on the organization’s needs and staff members’ interests and skills. In addition to your programmatic roles, you will also join one or more of the following operational teams: Abundance (fundraising), Grants, Financial (internal financial management), Admin, Internal Resilience (organizational culture), or Communications. Your list of programmatic and operational roles can evolve over time, with the potential to contribute to other areas of our work than where you start out.
In our dynamic organization, everyone wears multiple “hats.” While this position will be primarily focused on legal issues, the role may be adapted in some ways over time to fit the hired person’s skills and interests. For example, the 30% of this role that is currently allocated to the General Circle may be reworked to prioritize operations or programmatic work over participation in collective decision-making and governance processes.
There’s more! The Law Center has some unique policies intended to create a healthy, inclusive and effective work environment. Read more about our systems of accountability, autonomy, and democracy within our organizational structure.
Before submitting an application feel free to watch our informational videos below. They explain a little bit about our dynamic organizational structure, our office culture, and what you should expect of our hiring process. Sometimes, folks don't actually like the way we work. And that's okay, since every co-worker has the chance to help shape the organization! We believe working for a democratic organization is more effective, equitable, and empowering; and at the same time, it requires an interest in sharing responsibility for the wellbeing of the organization as a whole.
Video: Take a tour of our (old) office! ("No fancy pants" rules still apply.)
Video: Bringing on new members to our dynamic, constantly evolving Law Center!
Compensation: Law Center staff are compensated based on an equitable pay structure that determines salaries based on geography and need to support children and other dependents. Our base salary is $70,390. The highest paid person currently makes $120,644. Feel free to read our compensation policy here.
Hours: We consider a full-time work week to be 30 hours.
Location: Our office is located in downtown Oakland. Staff are generally encouraged to work wherever they feel most productive and comfortable. We recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic has added risks to in-person activities, and these risks affect each staff member differently. We also recognize the importance of sharing physical space with each other, since it can create opportunities for personal interaction, collaboration, and relationship-building, all necessary for mental and emotional health. Furthermore, we acknowledge that in-person meetings can become distracting or less effective if one or more people attend virtually. Therefore, we encourage local staff to work from the office at least one day per week if they feel comfortable doing so, preferably on the same day as others are gathering in the office, but we do not currently require any staff to work in person.
Time Off: We have a “free time off policy,” which means that there is no universal limit to paid time off during a calendar year. Each core staff member has the opportunity and responsibility to take as much paid time off as they see fit, so long as they can fulfill their roles and responsibilities to the organization.
Health Insurance: We offer health insurance for staff and children dependents (and cover the premiums for spouses who have no other insurance access) and flexible spending accounts.
Child Care: We contribute $5,000 per year to a flexible spending account for dependent care per staff member with children under the age of 10.
Family Leave: We provide 40 weeks of paid parental and/or caregiving leave.
Sabbatical: We have a sabbatical policy that permits a 16-week sabbatical after working at the organization for 5 years.
Retirement Savings: The Law Center sponsors a 401k plan that all staff can join after 6 months of employment.
