Supervising Attorney – General Intake

Community Legal Services of Philadelphia; Philadelphia (Philadelphia County); Hybrid; USD 67,680 - 82,720; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

100% employer paid medical benefits

403(b) retirement plan

Generous leave package including personal holidays

Job summary

A local public interest legal organization in Philadelphia is seeking a Supervising Attorney for its General Intake Unit. This position oversees a team of paralegals responsible for conducting interviews and providing guidance to potential clients. The ideal candidate will have at least 5 years of legal experience, excellent communication skills, and a commitment to social justice. The role includes daily supervision, case reviews, and contributions to system improvements to enhance client service and accessibility.

Qualifications

• Must have excellent client interviewing, legal analysis, and writing skills.
• Demonstrated commitment to racial and economic justice is required.
• Supervisory experience is necessary.

Responsibilities

• Supervise daily operations of the General Intake Unit.
• Conduct regular case reviews.
• Ensure high-quality service to applicants and clients.
• Contribute to the development of efficient intake systems.

Skills

Excellent communication

Legal analysis

Client interviewing

Project management

Supervisory skills

Education

Admission to the Pennsylvania Bar

5+ years practicing law

Job description

Community Legal Services, Inc. Philadelphia (CLS) is a non-profit public interest agency providing free civil legal services to low-income Philadelphia residents. As the largest provider of free civil legal services in the Philadelphia area, CLS is both locally and nationally renowned as a premier provider of legal services, dedicated to ensuring access to justice for all low-income individuals and communities. CLS has ten legal units covering a wide range of civil legal services.

Overview

CLS is excited to announce a vacancy for a Supervising Attorney for General Intake. The General Intake Unit is comprised of a team of paralegals located in two of CLS’s office locations (Center City and North Philadelphia) who conduct in-person and phone interviews for potential applicants and provide brief advice and referrals as appropriate. General Intake covers the following legal units: Employment, Energy, SSI, Homeownership and Consumer Rights (HCRU). The General Intake Unit is supported by an Administrative Director of General Intake who will provide robust operational and administrative support to the intake systems at CLS.

The General Intake Unit is often potential clients’ first connection to CLS and plays a critical role in ensuring that applicants for services are treated with respect and that their voices are heard. The General Intake Unit interviews potential clients facing legal problems in the substantive legal areas it supports. Currently, CLS’s intake system is hybrid, encompassing two mornings of walk-in intake each week (Tuesdays and Thursdays as of February 2026) as well as an intake hotline that is open Mondays through Thursdays from 9 am to 3 pm, with limited hours on Friday as feasible. The hotline runs concurrently with walk-in intake as staffing allows.

This position will be co-located at the 1424 Chestnut Street office and the North Philadelphia Law Center. The attorney will be expected to spend time at both offices on a weekly basis to provide training, supervision, and support. The attorney in this position will directly supervise both 1424 and NPLC intake paralegals as well as the Administrative Director of General Intake. The supervising attorney will report to a Managing Attorney from CLS’s Legal Management team.

The supervising attorney’s primary responsibility is day-to-day supervision. The intake paralegals are responsible for greeting applicants for legal services, conducting interviews, and making internal and external referrals for help. Many of these applicants are then provided with advice or brief services regarding their legal issue. Some of these cases are then forwarded to other CLS attorneys and paralegals for further case assessment or legal representation. Some applicants may be referred to other legal aid organizations.

The supervising attorney will work collaboratively with the intake paralegals and the Administrative Director of General Intake on all facets of the intake system and supervision structure to ensure that CLS’s intake systems work as well as possible for clients. Beyond the day-to-day supervision, case handling, and coordination functions, this position is also an exciting leadership opportunity to strengthen the organization’s intake systems and make CLS a national model for our intake hotline and overall intake structures. CLS is actively assessing all aspects of our intake systems to create the most efficient, innovative, and accessible client delivery methods. This position will collaborate across legal units and departments to achieve this vision by developing, improving and implementing intake systems and procedures and workflow design across CLS and with partner agencies. One of the goals for 2026 is for CLS to add an online component, in close consultation with peer programs who have successfully rolled out online scheduling systems. Other goals include providing live hotline services without the need to continue the callbacks feature and networking with peer programs to continue to learn the best and most innovative intake hotline systems.

To start, the attorney will not have their own caseload separately and apart from cases stemming from the intake process. As they settle into the role, they will work with their Managing Attorney to determine if they should take on a small ongoing caseload, to ensure that they continue to build their own legal skills and connection to CLS’s substantive work.

