Senior Advisor, Affiliate Legal Programs - Affiliate Legal Programs

ABOUT THE JOB

The ACLU seeks applicants for the full-time position of Senior Advisor, Affiliate Legal Programs in the Affiliate Support and Nationwide Initiatives Department of the ACLU’s National office.

While a hybrid work arrangement is preferred, with in-office expectations of two (2) days per week or eight (8) days per month in New York, NY, Washington, DC, or San Francisco, CA; U.S. based remote candidates will also be considered and are encouraged to apply.

The Affiliate Support and Nationwide Initiatives Department (ASNI) builds state capacity and strengthens and maintains the connections between the ACLU and its network of 54 state affiliates and the 1,500 staff who work out of the state offices. Their work constitutes an unparalleled bulwark defending and advancing our civil liberties and civil rights. The Department helps the ACLU thrive as a nationwide organization by strengthening its affiliates, connecting National and affiliates, and building the capacity, relationships, and opportunities that enable the federation to do its best work. 

The Program and Strategy Team within the Department works with ACLU affiliates in two interrelated ways.  The team builds and cultivates excellence, best practices, and alignment in communications, legal, digital, legislative, advocacy, and organizing programs in ACLU affiliates.  The team also works with affiliate and national staff to drive and coordinate regional, multi-state, and nationwide efforts to advance civil rights and liberties issues.  The team collaborates with other ASNI teams, ACLU national office partners, and ACLU affiliate program staff to advance high-impact collaborative efforts with affiliates, grow durable capacity and power in affiliates, and support strong and resilient organizations that center equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging.  

This position is part of a collective bargaining unit. It is represented by ACLU Staff United (ASU).

WHAT YOU'LL DO 

Reporting to the Senior Director of Program and Strategy, the Senior Advisor,Affiliate Legal Programs serves as a senior resource and strategic advisor to affiliate Legal Directors and their teams, helping affiliates build and sustain strong, effective legal programs appropriate to their unique circumstances and contexts. Drawing on deep expertise in nonprofit civil liberties and civil rights legal program practice and management, the Senior Advisor proactively identifies opportunities to strengthen affiliate legal programs and works with affiliate leaders to develop and implement improvements in legal strategy, docket development and management, cooperating attorney relationships, program infrastructure and systems, staffing and leadership, and alignment with affiliate priorities. 

A central part of the role is helping affiliates drive legal work as part of an integrated advocacy strategy. The Senior Advisor works alongside affiliate legal, advocacy, communications, organizing, legislative, and other colleagues to help determine how the range of tools can be deployed most effectively to achieve shared goals. This includes helping affiliates assess when litigation is the right tool, when it should be combined with other tools or other approaches, and how different capacities and strategies can reinforce one another to maximize impact.

While there is no one single model for a strong affiliate legal program, the Senior Advisor also works across the affiliate network to identify emerging needs, share and scale effective practices, strengthen connections among legal leaders, and develop resources and approaches that advance effectiveness across the nationwide organization. The role will also partner with National colleagues to strengthen affiliate legal programs and advance integrated advocacy.

YOUR DAY TO DAY

AFFILIATE LEGAL PROGRAM STRATEGY, CAPACITY, AND LEADERSHIP

• Serve as a senior resource and strategic advisor to affiliate Executive Directors, Legal Directors, and other leaders building and sustaining high-quality, effective legal programs tailored to their differing circumstances; help leaders assess the strengths and limitations of their current programs and proactively identify opportunities for improvement; work with affiliate leaders to develop and implement strategies to strengthen legal program quality, effectiveness, and impact.
• Support affiliate Executive Directors in hiring and onboarding Legal Directors, and advise Legal Directors on building and managing strong legal programs, including developing strategically focused, organizationally-aligned, and appropriately resourced legal dockets, case selection and prioritization, litigation management, staffing and supervision, program planning, intake and referral systems, and effective management of cooperating attorney relationships, and other external legal resources.
• Work with Legal Directors and legal staff to understand legal program strengths, needs, and opportunities; help affiliates set ambitious, right-sized goals; and support implementation and progress toward those goals.

NETWORK-WIDE PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT, TOOLS, & BEST PRACTICES, AND LEARNING

• Drawing experience across the affiliate network, identify, develop, and scale effective practices for building and running powerful and impactful affiliate legal programs; translate learnings into practical frameworks, tools, and models, and proactively support their adoption and adaptation by affiliates within their own circumstances and capacity.
• Help affiliate leaders develop, implement, and manage integrated advocacy approaches that align legal, organizing, legislative, communications, and other capacities to advance shared goals.
• Promote and support the application of Department resources, such as the Program and Strategy Playbook, Envisioning a Stronger Future: A Guide to Building ACLU Legal Programs, and related frameworks to advance meaningful improvements in affiliate legal programs, adapting approaches to differing circumstances and capacity. 
• Develop practical tools for assessing affiliate legal program capacity, effectiveness, and progress; establish approaches to regular reflection, debriefing, and learning that help Legal Directors and affiliates understand what is working, where change is needed, and what can be learned across the network.
• Identify and synthesize trends, innovations, challenges, and lessons across affiliate legal programs and translate that learning into practical guidance, tools, and advice for Legal Directors, ASNI, and relevant National colleagues.
• Identify and leverage technologies, tools, and operational efficiencies that strengthen affiliate legal programs and increase their effectiveness.
• Create and sustain learning communities or other cohorts for affiliate legal staff, including ongoing cohorts, in-person convenings, workshops, and other opportunities focused on skills and topics critical to the leadership, management, growth, and impact of affiliate legal programs.

