Senior Advisor, Affiliate Legal Programs

ACLU - National Office • Durham, NC

6d • Hybrid

About The Position

The ACLU seeks a full-time Senior Advisor, Affiliate Legal Programs for its Affiliate Support and Nationwide Initiatives Department (ASNI), based in the National office in New York, NY; Washington, DC; San Francisco, CA; or Durham, NC. The role is hybrid, with in-office requirements of two days per week or eight days per month, and may be approved for remote work. It is represented by ACLU Staff United (ASU) and is part of a collective bargaining unit.

Reporting to the Senior Director of Program and Strategy, the Senior Advisor serves as a strategic advisor and senior resource to affiliate Executive Directors, Legal Directors, and their teams. The position helps affiliates build, strengthen, and sustain legal programs suited to their circumstances, drawing on expertise in nonprofit civil liberties and civil rights legal program practice and management. The advisor works with affiliate leaders to improve legal strategy, docket development and management, cooperating attorney relationships, infrastructure and systems, staffing, leadership, and alignment with affiliate priorities.

The role helps affiliates integrate legal work with advocacy, communications, organizing, legislative, and other approaches to advance shared goals. It also works across the affiliate network to identify needs, share effective practices, strengthen connections among legal leaders, develop practical resources, and support affiliate legal programs in partnership with National colleagues. Frequent travel is a core component of the position.

Requirements

• Significant experience leading or advancing a civil rights or civil liberties legal program at a national and/or state organization.
• Experience recruiting, training, managing, and motivating diverse, high-performing legal teams in a nonprofit setting.
• Demonstrated experience and familiarity with building legal strategies or programs that integrate advocacy and communications.
• Very strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong facilitation, strategic advising, and presentation skills, including experience leading workshops, trainings, convenings, and planning processes.
• Ability to build relationships and trust within a large and diverse group of stakeholders.
• Highly organized, with attention to detail.
• Experience managing legal staff or familiarity with best-practice approaches to people management.
• Strong project management skills, including the ability to lead complex workstreams, manage multiple priorities, and meet deadlines effectively.
• Willingness to handle small tasks and an understanding of their importance to organizational success.
• Strategic, critical, and creative thinking.
• Juris Doctor (JD) required.
• Commitment to advancing the ACLU's mission.
• Commitment to equity, inclusion, and belonging, and to respecting and valuing multiple perspectives.
• Commitment to working collaboratively and respectfully to resolve obstacles and conflicts.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a senior resource and strategic advisor to affiliate Executive Directors, Legal Directors, and other leaders on building and sustaining high-quality legal programs suited to their circumstances.
• Assess affiliate legal program strengths and limitations, identify opportunities for improvement, and help leaders develop and implement strategies to improve program quality, effectiveness, and impact.
• Support Executive Directors in hiring and onboarding Legal Directors; advise Legal Directors on docket development, case selection and prioritization, litigation management, staffing and supervision, program planning, intake and referral systems, and management of cooperating attorneys and external legal resources.
• Work with affiliate legal leaders and staff to understand program needs and opportunities, set ambitious and appropriately scaled goals, and support implementation and progress.
• Identify, develop, and scale effective practices across affiliates, translating lessons into practical frameworks, tools, and models that affiliates can adopt or adapt.
• Help affiliate leaders develop and manage integrated advocacy approaches that align legal, organizing, legislative, communications, and other capacities.
• Promote and support use of Department resources, including the Program and Strategy Playbook and Envisioning a Stronger Future: A Guide to Building ACLU Legal Programs.
• Develop tools to assess affiliate legal program capacity, effectiveness, and progress, and establish regular reflection, debriefing, and learning approaches.
• Identify and synthesize trends, innovations, challenges, and lessons across affiliate legal programs and translate them into practical guidance for Legal Directors, ASNI, and National colleagues.
• Identify and leverage technologies, tools, and operational efficiencies that strengthen affiliate legal programs.
• Create and sustain learning communities or cohorts for affiliate legal staff, including convenings, workshops, and other opportunities focused on program leadership, management, growth, and impact.
• Represent the Department in National and affiliate program and legal planning processes, supporting alignment with organizational strategy, integrated advocacy, and nationwide priorities.
• Bring affiliate legal program perspectives and needs into National strategic and programmatic discussions.
• Lead or facilitate collaboration between National and affiliate legal programs around shared priorities, including multi-state legal strategies and projects, while respecting affiliate autonomy.
• Strengthen connections between affiliate legal programs and National departments, surface opportunities and barriers, and help identify solutions that serve affiliate and federation-wide goals.
• Advise ASNI colleagues on grants and other investments in affiliate legal programs, informing decisions with expertise about capacity, quality, sustainability, and impact.
• Seek counsel from Department leadership on high-functioning leadership teams and escalate matters involving significant organizational risk.
• Coordinate with ASNI colleagues working on affiliate strategic planning and leadership development to integrate legal priorities and capacity into broader strategies and strengthen legal leadership pipelines, competencies, and succession planning.
• Share relevant information proactively with ASNI leadership to support holistic assessments, evaluations, and interventions.
• Manage or work with vendors and consultants as appropriate; contribute to special projects, events, and organizational priorities.
• Perform other role-related duties in support of Department objectives.
• Travel frequently as a core component of the role.

Benefits

• Generous paid time-off policy.
• Comprehensive healthcare benefits, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, parental leave, gender-affirming care, and fertility treatment.
• 401(k) plan with employer match.
• Annual professional development funds, internal professional development programs, and workshops.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree