Staff Attorney

Staff Attorney

Animal Defense Partnership (ADP) provides legal services free to animal protection charities. We’re growing rapidly and hiring to expand our in-house capabilities. The lawyer we hire will have exceptional legal, interpersonal and client engagement skills and be deeply committed to animal protection and maintaining ADP’s work ethic and culture.

ADP is building an enduring institutional resource devoted to reducing animal suffering. We exist to support nonprofits that advocate for animal protection, run sanctuaries and rescues and promote plant-based eating and diet change. We’re fair and respectful to our colleagues and highly collaborative at and among all levels. ADP hires people who will put our clients and the organization first and are more inclined to give credit than take it. And we’re steadfast in our commitment to maintain this culture as we grow.

ADP functions as both outside general counsel and consultant, assisting clients on a range of matters and issues, including, as examples, corporate formation and governance, obtaining tax-exempt status, nonprofit compliance, drafting and negotiating employment, vendor and consulting agreements, employment disputes, board governance, intellectual property (copyright, clearance, and transactional), data privacy, fiscal sponsorships, and internal organizational policies. We do not handle litigation.

We’re looking for someone to take on these types of responsibilities:

• Provide support as well as technical and strategic legal advice to clients
• Research legal and business issues
• Review, negotiate, and draft agreements
• Monitor and report on ADP’s active matters and projects

Our ideal candidate has these qualifications:

• A strong commitment to animal protection and maintaining ADP’s work ethic and culture
• 3+ years as a practicing attorney with strong transactional law experience (nonprofit law experience preferred; corporate transactional experience is also an asset)
• Excellent judgment and a common-sense approach to lawyering
• Exceptionally strong problem-solving skills
• A J.D. and license to practice law in at least one state
• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written
• Outstanding interpersonal skills
• Detail oriented
• Welcomes constructive feedback and input
• Strong time management and organizational skills
• Willingness to take on projects outside of your “comfort zone”

While we know one person may not bring every criterion on this list, the successful candidate should have most of these qualifications. Don’t check all of these boxes? Convince us why we should hire you anyway!

We value diversity — in backgrounds and in experiences. Ensuring that animal organizations have access to quality legal counsel is a universal concern, and we need people from varied backgrounds and a broad range of life experiences to help build the future of the animal protection movement. Animal Defense Partnership’s team is empathetic, caring, and supportive. We are deliberate and self-reflective about the kind of legal team and culture that we are building, seeking lawyers that are not only strong in their own aptitudes but care deeply about supporting each other’s growth.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and our employees are people with different strengths, experiences and backgrounds, who share a passion for helping animals. Diversity not only includes race and gender identity, but also age, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, religion and many other parts of one’s identity. All of our employees’ points of view are key to our success, and inclusion is everyone’s responsibility.

Work can be done remotely from anywhere in the U.S.

Salary: $65,000–72,000 USD, DOE

Benefits:

• Four-day work week – Monday through Thursday. Meetings will not be scheduled on Fridays and you will only be expected to work that day to deal with a client emergency or to meet a critical deadline.
• Non-taxable healthcare insurance reimbursement up to $5,850 annually
• Paid Time Off (PTO) – Four weeks of PTO, including vacation and personal days. In addition, each employee is entitled to be paid for sick days, accruing one day per month of full time employment, carrying over year to year, up to a maximum of 60 days.
• Holidays – ADP observes all Federal holidays and also allows each employee to take two additional (“floating”) days off as holidays for any cause or reason they wish.
• “ADP FMLA” – Although ADP is not required to comply with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) due to our size, ADP offers a more generous version of the FMLA: fully paid leave of up to 12 weeks for all the covered FMLA categories (child birth and care of newborn; adoption or foster placement; to care for an immediate family member (i.e., spouse, child, or parent) who is seriously ill; and to take medical leave for a serious health condition), as well as to take care of a member of your family of choice or a companion animal who is seriously ill, or for bereavement of an immediate family member, member of your family of choice, or a companion animal.

Applications due March 31. Applications must be emailed to: to be considered. Please note that you must include a cover letter and resume to be considered.