Staff Attorney - La Crosse Office

National Legal Aid & Defender Association; La Crosse (WI); Hybrid; USD 65,000 - 129,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employer-paid health and dental

Profit-sharing plan

Sick leave & vacation

Four weeks vacation, four personalhol

Spanish or Hmong language premium

Job summary

Legal Action of Wisconsin, Inc. seeks a Staff Attorney for the La Crosse Office, focusing on housing and related areas. The role requires building relationships with community groups and bar associations while representing low-income clients.

Based in La Crosse, the position offers remote and flexible scheduling options on request and requires travel to surrounding counties for hearings and outreach activities.

Qualifications

• Juris Doctor required.
• Admission to Wisconsin Bar required.
• Strong oral and written advocacy skills.
• Experience with low-income clients or victims of violence.
• Ability to interact professionally and work with staff, clients, and the public.
• Basic computer skills (email, word processing, internet apps).
• Willingness to learn job-specific procedures during probation.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks in a busy office.

Responsibilities

• Provide high-quality representation to clients in housing matters and related areas.
• Develop and maintain relationships with community groups and bar associations.
• Train and assist volunteers in Legal Action's programs.
• Perform intake duties and make referrals when appropriate.
• Travel to La Crosse County and surrounding counties for hearings and outreach.
• Participate in case reviews and other duties as assigned.

Skills

Advocacy skills

Oral & written communication

Work with low-income clients

Professional interaction

Computer skills

Willingness to learn procedures

Multitasking

Education

Juris Doctor

Wisconsin Bar admission

Job description

Position Description

Full-time Staff Attorney Position

La Crosse Office

September 4, 2026

Introduction: LAW is seeking applications for Staff Attorney in the La Crosse Office. This attorney will work primarily in the area of housing, but may work in other areas.

Legal Action of Wisconsin, Inc. (“Legal Action”) is a non-profit law firm, funded by the federal Legal Services Corporation, the Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation, and many other sources and supporters. Legal Action provides free civil legal aid to low-income persons in Wisconsin with offices in Milwaukee, Madsion, Racine, Oshkosh, Green Bay, La Crosse and Wausau. Legal Action attorneys and paralegals have expertise in a range of substantive areas, but most of our direct representation is in the areas of housing, public benefits, removing barriers to employment, consumer law, and family law.

Mission Statement: Legal Action’s mission is to deliver exceptional civil legal services and structural change advocacy, free of cost, to those most in need. Our core values (equity, advocacy, client-centered, integrity and community) guide our work and actions. Please see our website for a description of the core values and vision that guides our work.

Office Location: This position will be based in Legal Action’s La Crosse office, which currently consists of 3 Staff Attorneys, 1 Paralegal, and a Managing Attorney. Remote and Flex Schedule is available upon request.

Governance: Legal Action’s personnel policies govern this position.

Position Description: The staff attorney will advise and represent low-income clients in housing and other cases but could also include related legal work. All staff attorneys are expected to develop and maintain good working relationships with community groups, as well as with state and local bar associations. Staff attorneys may also be called on to provide training and assistance to community agencies. Between these traditional and non-traditional responsibilities, staff attorneys are expected to work a minimum of 40 hours per week.

Key Responsibilities: The staff attorney provides advice and full representation to clients in housing related matters, including but not limited to, evictions, security deposits, conditions cases, sealing evictions, etc. Other areas of law may be worked in as well as housing based on the need of the office and/or the interest of the staff attorney. Key responsibilities include:

• Provide high-quality representation of clients in individual service cases and impact work. Impact work is work expected to have long-term positive effects on low-income persons or improve systems that impact the low-income community.
• Perform all duties associated with such representation as defined by our attorney performance standards.
• Remain current with the areas of law that pertain to the low-income community as they change and develop, particularly in this attorney’s area(s) of specialization.
• Develop and maintain positive working relationships with community groups, state and local bar associations, and others.
• Train and assist volunteers who participate in Legal Action's Volunteer Lawyer Project and other Legal Action staff attorneys.
• Perform intake duties and, where necessary, make appropriate referrals to other community agencies.
• Serve on at least one of our Priority Committees: Housing; Barriers to Employment; Consumer; Public Benefits; and Family law. Priority committees are comprised of Legal Action advocates practicing in those areas of law. They meet quarterly to discuss trends in the law and practicing in that area of law and to strategize the firm’s work. This Wausau area office staff attorney priority committee assignment is to be determined.
• Participate in regular case review by the managing attorney.
• Travel to each of the La Crosse office’s 10 counties for hearings as scheduled as well as case work and outreach activities.
• The staff attorney may be assigned additional duties from time to time.

