Legal Director
Center for Constitutional Rights

The nationally recognized Center for Constitutional Rights, one of America’s foremost progressive legal advocacy organizations, seeks a new Legal Director for its staff of 35 dedicated professionals in New York City. This Director, a visionary strategic thinker with passion, drive, and creativity, will work in a dynamic, progressive team environment to promote the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.

Background

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) is a non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to protecting and advancing the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. CCR uses litigation proactively to advance the law in a positive direction, to empower poor communities and communities of color, to guarantee the rights of those with the fewest protections and least access to legal resources, to train the next generation of constitutional and human rights attorneys, and to strengthen the broader movement for constitutional and human rights.

CCR was founded in November 1966 by attorneys Morton Stavis, Arthur Kinoy, Ben Smith and William Kunstler, whose legal work representing civil rights activists in Mississippi convinced them of the need for a privately funded legal center to undertake innovative, impact litigation on behalf of grassroots movements for social justice.

Today, CCR continues to nurture innovation in all of its docket areas and to craft litigation and public education that exposes the fundamental contradictions in American society that undermine the promise of justice for all: fault lines and intersections of race, class and gender; the ascendancy of global corporate privilege over fundamental human rights; and the indifference with which governments around the world continue to violate the basic rights of their citizens. Building upon the legacy it has established, CCR remains attentive to the challenges confronted by civil and human rights activists, so that the organization may continue to provide cutting-edge legal defense of fundamental rights.
 

Current Situation

Over the past 40 years CCR has litigated cutting-edge cases in the areas of racial justice, government misconduct, women’s rights, and international human rights. However, for the past five years, CCR has advanced to the forefront in challenging the Bush administration’s post-September 11th abuses domestically and abroad by initiating a large number of programs and projects to counter these attacks on constitutional rights. These programs and projects have affected the traditional balance of the legal docket, and CCR plans to grow other docket areas to similar prominence within its organization.

The legal docket of CCR is divided into four primary project areas: Government Misconduct, International Human Rights, Racial, Social and Economic Justice, and Corporate Accountability. CCR combines its legal work with a robust education and outreach program which also initiates and oversees special CCR projects, including The Prison Telephone Campaign, The Community Alternatives to Jail Expansion (CAJE) Project, and The Ella Baker Student Intern Program.

In addition, CCR has a special project, the Guantánamo Global Justice Initiative, where they represent approximately 200 detainees in habeas petitions, have recruited, trained, and coordinated a national force of 500 volunteer attorneys including those from major law firms, law professors, and law school clinics to advocate for over 300 individual detainees. The Initiative also engages in aggressive advocacy by structuring education and outreach programs that focus on Guantánamo and its relationship to broader domestic and international issues. For more detailed descriptions of the legal docket, program areas, and the status of various projects and campaigns, please go online to: www.ccr-ny.org.

A Board of Directors of 23 members governs the Center for Constitutional Rights, currently headed by a President, three Vice-Presidents, a Treasurer, and a Secretary. The Executive Director leads the day-to-day operations of the Center and oversees an executive management team that includes an Associate Executive Director, a Development Director, an Education and Outreach Director, and a Legal Director. The staff of CCR consists of 35 positions, including a legal staff of 13 attorneys and 5 legal workers/paralegals. The staff has recently joined the UAW.

Recently, CCR has experienced a significant amount of financial growth due to an increase in donations and major awards through its successful litigation. At the end of June 2006, CCR recorded net assets of $5 million. The organization currently estimates its 2007 budget at $5.3 million. The Committee’s revenue base consists of public support from individual donors, foundations, and law firms.

 Specific Role

The Legal Director, a visionary, dynamic member of CCR’s senior management team, reports directly to the Executive Director, and is responsible for the day-to-day management of the legal staff. The Legal Director contributes to the overall strategy for advancing the mission of the organization, works collaboratively with the other four senior directors to aid the efforts of each department, and supports an organizational effort that meets the goals and objectives set by the organization. In order to be an effective leader, the new Legal Director must be a mission-driven and consensus-building professional, fully dedicated to advancing CCR’s mission of advancing civil rights and social justice on a global scale.

The Legal Director provides strategic leadership for all litigation and coordinates all litigation undertaken by CCR. The Legal Director has primary responsibility for selecting cases based on organizational priorities and capacity and oversees the development of cases prior to the commencement of litigation and the handling of litigation thereafter. The Legal Director is responsible for structuring and balancing the legal docket areas in order to channel the strengths of the organization into clear directions. The Legal Director will not be expected to maintain an individual caseload but rather to work closely with the legal staff in their efforts regarding litigation, and aid in case preparation where deemed necessary. The Legal Director must be a creative strategic thinker with an aggressive, radical, courageous approach to litigation.

The Legal Director supervises and leads a full-time staff of staff attorneys, legal fellows, legal workers and paralegals, as well as a large national network of cooperating attorneys. The Legal Director will support decisions for recruiting and hiring a diverse legal staff and for efficiently managing case budgets, litigation expenses, and staff time. Other areas of responsibility beyond the daily management will include mentoring CCR’s Ella Baker Summer Intern Program law students and other legal interns throughout the year. Additionally, the Legal Director will work collaboratively with the operations staff to ensure adequate management of resources.

The Legal Director assists in fundraising efforts by participating in meetings with major donors and program officers, including meetings requiring travel; speaking at donor forums and events; working with development staff as needed on the drafting of grant proposals and fundraising letters; and ensuring that the legal staff prioritizes and contributes to development efforts as appropriate.

Finally, an important aspect of this position will be working closely with all aspects of the media and community relations. The Legal Director will frequently be the key spokesperson regarding the legal aspects of key issues that CCR feels should be part of the public discourse. The Legal Director speaks regularly to broadcast journalists and works closely with the communications and education and outreach staff to raise CCR’s public profile. The Legal Director also ensures that the legal staff prioritizes and contributes to media and education and outreach efforts when appropriate, and provides communication with regional, statewide, and national social justice advocacy groups in order to maximize CCR’s effectiveness.

Major Objectives