The Legal Aid Society's Civil Practice is seeking two Intake Paralegal Casehandlers with fluency in Spanish to join our City-Wide Intake Unit.

The Access to Benefits Helpline (A2B) serves as an intake line for all inquiries regarding consumer law, employment, unemployment insurance benefits, education, homelessness issues, government benefits, including food stamps, cash public assistance, and disability, Medicaid, Medicare and other health and safety net benefits. The Intake ParalegalCasehandlers will conduct general intake in Spanish, provide advice, and brief services to callers and assist the Director of Legal Helplines with data collection, data entry, and generating reports.

• Conduct telephone intake for various matters, including employment, consumer law, government benefits, health law, education, etc
• Interview clients, provide advice and direct assistance, and assess requests for services
• Identify, assess, and escalate time sensitive and emergency legal issues to supervisory staff
• Provide oral and written advocacy to or on behalf of clients
• Conduct factual and legal research
• Respond to inquiries from civil practice units, government agencies, and the general public
• Advocate on behalf of clients with government agencies
• Provide support to the Disability Advocacy Project, Government Benefits, and other units as needed
• Utilize Excel to generate daily, weekly, and monthly reports, as needed
• Carry out other tasks of general assistance to the work of the Intake unit
• Other duties as assigned

• Paralegal certificate from ABA-accredited paralegal program or Bachelor's degree in relevant field
• Fluency in Spanish is required
• Excellent writing, verbal, and computer skills
• Basic Excel skills and prior use of Excel in a work or educational setting are preferred
• Prior experience utilizing Excel in school or professional settings required
• Excellent organizational skills
• Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively in a team
• Ability to manage a reasonable volume of work and solve problems creatively
• Ability to coordinate and collaborate successfully with other groups and organizations
• Commitment to protecting the rights of low-income clients
• Experience in and/or commitment to advocacy and protecting the rights of low-income people andimmigrants is strongly desired
• Knowledge of disability and/or government benefits or employment law is strongly desired
• Experience assisting people in crisis is desirable

The posting reflects the range of potential salaries for the role. The specific salary offers will be dependent on candidate qualifications, including collectively bargained salary steps for unionized roles.

Salary Range/Salary: $53,913 to $77,005

SALARY AND BENEFITS

The leadership of The Legal Aid Society believes in attracting and retaining exceptional talent committed to serving our clients. We offer a generous benefits package including health insurance, paid vacation, disability, and life insurance, and more. Salaries for our unionized jobs are governed by our Collective Bargaining Agreement. Please visit our Careers page for additional information. Salary and benefits information will be available to applicants, when and if an offer is made.

Click here to read more about the benefits of working at The Legal Aid Society

HIGHER EDUCATION AND LOAN FORGIVENESS

The Legal Aid Society is a qualified employer for the purposes of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness. This position allows an employee to take advantage of PSLF and other State and Federal loan forgiveness programs.

Additionally, employees who are New York residents may be eligible for assistance from New York state to assist with loan repayments, depending on years of practice.To learn more, click the links below.

studentaid.gov

hesc.ny.gov/loan-forgiveness-programs

OUR COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION

The leadership of The Legal Aid Society is committed to a work culture of zealous advocacy, respect, diversity and inclusion, client-oriented defense, access to justice and excellent representation. We are dedicated to building a strong professional relationship with each of our clients, to understanding their diverse circumstances, and to meeting their needs. Our ability to achieve these goals depends on the efforts of all of us.

WORK AUTHORIZATION

All applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer without sponsorship for a work visa or permit. We are currently unable to sponsor employment visas or permits. (However, for citizens of Canada and Mexico, LAS will provide a letter documenting employment status that is needed to obtain a TN visa.)

All applications must be completed online. We do not accept paper submissions. Please visit our Careers Page to review all current job postings, and instructions on the application process. For technical difficulties or questions regarding this posting, please email jobpostquestions@legal-aid.org.

As an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Employer, The Legal Aid Society prohibits discriminatory employment actions against and treatment of its employees and applicants for employment based on actual or perceived race or color, size (including bone structure, body size, height, shape, and weight), religion or creed, alienage or citizenship status, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity (one's internal deeply-held sense of one's gender which may be the same or different from one's sex assigned at birth); gender expression (the representation of gender as expressed through, for example, one's name, choice of pronouns, clothing, haircut, behavior, voice, or body characteristics; gender expression may not conform to traditional gender-based stereotypes assigned to specific gender identities), disability, marital status, relationship and family structure (including domestic partnerships, polyamorous families and individuals, chosen family, platonic coparents, and multigenerational families), genetic information or predisposing genetic characteristics, military status, domestic violence victim status, arrest or pre-employment conviction record, credit history, unemployment status, caregiver status, salary history, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Please submit these documents as a single combined PDF when you apply via the LAS (Legal Aid Society) Recruitment Portal.

• Cover letter
• Resume