Supervising Attorney - YAD Springfield

The Youth Advocacy Division (YAD), the juvenile defender division of CPCS, is seeking a Supervising Staff Attorney for its Springfield office. The Supervising Staff Attorney will provide zealous legal representation on delinquency and youthful offender cases using the Positive Youth Development Approach and under the direction of the office’s Attorney in Charge, will assist in the supervision of staff Trial Attorneys and help set a positive and supportive office culture.

We fight for equal justice and human dignity by supporting our clients in achieving their legal and life goals. We zealously advocate for the rights of individuals and promote just public policy to protect the rights of all.

Our Values

Courage   •   Accountability   •   Respect   •   Excellence

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION MISSION STATEMENT

CPCS is committed to protecting the fundamental constitutional and human rights of our assigned clients through zealous advocacy, community-oriented defense, and the fullness of excellent legal representation.  We are dedicated to building and maintaining strong professional relationships, while striving to accept, listen to and respect the diverse circumstances of each client, as we dedicate ourselves to meeting their individual needs.  It is our CPCS mission to achieve these goals, and in furtherance thereof, we embrace and endorse diversity, equity and inclusion as our core values as we maintain a steadfast commitment to: (1) Ensure that CPCS management and staff members represent a broad range of human differences and experience; (2) Provide a work climate that is respectful and supports success; and (3) Promote the dignity and well-being of all staff members. CPCS leadership is responsible for ensuring equity, diversity, and inclusion. The ability to achieve these goals with any level of certainty is ultimately the responsibility of each member of the CPCS community.

AGENCY OVERVIEW

CPCS is the state agency in Massachusetts responsible for providing an attorney when the state or federal constitution or a state statute requires the appointment of an attorney for a person who cannot afford to retain one.  The agency provides representation in criminal, delinquency, youthful offender, family regulation, guardianship, mental health, sexually dangerous person, and sex offender registry cases, as well as in appeals and post-conviction and post-judgment proceedings related to those matters.

The clients we represent are diverse across every context imaginable and bring many unique cultural dimensions to the matters we address. This reality creates a critical need for CPCS staff to be culturally competent and able to work well with people of different races, ethnicities, genders and/or sexual orientation identities, abilities, and limited English proficiency, among other protected characteristics.

DIVISION OVERVIEW

The Youth Advocacy Division (YAD), the juvenile defender division of CPCS, is committed to ensuring that every indigent child in Massachusetts has access to zealous legal representation in delinquency, GCL Revocation, juvenile murder, juvenile appeals, and youthful offender cases from a diverse and ever improving community of juvenile defenders consisting of both private assigned counsel and staff public defenders. YAD provides leadership, training, support, and oversight to the indigent juvenile defense bar in Massachusetts.  Youth in Massachusetts have a right to all of the due process provided to adults, including jury trials and, sadly, are also subject to adult sentences starting at age 14. Lawyers representing juveniles need all of the knowledge and skills as attorneys for adults and also must master the additional juvenile law, the science of adolescent development, the workings of DCF and DYS, and education law. 

OFFICE OVERVIEW

Springfield is a city in Massachusetts and the seat of Hampden County.  Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern Mill River. As of 2020, the city's population was 155,929, making it the third-largest city in Massachusetts, the fourth-most populous city in New England.  Founded in 1636 as the first Springfield in the New World, today the city is the urban, economic, and media capital of Massachusetts' section of the Connecticut River Valley, colloquially known as the Pioneer Valley. Springfield has several nicknames—"The City of Firsts,” due to the many innovations developed there such as the first American dictionary, the first American gas-powered automobile, “The City of Homes,” due to its Victorian residential architecture, and "Hoop City,” as basketball was invented in Springfield in 1891 by James Naismith.

POSITION OVERVIEW

As youth in Massachusetts have a right to jury trials, the Attorney in Charge (AIC) oversees a trial office which integrates the work of attorneys, social service advocates (SSA), investigators, and administrative assistants (AA) to fully address the legal and developmental needs of our clients. The Springfield office is comprised of one AIC,  two Supervising Attorneys, seven staff attorneys, two SSAs, an investigator, and two full time AAs and a part time  AA. The Springfield office covers the four western counties of Massachusetts: Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire.