Responsibilities

• Providing effective consultation, conflict checks and supervision to the members of the general intake unit on a daily and regular basis.
• Conducting regular case reviews with each intake paralegal.
• Supervise the Administrative Director of General Intake in their day-to-day responsibilities to ensure administrative and operational needs are met with excellence, reliability and consistency.
• Ensuring that each paralegal has a clear understanding of the basic legal problems clients face and are appropriately issue-spotting, effectively conducting client interviews, timely and accurately recording information in our case management system and providing high quality and respectful service to applicants and clients.
• Effectively communicating with relevant units, departments and referral agencies to stay abreast of case priorities and legal updates and updating intake staff accordingly.
• Coordinating referrals to and from other legal service programs, outside agencies, community groups and/or elected officials.
• Participating in the orientation and training of newly hired or less experienced staff.
• Working closely with CLS’s administrative and management teams to track, analyze, and report data and metrics regarding intake case numbers and outcomes.
• Assisting the management team in leading changes and promoting a positive team attitude.
• Motivating and monitoring the intake staff to ensure compliance with procedures, quality standards, and regulatory and contractual obligations.
• Effectively and timely communicating in a challenging environment with applicants for services by telephone, in person, electronically and as appropriate.
• Accurately identifying applicant eligibility, case priorities, funding source, and level of services to be provided.
• Assisting in creating and maintaining intake manuals and protocols and updating external communications related to intake.
• Identifying trends and gaps in programmatic services based on client needs and working with CLS’s management team to develop and implement responsive changes.
• Identifying areas where outreach, community education and self-help materials may help address important gaps in services.
• Representing CLS in local, state, and national legal services learning communities, to ensure that CLS stays abreast of new developments and to share CLS’s successes and best practices.

Required Qualifications

• Admission to the Pennsylvania Bar or ability to waive in within six (6) months of start of employment.
• Minimum five (5) years’ experience practicing law.
• Previous experience supervising legal staff.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, time management, project management, problem-solving and administrative skills.
• Excellent client interviewing, legal analysis, research and writing skills.
• Ability to continually learn new materials and effectively teach others.
• Demonstrated leadership and organizational and supervisory skills.
• Ability to work with, learn about and employ technology and data.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, high-volume work environment.
• Ability to work cooperatively and collaboratively with diverse staff at all levels.
• Ability to meet deadlines and perform multiple tasks while maintaining attention to detail.
• Demonstrated commitment to racial and economic justice.
• Demonstrated ability to provide constructive and positive feedback early and often.
• Ability to effectively respond to unexpected changes or demands.

Preferred Qualifications

• Substantive knowledge of experience with services clients and their legal problems.
• Legal experience with one or more relevant civil legal issues, such as employment, SSI, utilities, consumer or mortgage issues.
• Experience with community engagement work.
• Experience with tracking, analyzing and reporting data and/or other metrics.
• Fluency in Spanish or another world language.

To Apply

CLS will accept applications on a rolling basis, but priority consideration will be given to those who apply by March 3, 2026. Applicants should submit a resume, a cover letter written by them explaining their interest in this position and how their skills and experience will make them a successful candidate, a writing sample of no more than ten (10) pages and three (3) professional references from current or past supervisors. You can submit your application on CLS’s website online at https://clsphila.org/careers/ OR "Apply Now". You can also reach out to Crystal Stackhouse (Hiring Coordinator) [e-mail] for any questions or concerns.

Community Legal Services, Inc. welcomes applicants of all backgrounds to apply and particularly encourages people who have experienced poverty or housing instability, people of color, people who identify as LGBTQ, people with disabilities, and people who have had prior contact with the juvenile, criminal, or child welfare systems to apply.

CLS invites all applicants to include in their cover letter a statement about how your unique background and/or experiences would motivate you to work toward CLS’s mission and would contribute to the vitality and perspective of our organization.

Compensation

This is a full-time position covered by the collective bargaining agreement between CLS and the Philadelphia Legal Services Union N.O.L.S.W./Local 2320/UAW. The current starting salary for an attorney who is licensed and actively practicing law for five (5) years (the minimum years of experience required for this position) is $75,200 per the salary scale of the current collective bargaining agreement. CLS is bound by the PLSU salary scale and salary is determined by number of years the attorney passed the bar and has actively been practicing. The salary is therefore not negotiable.

Benefits

CLS offers a very generous and competitive benefits package including 100% employer paid medical (including gender affirming care), life, and short/long-term disability benefits, a 403(b)-retirement plan with employer contribution, and a generous leave package, including 13 paid holidays and five personal holidays each year.

Community Legal Services, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. CLS, Inc. does not discriminate in the selection of employees on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, sexual identity, genetics, age, national origin, disability, or veteran status. In addition to federal law requirements, CLS complies with all applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall and transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.