TechTonic Justice · 2 days ago
Staff Attorney, California
United States
Full-time
Remote
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$100K/yr - $130K/yr
3+ years expTechTonic Justice is a nonprofit organization focused on addressing AI-related harms to low-income communities. The Staff Attorney will work in the Legal Department to provide legal advocacy, educate the public on AI injustices, and support communities in resisting harmful AI practices.
Non-profit Organization Management
Responsibilities
Build relationships with and networks among frontline legal aid providers, worker centers, labor unions, community health clinics, social service providers, community-based organizations, policy professionals, and low-income communities
Educate and learn from these audiences to understand how AI harms low-income people and how to fight back
Directly support communities and advocates to resist harmful AI by offering multidimensional strategic assistance and, as appropriate to the situation, capacity to litigate or do litigation-adjacent work
Educate the broader public about the ways AI harms low-income communities, including through OpEds, conference presentations, other speaking engagements, and other contributions to our communications efforts
Devise and disseminate scalable strategies to challenge AI-based decision-making in core legal aid issue areas, like public benefits, employment, education, and housing, among others
Devise and disseminate scalable strategies leveraging the new regulations issued pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act and Fair Employment and Housing Act to benefit low-income California subjected to AI-based decision-making
Research and track reported uses of AI in core legal aid issue areas
Review, revise, and otherwise comment upon legislation and regulations at the local, state, and federal levels
Work in coalition with other organizations opposing the harmful use of AI
Build infrastructure to facilitate engagement by affected communities and their frontline advocates in AI policy discourse, including, for example, through accessible policy analysis, participation opportunities and guidelines, and storytelling skills
Supervise legal interns and fellows
As needed, support internal organizational compliance with applicable laws around taxes, employment, tax-exempt status, lobbying, and the practice of law
Qualification
Required
Active license to practice law in California
Extensive experience actively representing clients in a civil legal aid organization (including disability protection and advocacy organizations). Successful candidates will have experience with at least some of the following: the pressures that frontline legal aid attorneys with significant caseloads face, the emotional toll of injustice on low-income client communities and their attorneys, litigating cases with imperfect facts under less-than-ideal circumstances, the tensions between adequate resolutions for individual low-income clients and opportunities for systems-level advocacy, laws that regulate the activities of federally-funded legal aid organizations
Independent initiative that does not require intensive, detail-heavy supervision
Ability to manage several different kinds of work activities concurrently, prioritize appropriately, and deliver quality work product promptly
Flexibility to adapt as needed to a fluid environment of a startup nonprofit organization where immediate needs and timelines may shift
Empathy and righteous fury
Collaborative spirit and the skills needed to work affirmingly with teammates, partners, coalition members, and the communities we exist to serve
Comfort articulating the intersections between poverty, race, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, language, age, disability, and related characteristics
Driver's license, access to a car, and proximity to a convenient airport for travel
Preferred
Experience advocating around AI-related injustices is preferred, but we recognize relatively few people in the country have this experience. So, we also welcome applications from people who've learned about AI-related injustices, are committed to learning more, and are confident in their ability to advocate in issue areas that are new to them
Experience collaborating with community organizers in some capacity, whether through legal clinics, 'know your rights' workshops, other community education activities, coordinated campaigns, or volunteer efforts
Substantive expertise in issues of concern to low-income Californians, particularly workers' rights, public benefits, housing, and K-12 education. Other issues, including child welfare, domestic violence, and consumer matters, are also relevant
Experience with fact-finding investigations through Freedom of Information laws, community relationships, and outreach
Demonstrated capacity for and success in complex affirmative litigation and/or appellate advocacy to effect systemic change, including the risk tolerance to litigate cases with narrow, but reasonable, paths to victory
Familiarity with California's access to justice ecosystem and social services infrastructure
Extensive experience with trainings and/or presentations to audiences that include other attorneys, policy professionals, and affected communities
Functional fluency in a second language that is used by significant numbers of low-income Californians
Benefits
100% of quality medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance for the employee
50% of dependents’ medical, dental, and vision insurance
An automatic contribution by TechTonic Justice of 4% of annual salary to a Vanguard 403(b) retirement account (employees may also choose to contribute a portion of their salaries)
Unlimited paid time off, subject to approval by leadership in accordance with relevant operational considerations
Monthly internet reimbursement up to $75
A professional development fund of $1,500
Company
TechTonic Justice
TechTonic Justice fights the ground-level harms that AI, algorithms, and related technologies inflict on low-income communities nationwide.
2-10 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Early StageCompany data provided by crunchbase