YAD is seeking a Supervising Staff Attorney with a minimum of five years of experience providing representation in delinquency and youthful offender cases for its Springfield office.  Under the direction of the office’s Attorney in Charge, the Supervising Staff Attorney will assist in the supervision of staff Trial Attorneys and their coverage of outlying Juvenile Courts.  The Supervising Staff Attorney will also have their own reduced caseload.

The Supervising Attorney will report to the Attorney in Charge.

MINIMUM ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS 

• A Supervising Attorney must be committed to serving a culturally diverse, low-income population and must be eligible to practice law in Massachusetts, either as a member of the Massachusetts bar in good standing, as a law school graduate under Supreme Judicial Court Rule 3:03, or as the member of the bar of another jurisdiction eligible to engage in limited Massachusetts practice under Supreme Judicial Court Rule 3:04;
• A minimum of five years’ experience and a demonstrated commitment to the principle of zealous advocacy in the representation of youth in delinquency and youthful offender cases;
• Access to an automobile in order to travel to courts, clients, and investigation locations that are not easily accessible by public transportation; and,
• Access to home internet access sufficient to work remotely.

There is a strong preference for applicants with seven or more years’ experience in the representation of youth in delinquency and youthful offender cases.

QUALIFICATIONS/SKILLS

The following attributes are preferred for the position of Supervising Attorney: 

• Lawyers with seven or more years of experience are preferred and encouraged to apply;
• Experience with criminal, especially juvenile defense;
• Experience with a community-oriented defender practice;
• Ability to provide trauma informed and culturally competent representation;
• Knowledge of adolescent development;
• A demonstrated commitment to social justice issues and experience working with individuals of diverse backgrounds;
• Knowledge of positive youth development;
• The knowledge, skills, and ability to, in both an office and remote settings, effectively supervise staff and represent clients; 
• Strong interpersonal skills, analytical ability, and legal skills;
• The ability and commitment to complete annual performance evaluations in a timely and comprehensive manner;
• Understanding of juvenile legal practice and policy issues;
• Experience with educational system advocacy;
• Experience working with children and youth;
• Ability to set a positive and supportive culture for all Springfield office staff; and,
• Fluency in Spanish is strongly preferred.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The Supervising Attorney will provide both supervision of staff attorneys as well as zealous legal representation in a reduced caseload of delinquency and youthful offender matters using the Positive Youth Development Approach and all the same criminal defense skills needed to practice in district and superior courts. They also provide post dispositional advocacy and support to DYS committed youth, as well as school-based advocacy. The Supervising Attorney, in conjunction with the AIC and the other Supervising Attorney, will be responsible for setting a supportive and positive culture for the office.

The AIC and two Supervising Attorneys will each supervise the coverage of two or three Western Massachusetts Juvenile Courts and the staff attorneys who rotate through these courts.  The Supervising Staff Attorney, in addition, will work on discrete projects related to improving legal representation and outcomes for court involved youth. Also, the Supervising Attorney will play a leadership role in working towards reducing the racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile legal system.

The direct representation duties of the Supervising Attorney include, but are not limited to:

• Client interviews;
• Arraignment and bail advocacy;
• Legal research and writing;
• Pretrial investigation including visiting crime scenes, locating and interviewing witnesses, collecting and reviewing documentary evidence;
• Preparing and arguing pretrial motions, affidavits and legal memoranda;
• Dispositional investigations and advocacy;
• Jury and bench trials of criminal cases;
• Representation of clients in interlocutory proceedings; and,
• Other duties as assigned.

The supervisory duties of the Supervising Staff Attorney include, but are not limited to:

• Regular one-on-one meetings with individual supervisees to review case files, as well as group meetings, to review case preparation and performance;
• In-court supervision, including second-seating of trials and significant pretrial hearings;
• Preparation of annual performance evaluations;
• Presentation of in-office training sessions;
• Supervision of other staff, such as student interns, as delegated by the office’s Attorney in Charge; and,
• Other duties as assigned. 

Interested candidates should submit a resume, a legal writing sample, and a statement of interest describing the applicant’s trial experience in delinquency and youthful offender cases and experience as a supervisor. 

EEO Statement

The Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS) is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, ethnicity, sex, disability, religion, age, veteran or military status, genetic information, gender identity, or sexual orientation as required by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and other applicable federal and state statutes and organizational policies.  Applicants who have questions about equal employment opportunity or who need reasonable accommodations can contact the Chief Human Resources Officer, Sandra DeBow-Huang, at [email protected]