The Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), the Massachusetts public defender agency, is seeking a skilled and experienced child welfare attorney to serve as the Trial Panel Director for its Children and Family Law Division (CAFL).

The Trial Panel Director will manage CAFL’s Trial Panel Support Unit. The unit provides leadership, oversight, and support to the 750-plus private attorneys who represent CPCS clients in state intervention/child welfare cases and other civil matters involving children, young adults, and their families. The Trial Panel Director is also part of CAFL’s leadership team and helps promote the division’s mission and helps identify and promote its goals. This position is eligible for a hybrid work schedule. The office is located in Boston.

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.

THE CHILDREN AND FAMILY LAW DIVISION

CPCS’s Children and Family Law Division provides attorneys to children, young adults, and indigent parents in care and protection (C&P), termination of parental rights (TPR), child requiring assistance (CRA), and guardianship-of-a-minor cases, as well as in other civil matters involving children and young adults in which there is a right to counsel. The vast majority of CAFL clients are represented by trial panel attorneys. Most CAFL cases are heard in the Juvenile Court. CAFL assignments, however, also require a significant amount of out-of-court advocacy, primarily with the Department of Children and Families, but also with schools and with other state and private agencies. There is substantial diversity – racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and otherwise – among CAFL clients. Hence, CAFL attorneys must be attuned to cultural nuance and a range of complex relationships involved in their cases.

The CAFL attorney plays a critical role in cases involving families. When the government removes a child from the custody of a parent in a C&P case, having a skilled CAFL attorney can mean the difference between the family’s prompt reunification, on the one hand, and the termination of parental rights and the permanent dissolution of the family, on the other. For a teenager who is the subject of a CRA case, the attorney may secure the special education services that enable the client to succeed in school and avoid being placed in a foster home. For siblings looking for stability after the court has freed them for adoption, the CAFL attorney will fight to ensure that they are provided a permanent home that allows them to stay together. These are just a few examples of the important work that CAFL attorneys do in advancing the objectives and protecting the rights of their parent and child clients.

POSITION OVERVIEW

The Trial Panel Director position will provide a dynamic leader with an opportunity to shape how parents and children are represented in child welfare/state intervention cases in Massachusetts for years to come. Panel attorneys, most of whom are sole practitioners, represent the vast majority of parents and children in these cases. As the head of the Trial Panel Support Unit, the Trial Panel Director will use their leadership, management, and legal skills to ensure that panel attorneys provide high-quality, client-centered, and culturally humble representation to parents, young adults, and children in all of their cases. The Trial Panel Director achieves this through the leadership and management of the Trial Panel Support Unit, a team of skilled supervising staff attorneys and administrative professionals, which supports and oversees attorneys on CAFL’s private counsel trial panels.

In addition, as a member of CAFL’s leadership team, the Trial Panel Director works with other CAFL Directors to help promote the division’s mission and develop and promote the division’s goals. These include identifying and addressing court and child welfare agency policies and practices that adversely affect CAFL clients; exploring legislative, regulatory, and practice changes to improve outcomes for CAFL clients; and working to ensure that CAFL attorneys are provided the resources and tools they need in doing battle with the state on behalf of their clients. The Trial Panel Director also works with other CPCS leaders to promote agency-wide goals.

The Trial Panel Director reports directly to CAFL’s Deputy Chief Counsel.

MINIMUM ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS 

• Applicants for this position must have a demonstrated commitment to providing high-quality representation to poor, culturally diverse, and marginalized individuals, a minimum of eight years’ experience as a practicing child welfare attorney, and four years of managerial experience; or a comparable mix of relevant legal, managerial, and oversight/supervisory experience;
• The Managing Director 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 or as the member of the bar of another jurisdiction eligible to engage in limited Massachusetts practice under Supreme Judicial Court Rule 3:04;
• Applicants must have access to reliable transportation in order to travel to offices, courts, and other locations throughout the state; and,
• Access to home internet access sufficient to work remotely.

QUALIFICATIONS/SKILLS

Candidates should possess the following attributes:

• Commitment to promoting cultural awareness and humility among panel members and be able to think and act strategically in promoting diversity within the panel;
• Dedication to attracting a diverse workforce within the Trial Panel Support Unit and to creating and maintaining an equitable and inclusive work environment;
• Strong interpersonal and analytical skills;
• Ability to maintain confidentiality and exercise considerable judgment and discretion;
• Ability to be creative and pragmatic;
• Strong leadership and organizational skills;
• Ability to present information clearly and concisely.  Able to communicate effectively with all staff within the organization and with stakeholders outside the organization;
• Ability to appreciate the importance of data in assessing attorney performance and in identifying and understanding problems in the child welfare and court systems;
• Proven ability to complete projects according to outlined scope and timeline;
• Ability to work independently and take initiative and to establish effective working relationships and work as a team;
• Experience with program management software tools, methodologies, and best practices;
• Ability to handle multiple tasks, prioritize effectively, meet deadlines, and deliver high-quality work; and,
• Ability to work in a community and defense-oriented capacity, both independently and collaboratively.

Candidates for the position must submit a cover letter, a resume, and a writing sample. The writing sample should demonstrate your analytical and legal reasoning skills.

RESPONSIBILITES

Specific duties include, but are not limited to:

Leadership for the panel

• Leading and managing CAFL's Trial Panel Support Unit in creating and maintaining a robust system to secure high-quality, client-centered representation of CAFL clients by private attorneys throughout the state;
• Working with CPCS’s Equity and Inclusion Director and its Human Resources Department to recruit a diverse set of applicants for the C&P/TPR, CRA, guardianship-of-a-minor, and Mary Moe trial panels and manage the selection and certification of attorneys for those panels;
• Collaborating with CPCS’s Training Department to ensure delivery of appropriate training for panel attorneys and present and facilitate at trainings;
• Overseeing CAFL’s Resource Attorney and trial panel attorney mentor programs;
• Working to provide other resources and support to panel members to help them manage the challenges of child welfare practice;
• Managing statewide performance review systems for trial panel attorneys;
• Investigating and addressing complaints regarding attorneys’ failure to comply with CPCS performance standards, the Massachusetts Rules of Professional Conduct, and agency policies and procedures;
• Developing and utilizing data systems regarding attorney assignments, performance, and billing to promote effective advocacy and the efficient use of CPCS resources; and,
• Executing and renewing the administration of Private Panel contracts.

Leadership for the Trial Panel Support Unit

• Establishing an overall work plan for Trial Panel Support Unit;
• Supervising and mentoring Trial Panel Support Unit team members, completing performance evaluations, and planning and providing opportunities for their professional development;
• Fostering an equitable and inclusive work culture for team members; and,
• Ensuring effective communication with and among staff, with other CAFL and agency staff, and with panel members.

 Leadership for CAFL and CPCS

• Representing CPCS and CAFL in interagency groups;
• Developing and maintaining a leadership role and professional relationships with courts, the Department of Children and Families, and other agencies and organizations;
• Collaborating with other CPCS leaders, particularly its Trial Panel Directors, to address cross-divisional issues and to promote consistency and advance the agency’s goals across all of CPCS’s practice areas;
• Working with CAFL’s Deputy Chief Counsel and other CAFL Directors to identify and advance the division’s goals; and,
• Other duties as assigned.

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 sdebow@publiccounsel.net