NATIONAL OFFICE-AFFILIATE STRATEGY & ORGANIZATIONAL ALIGNMENT

• Represent the Department in National and affiliate program and legal planning processes, ensuring alignment with broader organizational strategy, integrated advocacy approaches, and nationwide priorities.
• Bring the perspectives, experience, and needs of affiliate legal programs into National strategic and programmatic discussions, helping national leaders understand the implications of national strategies and initiatives for affiliates with differing capacities and contexts.
• Lead or facilitate, as appropriate, collaboration between National and affiliate legal programs around shared priorities, including multi-state legal strategies and projects, while respecting affiliate autonomy and ensuring purposeful and effective coordination.
• Strengthen connections between affiliate legal programs and relevant National departments, proactively surfacing opportunities, barriers, and points of tension and helping colleagues identify solutions that advance both affiliate and federation-wide goals.

ASNI COLLABORATION, ADVISING, AND ORGANIZATIONAL INTEGRATION

• Advise ASNI colleagues on grants and other investments in affiliate legal programs, bringing substantive expertise about legal program capacity, quality, sustainability, and impact to inform investment and programmatic decisions.
• Seek advice and counsel, as appropriate, of Department leadership on matters related to high-functioning leadership teams; Escalate matters to Department leadership where there is significant organizational risk.
• Work closely with ASNI colleagues responsible for affiliate strategic planning and leadership development to integrate legal priorities and capacity into broader organizational strategies and structures, and strengthen legal leadership pipelines, competencies and succession planning.
• Support a culture of transparency and trust by proactively sharing relevant information with ASNI leadership, where appropriate, to contribute to effective and holistic assessments, evaluations, and interventions.
• Manage or work with vendors and consultants, as appropriate; contribute to special projects, events, and organizational priorities.
• Frequent travel is a core component of this role.
• Perform other role-related duties to support the department's objectives. 

FUTURE ACLU'ERS WILL 

• Be committed to advancing the mission of the ACLU
• Center and embed the principles of equity, inclusion and belonging in their work by demonstrating commitment to diversity with an approach that respects and values multiple perspectives
• Be committed to work collaboratively and respectfully toward resolving obstacles and conflicts

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

• A J.D. is required alongside significant experience leading or advancing a civil rights/civil liberties legal program at a national and/or state organization 
• Experience recruiting, training, managing, and motivating diverse and high-performing legal teams in a non-profit setting
• Demonstrated experience and familiarity with building legal strategies or programs that integrate advocacy and communications
• Strong facilitation, strategic advising, and presentation skills, including experience leading workshops, trainings, convenings, and planning processes. 
• Ability to build relationships and trust within a large and diverse group of stakeholders
• Highly organized with attention to detail
• Experience with managing legal staff or familiarity with best practice approaches to people management
• Strong project management skills, with the ability to lead complex workstreams and manage multiple priorities to meet deadlines effectively
• Willing to conquer the “small tasks” with an understanding of their vital importance to the success of the organization
• Thinks strategically, critically, and creatively
• Strong verbal and written communication skills

COMPENSATION

WHY THE ACLU

For over 100 years, the ACLU has worked to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Whether it’s ending mass incarceration, achieving full equality for the LGBTQ+ community, establishing new privacy protections for our digital age, or preserving the right to vote or the right to have an abortion, the ACLU takes up the toughest civil liberties cases and issues to defend all people.

We know that great people make a great organization. We value our people and know that what we offer is essential not just their work, but to their overall well-being. 

At the ACLU, we offer a broad range of benefits, which include:

• Time away to focus on the things that matter with a generous paid time-off policy
• Focus on your well-being with comprehensive healthcare benefits (including medical, dental and vision coverage, parental leave, gender affirming care & fertility treatment)
• Plan for your retirement with 401k plan and employer match
• We support employee growth and development through annual professional development funds, internal professional development programs and workshops

OUR COMMITMENT TO ACCESSIBILITY, EQUITY, DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Accessibility, equity, diversity and inclusion are core values of the ACLU and central to our work to advance liberty, equality, and justice for all. For us diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion are not just check-the-box activities, but a chance for us to make long-term meaningful change.  We are a community committed to learning and growth, humility and grace, transparency and accountability. We believe in a collective responsibility to create a culture of belonging for all people within our organization – one that respects and embraces difference; treats everyone equitably; and empowers our colleagues to do the best work possible. We are as committed to anti-oppression, anti-ableism, and anti-racism internally as we are externally. Because whether we’re in the courts or in the office, we believe ‘We the People’ means all of us.

With this commitment in mind, we strongly encourage applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status and record of arrest or conviction, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.    

The ACLU is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual with a disability and need assistance applying online, please complete the Accommodation Request Form

If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.