Rise Up: Federal Workers Legal Defense Network

Volunteer Lawyer Organizer

Based in Washington, DC

 

Consultant Opportunity: Volunteer Lawyer Organizer

Introduction to Rise Up
Faced with the largest mass firing in U.S. history, former federal workers and federal workers with concerns for their jobs at all levels and all across the country have an urgent, unprecedented need for legal services. 

The AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), We The Action, Democracy Forward, the American Constitution Society, the National Employment Lawyers Association, the National Employment Law Project, the Partnership for Public Service, the National Lawyers Guild, and State Democracy Defenders have created an organization to meet the needs of our public servants and our democracy. Rise Up: Federal Employees Legal Defense Network connects current and former federal workers with volunteer lawyers for much-needed legal advice. Since the Network’s launch on April 16, 1250 lawyers have registered as volunteers and 2500 workers have requested legal services.

Volunteer lawyers are at the heart of Rise Up’s program. We are looking for an organizer who has experience working with lawyers or similar professionals, bringing them into the organization as volunteers and making sure that they become and remain active participants in our program.

Rise Up’s volunteer lawyer model
Lawyers who volunteer with the Network must have an active bar license and take our 90-minute training in the basics of federal sector labor law. In addition, the Network has developed and keeps updated a wide range of guidance documents for lawyers on various aspects of federal labor law as well as a companion set for workers. Our platform, designed and executed by We the Action (a project of Civic Nation) matches volunteers with workers for a quick screening call free-of-charge to make sure they have a federal employment issue and to determine if they have specialized concerns, such as those involving whistleblowing or criminal investigations and should be referred to our panels of specialized lawyers for guidance. 

After the screening, workers who meet our criteria may be referred to a specialized lawyer. Most are referred to a free, confidential consultation of up-to-one-hour, where another volunteer lawyer explores the worker’s particular set of issues and helps map out various options to protect the worker’s rights. For example, the volunteer lawyer might explain that the worker is already covered by a federal class action or class appeal at the Merit Systems Protection Board and does not have to take additional action at that moment to protect their rights. Or, the lawyer may encourage the worker to initiate an equal employment opportunity proceeding as a result of a discriminatory discharge. At the end of the consultation, the lawyer and worker may enter into a formal agreement for representation at an agreed-upon fee, but these arrangements lie entirely outside of the services provided by the Network.

Consultations require most of our volunteer lawyers to provide advice in an area of the law about which they know very little, and which involves someone’s livelihood. Understandably, many lawyers who have signed up as volunteers are reluctant to perform consultations. 

We have developed a strategy that combines some of the key elements of “volunteer management” efforts found in political campaigns or projects intended to recruit lawyers for individual pro bono assignments with initiatives tailored to our volunteer pool. We The Action has conducted our email communications to lawyer volunteers on our behalf since Rise Up’s inception and will continue to do so through the end of July. 

We engage our lawyers in the Rise Up system by sending weekly email communications to segmented groups of volunteers (active, less active, inactive) to persuade each group to do more. We have recently begun calling through to groups of lawyers to encourage them to step up their involvement in the Network. In addition, we conduct regular training, both on the basics and on more specific topics, such as Reductions in Force and have recently revised our training video. We recently held a meeting for lawyers who have done screenings but not consultations to try to make them feel more comfortable with moving up the “engagement ladder.” We have also purchased a blanket malpractice insurance policy to cover work that volunteers perform.

We have recently developed a new approach to consultations: a Zoom virtual legal clinic in which volunteer lawyers provide consultations and that also provides immediate support to our volunteers to make them more comfortable with providing advice and guidance. During the virtual legal clinic, volunteer lawyers meet with workers in individual breakout rooms to provide two individual consultations in a three-hour timeframe. During the clinic experienced federal sector labor lawyers are available to consult with any volunteer who needs to have a question answered. Our first “virtual legal clinic” was held at the end of June and delivered consultations to over 30 workers. Feedback from the volunteer lawyers was uniformly positive. worker.

At this juncture, we are looking to engage a consultant to build the relationships with our volunteers that will help them commit to doing consultations on an ongoing basis, either those that they schedule on their own or by participating in a virtual legal clinic. This requires moving a large number of volunteers from the inactive category to the screening category and moving those in the screening category into the consultation category. Organizing these lawyers into cohorts that have a common goal and feel supported enough to engage in consultations is essential. Our virtual legal clinics hold tremendous promise, but there may be other methods to increase engagement as well.

Services sought
Rise Up seeks the services of an experienced individual with the expertise to develop and execute a program for organizing volunteer lawyers into active and engaged participants through a variety of methods appropriate to the nature of the organization’s model. We believe that lawyer organizing is similar to other kinds of organizing but has its own characteristics and challenges. Labor organizing may provide a good model for the type of volunteer engagement we are looking for. There may also be other organizing models that can provide guidance to us in moving forward. 

Given resource constraints, the plan needs to be implemented by a single person on contract to the organization with support from the Rise Up’s leadership team and Executive Assistant. We anticipate a weekly time commitment of about 20 hours per week.

We are looking for someone who has a combination of the experience and skills listed below: 

• Five to seven years developing and executing lawyer, professional, labor or other organizing campaigns in roles that demonstrate increasing responsibility and/or five to seven years of experience with organizing and managing volunteers;
• Adeptness in developing and implementing a digital organizing strategy with clear and articulated objectives for unions, organizations and/or charitable campaigns; 
• Developing metrics to evaluate impact and success of the organizing strategy;
• Working collaboratively with a leadership team under conditions that include high stakes and significant time pressure;
• Demonstrated ability to modify and pivot plans and programs depending on events and results; 
• Excellent writing skills and ability to tailor message to specific audiences, including lawyers;
• Proficiency at using technology necessary to distribute weekly messages to large groups of volunteers;

Hours needed
This is a part time job of up to 50 percent time. At some point it may develop into a full-time consultancy.

Remuneration
This is a 3-6 month consultancy contract at a monthly rate of $7,000 full-time ($3,500 for 50 percent time), starting as soon as a suitable candidate is hired. 

To Apply
Please send a résumé and cover letter to Noah Evans at: nevans@workerslegaldefense.org. Use the subject line Volunteer Organizer Position.