Required Qualifications

• Juris Doctor.
• Admission to Wisconsin Bar.
• Strong oral and written communication and advocacy skills.
• Experience working with low-income clients and/or victims of violence.
• Ability to interact professionally and work cooperatively with staff, clients, and the public.
• Ability to use basic computer systems, including email, word processing software, and internet-based applications.
• Willingness and ability to learn job-specific procedures and systems during the probationary period.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and maintain accuracy in a busy office environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience in a role working with persons with disabilities, those living in poverty, or individuals with a minority status or affiliation.
• Experience with client advocacy in a court setting.
• Experience working in a nonprofit, client-facing environment or legal services.

Salary/Compensation

Legal Action’s salaries are not negotiable: Our salary scales are based solely on years of experience with each step on the scale equivalent to one full year of experience. We strongly encourage applicants to include detail in their resume about the duties they performed and the months they worked at each employer and in each position so that we can accurately calculate experience and salary. If we make an offer to an applicant, we depend on the resume that the applicant submitted, and we do not allow for revisions after submission. The salary steps for this position range from:

• Step 0 = $65,000 (Tier 1)/Not applicable for Tier 2
• Step 5 = $76,000 (Tier 1)/$80,763 (Tier 2)
• Step 10 = $86,000 (Tier 1)/$91,888 (Tier 2)
• Step 20 = $104,000 (Tier 1)/$111,275 (Tier 2)
• Step 30 = $114,000 (Tier 1)/$122,025 (Tier 2)
• Step 36 = $120,720 (Tier 1)/$129,227 (Tier 2)
• Step = years of experience.

Tier 1 and tier 2 staff attorney description & scope of authority: All staff attorneys are required to utilize and follow Legal Action’s attorney performance standards in performing their duties.

Tier 1 Staff Attorneys Are

• Relatively new to providing legal services to low-income clients.
• Closely supervised and practices law under close control and structure.
• Closely adhering to Legal Action’s guidelines, rules, policies, and procedures and have little or no authority to deviate from them without supervisor’s approval.

Tier 2 Staff Attorneys Have

• At least 3 years of post-J.D. experience that includes work relevant to the skills required for staff attorneys and;
• Skills and abilities to:
• consistently perform most Tier 1 Staff Attorney duties with minimal assistance or direction, a high level of efficiency and/or independent initiative, and less immediate, regular supervision than a Tier 1 Staff Attorney;
• consistently carry a caseload of substantial size and complexity suitable to an experienced attorney;
• consistently adhere to Legal Action administrative and programmatic procedures such as, but not limited to contemporaneous timekeeping and accurate completion of administrative and client service forms; and
• Demonstrated initiative and ability to undertake the additional duties that the Tier 2 Staff Attorney level requires such as, but not limited to mentoring, training, and otherwise supporting Tier 1 staff attorneys and others. (Tier 2 Staff Attorneys do not have the authority to discipline others and are not confidential management positions.)

Legal Action’s organizational structure does allow for additional career advancement opportunities, such as: Attorney Managers; Managing Attorneys; Project Managers; Supervising Attorneys; and Priority Coordinators. Legal Action posts these opportunities as they become available.

Fringe Benefits

All Legal Action employees receive a full package of fringe benefits. It currently includes: employer-paid health and dental insurance for employee, spouse, and family with a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA), employer-paid life and long-term disability insurance; employee-paid income protection benefits; a profit-sharing plan; generous sick leave accrual; and at least four weeks of vacation leave and four personal holidays per year. (Legal Action policies require employees with a spouse to contribute $200/month to the health insurance premium if the spouse has other health insurance available to them.)

Spanish or Hmong Language Frequency Premium: Legal Action’s Salary Administration Plan includes additional pay of either $2,400 annually or $4,800 annually to those employees who are fluent in Spanish or Hmong.

Flex Work

Legal Action supports flexible work arrangements that meet the goals of the organization and the employee. All employees are eligible to request flexible work, including flextime, compressed work week, and remote work.

Supervision: This position is supervised by the La Crosse Office Managing Attorney.

Probationary Period: This position is subject to a probationary period of up to six months.