Position Summary

 The Issue Team Attorney is responsible for investigating rights violations complaints and providing legal services for individuals with disabilities within agency policies and priorities. This includes interviewing clients, reviewing records, conducting legal research, negotiating outcomes, and representing clients in administrative hearings and in state and federal judicial proceedings. This position provides legal assistance, direction and supervision of Advocate case work, when appropriate. The Issue Team Attorney also provides education and training sessions for people with disabilities, parents, advocates, and professionals/service providers and the community.

Physical/Mental Requirements

1. Uses personal computer approximately 6-7 hours per day.
2. Uses telephone and email to communicate with clients and other professionals, approximately 3-5 hours per day.
3. Spends approximately 1-3 hours per day in meetings.
4. Sits approximately 6-7 hours per day.
5. Requires working under a moderate degree of stress (time constraints; deadlines; multi-tasking high-level projects and issues; complex issues; and conflict resolution).
6. Moderate travel to meet with clients or handle case-related matters as needed. 

 Essential Functions

1. Provide legal services and advice to individuals eligible for Disability Rights Texas services which may include legal advocacy, negotiation, mediation, litigation and handling of administrative and court proceedings.
2. Conceptualize case strategies and develop case work based on proper legal concepts and established precedents. Be creative in finding solutions and reaching outcomes.
3. Respond to requests for assistance and determine eligibility for services.
4. Provide direction and technical assistance to Advocates, when appropriate. Will participate in case reviews and provide Advocates with direction on strategizing cases and legal issues, when appropriate.
5. Implement agency's client services policies and procedures regarding client interviews, case records, investigations, case advocacy and case files.
6. Develop and/or maintain ongoing caseload within the level established by the agency's client services policies and procedures and meet expectations for litigation.
7. Provide technical assistance on an on-going basis to private attorneys representing persons with disabilities
8. Develop materials for and conduct a selected number of education and training (E&T) presentations on Disability Rights Texas's services and legal rights issues.
9. Maintain effective communications.
10. Travel as needed to provide services. 
11. Appropriately prioritize tasks as needed and multi-task numerous responsibilities in a timely manner.
12. Establish personal credibility in and outside the organization, in order to be an effective partner and advisor.
13. Effectively and regularly communicate with employees, clients, and the public at the individual, team and organizational levels.
14. Maintain thorough and complete records.
15. Develop and maintain collaborative, cooperative relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including clients, the community, the board of directors as well as employees at all levels of the organization.
16. Apply the principles of the organization’s vision and values in all work-related business and interactions.
17. Perform other duties as requested or required.

Required Qualifications

1. Law Degree plus Texas Law License.
2. Demonstrated legal skills including the ability to develop and evaluate facts and apply knowledge to client outcomes; the ability to analyze and apply legal rules and principles in order to develop case strategies; the ability to conduct legal research and apply information to case strategy; the ability to conduct an investigation and gather all pertinent facts; and the ability to form logical and legal conclusions from the information.
3. Demonstrated effective written and oral communication skills including the articulation of well thought out arguments; drafting complaints, briefs, memorandums of law and other pleadings; conducting depositions and other discovery methods; engaging in negotiations and settlement discussions; writing demand letters and other correspondence. 
4. Demonstrated knowledge of complex state and federal rights protection statutes, laws and regulations.
5. Awareness and knowledge of problems experienced by persons with disabilities.
6. Ability and willingness to travel to all parts of the state including overnight trips 
7. Excellent interpersonal, relationship-building and collaboration skills to be able to work effectively with others inside and outside of the organization; relationship builder with the flexibility and finesse to “manage by influence.” 
8. Demonstrated public speaking skills to conduct education and training sessions.
9. Comply with organizational standards regarding legal case development and management 
10. Maintain licensure to practice law in Texas
11. Proven ability to lead, mentor and train others.
12. Experience working with governmental entities including school districts, state and federal agencies and service providers
13. The ability to take direction and independently follow through on all instructions.
14. The ability to create collaboration among stakeholders and other disability groups.
15. Excellent detail-orientation, follow-up skills and organizational skills plus the ability to multi-task and work under challenging conditions while meeting deadlines.
16. Demonstrated ability to manage individual workload so services are delivered timely and appropriately.
17. Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and legal case management software (such as Legal Files). 
18. High level of commitment to service excellence, plus high degrees of integrity, ethics and judgment are a must.

 Preferred Qualifications

1. Bi-Lingual in Spanish – both written and spoken word

E-Verify Participation

Non-Solicitation Statement

Disability Rights Texas (“DRTx”) does not accept any liability for fees for resumes from recruiters or employment agencies (“Agency”), without a binding, written recruitment agreement between DRTx and Agency describing the services and specific job openings (“Agreement”). DRTx may consider any candidate for whom an Agency has submitted an unsolicited resume and explicitly reserves the right to hire those candidate(s) without any financial obligation to the Agency, unless an Agreement is in place. Any email or verbal contacts with any person within DRTx is inadequate to create a binding agreement. Agencies without an Agreement are requested not to contact any hiring managers of DRTx with recruiting inquiries or resumes.