Staff Attorney - Farmworker Rights Project

Iowa Legal Aid; Des Moines, Northern (IA, KY); Hybrid; USD 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Iowa Legal Aid’s Farmworker Rights Project seeks a staff attorney to provide legal services, outreach, and direct representation for Iowa’s farmworkers with wage, housing, safety, harassment, and discrimination issues.

The role involves a broad range of civil legal assistance, from advice and brief service to litigation across administrative, state, and federal courts, with a strong emphasis on public service and workers’ rights.

Qualifications

• Applicants must have a law degree and be licensed or eligible to practice in Iowa.
• Experience in federal courts or poverty law is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Provide a broad range of civil legal services to farmworkers, including advice and brief service.
• Engage in direct outreach to farmworkers and communities across Iowa.
• Litigate at administrative, state, and federal court levels as needed.

Skills

Advocacy

Litigation

Outreach

Education

Law degree (JD)

Job description

Staff Attorney – Farmworker Rights Project

Staff Attorney - Farmworker Rights Project

Iowa Legal Aid’s Farmworker Rights Project is recruiting a staff attorney. This statewide position will focus primarily on labor and employment issues faced by farmworkers in Iowa. Through outreach, advice, and direct representation, our dynamic and collaborative farmworker rights team advocates for Iowa’s farmworkers as they experience challenges related to unpaid wages, workplace safety issues, substandard housing, sexual harassment and discrimination, civil RICO violations, H-2A guest worker program violations, and labor trafficking. The ideal applicant has a strong commitment to public service and workers’ rights.

Background

Founded in 1977, Iowa Legal Aid serves clients in all 99 counties through offices in Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Des Moines, Dubuque, Iowa City, Mason City, Ottumwa, Sioux City and Waterloo.

Through free legal assistance and community legal education, Iowa Legal Aid brings hope, dignity, and justice to low-income and other vulnerable Iowans. Legal assistance at Iowa Legal Aid ranges from advice and brief service to full representation before administrative agencies and state and federal trial and appellate courts. In our diverse practice, we prioritize work involving housing, domestic violence, income maintenance, health care, individual rights, and consumer issues to help secure our clients’ most essential needs. Iowa Legal Aid attorneys appear in court frequently and serve clients out in the community through our expungement, pro se divorce, and ID clinics, as well as through targeted outreach events. Learn more about Iowa Legal Aid at www.iowalegalaid.org .

The Farmworker Rights Project provides civil legal assistance to low-income farmworkers throughout Iowa. Our clients include migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their families. Farmworkers face many legal problems related to their status as agricultural workers, including issues related to employment, wages, health and safety, housing, harassment, and fraud.

Position: The farmworker rights staff attorney position involves providing a broad range of legal services to clients, including advice and brief service, as well as litigation at all levels, ranging from administrative to state and federal court, as well as direct outreach to farmworkers.

Qualifications: Applicants must be law school graduates licensed to practice law in Iowa, be eligible for admission on motion, or be available for the next scheduled bar examination. Prior experience practicing in federal courts or with poverty law issues is preferred.

Iowa Legal Aid is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

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Let’s work together to build an Iowa where there is equal access to justice for all.