Raise The Floor Alliance (RTF) is an Illinois based non-profit and legal clinic that supports excluded and exploited workers in low-wage industries to know, defend, and improve their employment rights. RTF was founded by Arise Chicago, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, Chicago Community & Workers Rights, Chicago Workers Collaborative, Latino Union, Warehouse Workers for Justice, and Workers’ Center for Racial Justice. As a backbone organization and space for collective action, RTF brings strength to our community partners by providing research, communications, policy, and legal support for campaigns that promote safe, dignified, and stable work

Overview of Role

Raise the Floor Alliance’s legal department specializes in areas of the law that are of special concern to excluded and exploited workers, including among others, wage theft, discrimination, workplace sexual violence, immigration protections for workers engaged in labor disputes, and expanding opportunities for workers with criminal records. RTF’s litigation practice ranges from services to individual worker center members in agency proceedings to complex class actions impacting thousands of workers in federal and state court.

The Staff Attorney will be responsible for managing and/or assisting with a substantial docket of cases in these areas, with special emphasis on the interaction of labor/employment law and the criminal legal system. While the Staff Attorney will be expected to litigate cases falling at the criminal legal and labor intersection, the exact balance between work in this area and others will be determined based on interest and experience in other practice areas.

The Staff Attorney will also be involved in community outreach, including leading Know Your Rights workshops and working closely with RTF’s community partners in the greater Chicago area.

Qualifications

Juris Doctor is required
3+ years of litigation experience is strongly preferred
Admission to the Illinois Bar is required, though a willingness to take the Illinois Bar if already submitted to practice into another jurisdiction will be considered.
Experience working with low-wage workers is strongly preferred.
Federal and/or state court litigation experience is strongly preferred.
Spanish language fluency is preferred, though not required.
Excellent research and writing skills
Ability to work long hours and weekends as needed
Ability to multi-task, to work in a small office setting, and to work independently and in a team
A demonstrated commitment to social justice and to building a strong, vibrant labor movement that centers the experiences & needs of the most marginalized low-wage workers

Raise the Floor Alliance

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