Policy Associate

National Legal Aid & Defender Association; Newton Centre (MA); Hybrid; USD 64,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

The National Legal Aid & Defender Association seeks a Policy Associate to support the Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights. The role focuses on developing legal reform and policy proposals, researching housing and land issues, and coordinating policy-related activities with external stakeholders in a hybrid Boston-area setting.

The position requires collaboration with the Policy Director and team to ensure high-quality policy work, reporting, and fundraising support, with some travel

Responsibilities

• Monitor housing and property policies and identify opportunities.
• Conduct research on legal reform and policy projects.
• Draft and publish policy reports and analyses.
• Support development of policy proposals at local, state, and federal levels.
• Create policy-related presentations for conferences.
• Develop and implement the policy program workplan.
• Monitor progress and maintain timely workflow.
• Coordinate policy projects with the Research Team.
• Assist with policy program convenings and logistics.
• Prepare Initiative reports for stakeholders.

Job description

Position Description

The mission of the Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights (the Initiative) is to address real property issues that impact poor and disadvantaged communities that are disproportionately though not exclusively communities of color. Many of the activities the Initiative undertakes assist disadvantaged communities that have been harmed as a result of lacking adequate land, housing, and other property rights.

Position Description

The mission of the Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights (the Initiative) is to address real property issues that impact poor and disadvantaged communities that are disproportionately though not exclusively communities of color. Many of the activities the Initiative undertakes assist disadvantaged communities that have been harmed as a result of lacking adequate land, housing, and other property rights. The Initiative’s core activities include catalyzing both theoretical and applied, policy-relevant research on various land and housing issues that have been understudied and undertheorized; proactively working to develop impactful legal reform and policy solutions to address property problems disadvantaged communities experience; sponsoring both continuing legal education programs for lawyers and community legal education and other outreach programs for disadvantaged communities; and training law students and other students to develop legal and other technical expertise to help disadvantaged people and communities address their land and housing issues. The Initiative collaborates with other stakeholders in a true spirit of partnership to address land and housing issues that disadvantaged communities experience in ways that a single organization doing the work could not do as effectively.

Position Summary

The ILHPR seeks a Policy Associate to help further build up the Initiative’s Legal Reform and Policy Laboratory (the Lab) under the direction of the Policy Director. The Lab develops legal reform and policy proposals to address critical land and housing issues at the local, state, and federal level and, in addition, assists other stakeholders doing such work.

A model of the type of legal reform and policy proposals the Initiative works to develop is the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA), a groundbreaking model state property statute, which was principally drafted by Professor Thomas W. Mitchell, the Initiative’s founder and Director and a MacArthur Fellow. Thus far, the UPHPA has been enacted into law in 27 states and jurisdictions that are located in every region of the country. It has helped thousands of disadvantaged families across the country maintain ownership of their family-owned properties and their generational wealth. In addition to developing model legislation, the Lab also works to develop policy solutions using other tools, including, for example, working with other stakeholders to develop model private agreements that disadvantaged families can use to manage their family-owned properties in ways that better promote just and sustainable ownership.

Overall, the Lab works to advance policy solutions to remedy economic instability and property loss among vulnerable communities. In addition to heirs’ property policy work, the Lab engages in a growing scope of work on other reforms to advance affordable and fair housing for homeowners and renters, prevent land loss among disadvantaged communities, promote environmental justice, and support intergenerational asset building.

The Policy Associate will work with the Policy Director and external stakeholders on projects in the Initiative’s policy agenda while under the supervision of the Policy Director. The Policy Associate together with the other members of the Policy team – and other Initiative staff as needed – must work assiduously to ensure the high quality of policy projects at each stage of every project and also must complete each stage of any project in a timely way to maintain a proper work flow.

As needed, the Policy Associate will provide support to the Policy Director in identifying funding opportunities for policy projects and in helping to draft funding proposals to support the Initiative’s policy work. Further, the Policy Associate will work with other members of the Policy team and other Initiative staff members to draft summaries of the Policy team’s work, summaries that may be used for marketing, fundraising, mandatory internal and external reporting requirements, and other purposes.

Applicants should have strong organizational, time management, research and writing, and communication skills; experience working in a collaborative environment; and a demonstrated commitment to improving policy outcomes related to real property issues that impact poor and disadvantaged communities.

This is a hybrid position with a minimum of three days per week in the Initiative’s office and availability for meetings in the Boston area. There may also be some travel required throughout the United States.

Duties Include

Policy Work Responsibilities (60%)

• Monitor local, state, and federal housing and other real property policies and identify opportunities for the Initiative’s engagement.
• Conduct independent research on relevant topics, potential legal reform and policy projects, and on relevant stakeholders, including but not limited to civic leaders and policymakers, nonprofit organizations, academics and researchers, philanthropic organizations, and private sector leaders. Such research will enable the leadership team to decide whether to pursue certain potential legal reform and policy projects, and it also will enable the Initiative to provide thought leadership on various housing, land, and other real property policy matters.
• Under the direction of the Policy Director and in partnership with other Initiative staff, contribute to drafting and publishing policy reports and analyses of critical land and housing issues impacting disadvantaged communities, especially with respect to issues that have been insufficiently analyzed to date. Such policy analyses may be published in the form of papers, briefs, blog posts, etc.
• Under the direction of the Policy Director and in partnership with other members of the Policy team, support development of a manageable set of legal reform and policy proposals that can be implemented at the local, state, and/or federal level and help support other organizations in the development of their legal reform and policy proposals.
• Help create policy-related presentations for conferences and other gatherings and forums.

Strategy & Planning (20%)

• Help develop and implement the Initiative’s policy program workplan, under supervision of the Policy Director.
• Help monitor progress of policy program workplan in a way that helps maintain a timely work flow and report to Initiative leadership regularly.
• Support the Initiative’s sponsorship of policy-related convenings, including but not limited to the Initiative’s signature annual national conferences (developed collectively by Initiative staff).
• Help identify and cultivate partnerships with other organizations that work on legal reform and policy work on housing, land, and community development matters.

Administrative Responsibilities (20%)

• Assist in securing financial resources to support the policy program and in reporting progress of the policy program to existing funders.
• Help coordinate Policy team projects, including those that involve close collaboration with the Research Team.
• Participate in coalition(s) as the policy program works with a complex and diverse group of stakeholders in developing legal reform and policy proposals.
• Assist with policy program convenings, including content and agenda setting, logistics, and coordination.
• Participate in the creation of Initiative reports that highlight the work of the Policy team for various internal and external stakeholders.

Full-Time Equivalent Hiring Range: $64,100 to $80,100; salary commensurate with relevant experience.