SENIOR STAFF ATTORNEY
NAPW seeks experienced attorney (7 years minimum) for senior staff attorney position in New York City.
About the Senior Staff Attorney Position
The senior staff attorney will be responsible for overseeing NAPW’s legal advocacy work. While resources limit the number of direct challenges we can bring, NAPW plays an influential role by advising, supporting and collaborating with public defenders and pro-bono counsel across the country and by writing and organizing influential amicus briefs in a wide variety of reproductive justice cases. NAPW’s legal advocacy work focuses on challenges and alternatives to punitive interventions based on pregnancy, choices in childbirth, drug use and treatment for drug related problems.
In general, NAPW seeks to ensure that: women do not lose their constitutional and human rights as a result of pregnancy, that addiction and other health and welfare problems they face during pregnancy are addressed as health issues, not as crimes; that families are not needlessly separated, based on medical misinformation; and that pregnant and parenting women have access to a full range of reproductive health services, as well as non-punitive drug treatment services. Examples of cases and issues include:
• In Missouri, a woman was arrested for child abuse after using marijuana once while she was pregnant.
• In New York a pregnant woman who drank alcohol was arrested for child abuse for “feeding her blood” to her unborn child.
• In Connecticut, Georgia, and California pregnant women who were receiving federally recommended methadone treatment have had their children removed at birth based on the view that this medical treatment somehow constitutes a form of civil child (fetal) abuse or neglect.
• In New Jersey a woman’s refusal to sign a general consent to cesarean surgery that she did not need became the basis for a finding of civil child abuse.
• In Oklahoma and Tennessee women who have suffered stillbirths have been charged with first-degree murder based on the argument that fetuses are children and the scientifically unsupportable claim that a drug they took during pregnancy caused the stillbirth.
• Arizona and Washington DC responded to evidence of serious failures by their child welfare system by proposing to treat unconfirmed positive drug tests on newborns and or newly delivered mothers as a basis for presuming maternal neglect.
About the Organization:
National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) works to secure the rights and human dignity of all women, particularly pregnant and parenting women and those who are most vulnerable including low income women, women of color, and drug-using women. NAPW uses the lessons learned from the experiences of these women to find more effective ways of advancing reproductive and human rights for all women and families.
Our work encompasses litigation, litigation support and legal advocacy; local and national organizing; public policy development, public education and outreach. Two principles guide all NAPW activities: to build bridges and align agendas across diverse public health and social justice movements, and to leverage and connect local organizing and activism with national advocacy and policy work. To that end, NAPW is actively involved in ongoing court challenges to punitive reproductive health and drug policies and provides litigation support in cases across the country. NAPW engages in local and national organizing and public education efforts among the diverse communities that are stakeholders in these issues, including the women and families directly affected by punitive policies, as well as public health and policy leaders.
Job Description and Responsibilities:
The Senior Staff Attorney will work with NAPW’s Executive Director and its organizing and education staff and consultants. The Staff Attorney will:
• Supervise legal staff and legal interns
• Help select cases for direct involvement and represent parties and/or amici;
• Monitor relevant cases and new laws across the country, updating NAPW’s extensive database regarding trends, lessons learned, and new tools for challenging the prosecution and punishment of pregnant women;
• Oversee and direct NAPW’s resource bank that includes model briefs, motions, and expert material, and provide technical assistance, helping advocates, public defenders, family lawyers, community organizers and others who are working to challenge punitive interventions based on pregnancy, drug use and treatment for drug related problems;
• Contribute to NAPW reports, publications, proposals and practice manuals;
• Help hire and supervise layers and legal interns and inspire and recruit new pro bono sources of legal representation for women and families;
• Develop positive policy responses and NAPW’s capacity to influence local and national policy;
• Participate in planning, implementing and carrying out conferences and meetings;
• Explain how issues addressed by the staff attorney connect to broader social justice issues through writing and public speaking;
• Work collaboratively with partner organizations;
• Represent NAPW in coalition activities.
Qualifications:
• A minimum of 7 years of litigation experience that required significant amounts of legal research, writing and advocacy;
• Experience organizing and writing amicus briefs;
• An ability to read, understand and synthesize medical and social science research material;
• Commitment to women’s, civil, and human rights, reproductive justice, and drug policy, criminal justice and child welfare reform;
• Excellent research, writing and communication skills and an ability to do creative legal research, writing, and advocacy;
• Commitment to collaborative cross cultural work, the ability to work well with people in diverse settings, and the ability to connect litigation and legal advocacy with local and national organizing and education efforts;
• Clerkship experience is a plus;
• A sense of humor, and the ability to build on the connections between the personal and political are also plusses;
• Admission to a bar is required.
Compensation: This is a full time position. Salary is commensurate with experience and competitive with other national public interest advocacy organizations.
To Apply:
Interested applicants should send a cover letter explaining your interest in and qualifications for the position, a resume, including names of three references with phone numbers; and one legal writing sample to:
• Attn: Search Committee (Senior Staff Attorney), 15 West 36th Street, Suite 901, New York, NY 10018.
• Or via e-mail to: om@advocatesforpregnantwomen.org Please put “Attn: Search Committee (Staff Attorney)” in the subject box.
• Finalists will be required to participate in a legal writing test.
National Advocates for Pregnant Women is an equal opportunity employer.
March, 2009