Project Description

Brooklyn Legal Services seeks a Staff Attorney for its Housing Law Unit.

Brooklyn Legal Services, part of Legal Services NYC, provides high-quality, innovative representation to address the pressing legal needs of Brooklyn’s diverse low-income population. BLS focuses on the problems that have the greatest impact on our clients — preserving affordable and decent housing, maintaining income support, redressing abusive lending and consumer practices, promoting family stability and mitigating the effects of domestic violence, and advocating for the disabled.

Our housing practice focuses on preserving affordable housing in Brooklyn for low- to moderate-income tenants, with the goal of staving off gentrification and preventing the displacement of communities—particularly communities of color—that have anchored Brooklyn neighborhoods for generations. We achieve this goal through a blend of individual defense work and systemic affirmative litigation. In addition to the thousands of Housing Court proceedings we defend individual tenants against every year, we also actively seek out opportunities to protect buildings from deregulation by combating fraudulent MCI and IAI applications at DHCR, challenging rent overcharges in Supreme Court, bringing group HPs against landlords to obtain repairs for tenants, and filing affirmative litigation based on the FHA, ADA, and State and City Human Rights Law to stop racist and other discriminatory practices by landlords. We have deep ties to tenant organizing groups in the communities we serve and work hand-in-hand with them to ensure that our practice reflects the needs and desires of these communities.

Attorneys in our housing practice have exciting opportunities to hone their skills as litigators in both the individual defense and affirmative litigation contexts. Some recent examples of the work of our advocates include obtaining almost $200,000 in overcharges for tenants in a building in Central Brooklyn, preserving 62 units of rent stabilized housing in another building in the same neighborhood that the landlord was seeking to illegally deregulate, and challenging the revocation of alleged preferential rents for 52 apartments in a building in Crown Heights and preserving all 52 apartments for over four years of litigation. This year, we have launched an exciting new project focused on the Central Brooklyn neighborhoods of Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood, and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Successful candidates for this position will have the opportunity to work in the Flatbush Project, our Tenants Rights Coalition in East New York, or in our growing Universal Access to Counsel Project.

Experience and Qualifications:
We seek an attorney admitted to the New York State Bar with:

A demonstrated passion for social justice and a commitment to working with low-income communities and communities of color to advance equity;
Excellent analytical, writing, and communication skills;
Strong interest in working with clients in crisis;
Strong organization skills and ability to handle diverse, fast paced, and high volume case load;
Litigation experience (preferred);
Fluency or strong proficiency in a second language (preferred); and
Background in organizing or strong ties to Brooklyn low-income communities (preferred).

The Staff Attorney will represent tenants and groups in Housing Court eviction proceedings, administrative proceedings, Supreme Court actions against administrative agencies, impact litigation in Federal and other courts, and other litigation. Other duties include intake, community education, and community outreach. The position may be located in any of our four offices in Bed-Stuy, Clinton Hill, East New York/Brownsville, and downtown Brooklyn.

How to Apply:

bkhiring@lsnyc.org
http://www.legalservices.org

Applicants should send a cover letter, resume, and two writing samples to bkhiring@lsnyc.org. Please write “Housing Attorney” in the subject line of the email.

Please, no telephone calls.

Salary and benefits are determined by the LS-NYC Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Legal Services NYC is an equal opportunity employer. People of color, women, people with disabilities, people over 40, and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people are strongly encouraged to apply.

Original Posting Here