Staff Attorney - Kinship Care Unit

Management Information Exchange; Atlanta (GA); Hybrid; USD 63,000 - 77,000; Full time

Job summary

Atlanta Legal Aid Society seeks a Staff Attorney to join its Kinship Care Unit in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The unit stabilizes family relationships for children living with a relative or non-parent caregiver, handling adoptions, guardianships, custody, and related issues across a five-county area.

The role offers a salary of $70,250, reviewed annually, with a hybrid work schedule allowing two remote days.

Qualifications

• Active membership in the State Bar of Georgia.
• Minimum of three years of relevant legal experience.
• Excellent legal writing, analysis, advocacy, and work ethic.
• Demonstrated commitment to public service and poverty law experience preferred.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, listening, and organizational skills.
• Ability to balance compassion and pragmatism.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and in a collaborative, hybrid team model.
• Spanish language proficiency valued.

Responsibilities

• Handle kinship care matters including adoption, guardianship, custody, name change, birth certificate issues, and related education/public benefits.
• Use a range of methods: advice/referral, brief service, transactional work, negotiation, mediation, and litigation across five counties.
• Support a learning environment for interns and externs.
• Prepare and present professional education programs for staff and volunteers.
• Participate in community education, task forces, committees, bar associations.
• Other tasks as assigned

Skills

Georgia Bar membership

3+ years experience

Legal writing

Public service commitment

Interpersonal skills

Job description

Atlanta Legal Aid Society (“Legal Aid”) seeks a Staff Attorney to work in its Kinship Care Unit located in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Our non-profit law firm represents low-income people in a variety of civil legal matters, including family, housing, consumer, public benefits, education, and health law. The Kinship Care Unit’s primary goal is to stabilize family relationships for children living with a non-parent caregiver (relative or fictive kin). We assist with adoptions, minor guardianships, custody, and a variety of other issues affecting the family unit. We serve the five-county Metro area, and also provide some state-wide assistance. The Kinship Care Unit staff currently consists of a managing attorney, four staff attorneys, one client navigator, and twoparalegals.

Responsibilities

• Handling a variety of issues related to stabilizing children in the home of kin (relative or non-relative, but not birth parents), including adoption, guardianship, custody, name change, birth certificate establishment and amendment, guardianship, dependency, domestication of foreign decrees, school enrollment and other education issues, social security, SSI, and other public benefit issues
• Employing a variety of methods, including advice and referral, brief service, transactional work, negotiation, mediation, and litigation in various courts throughout our five-county service area
• Supporting a learning environment for interns and externs
• Preparing and presenting professional education programs for staff, volunteer attorneys, and others as needed
• Participating in community education, task forces, committees, social service organizations, national and local bar associations

Other tasks as assigned

Qualifications

• Active membership in good standing with the State Bar of Georgia
• Minimum of three years of relevant legal experience
• Excellent legal writing, analysis, advocacy, and work ethic are required
• Demonstrated commitment to public service, participation in law school clinics or trial advocacy courses, familiarity with poverty law, previous work with low-income people, and an appreciation for diversity are strongly preferred
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, listening, and organizational skills
• Ability to balance compassion and pragmatism
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and in a collaborative, hybrid team model
• Eagerness to learn and openness to feedback

Proficiency in languages other than English, particularly Spanish, is highly valued

Salary and Benefits

• This position offers a salary of $70,250, but may vary (up or down) depending on work experience. Salaries are reviewed annually and may be adjusted based on available funding.
• Generous fringe benefits, including 16 paid holidays in 2026, 6 weeks of paid time off (accruing at 2.5 days per month), and 6 weeks of parental leave (12 weeks after one year)
• Individual health insurance, including optional dental and vision coverage, with partial payment for dependent health insurance
• Life, long-term, and short-term disability insurance
• Salary reduction option for a flexible spending account
• Educational loan reimbursement up to $600 per month (after a set off of other loan reimbursement amounts)
• Voluntary tax-sheltered annuity with a 3% match
• This position may be eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness through the U.S. Department of Education
• State Bar of Georgia dues and CLE expenses
• A hybrid work schedule that allows staff to work 2 days remotely, subject to management approval

Atlanta Legal Aid Society considers all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, or any other legally protected status.