• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Salary Range: $120,000- $160,000

Position Summary

We seek a dynamic and creative attorney and educator to work collaboratively to ensure that Columbia Law School???s clinical programs are of consistently high quality, further the Law School???s strategic vision, and respond to student interests and community needs.

Columbia Law School offers an extensive program of in-house clinics known as Morningside Heights Legal Services, Inc. (MHLS).  The Clinical Programs Director and Managing Attorney will support and advance this work, with a particular focus on practice and teaching needs that arise across multiple clinics and on the law practice management of MHLS.

The successful candidate will work in close collaboration with the Vice Dean for Experiential Education, Associate Director of Clinical Programs and staff, and clinical faculty and attorneys to manage and further develop MHLS???s dual teaching and legal services functions.  This position reports to the Vice Dean for Experiential Education.

Please note that this position is not on an instructional track and will not lead to an instructional appointment.

Responsibilities

• Manage and further develop the clinical pedagogical mission in collaboration with faculty and staff across clinics:
  • Support, catalyze, and implement student-facing engagement including clinic enrollment, clinic orientation, cross-clinic activities, and student research assistants.
  • Work with clinical faculty to ensure high-quality student work product and provide support as necessary.
  • Serve as an intellectual catalyst for faculty and staff to design and implement ongoing professional development for clinical faculty, fellows, staff attorneys, and staff, cross-clinic events, workshops, and conferences.
• Manage and further develop MHLS???s law practice management:
  • Design and update law practice policies, procedures, systems, and trainings, including software and technology, to facilitate pedagogy and practice.
  • Stay abreast of ABA standards for legal education, design and maintain systems to maintain the highest levels of education consistent with the standards.
  • Serve as an expert and resource to deepen and steward MHLS???s commitment to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
  • Collaborate with clinical faculty to maintain best practices in ethics and court practice, including managing conflicts systems and policies, case management systems and practices, client communications standards, and records retention policies and practices.
  • Collaborate with all other departments in the law school (Admissions, Business Office, Academic Affairs, Development and Alumni Relations, Law Library, Communications, Events, etc.) to further the Law School???s and the Clinic???s mission, including supporting MHLS corporate governance, fiscal management, vendor management, technology, and physical space.
  • Manage communications and serve as a public representative of the clinics, including to current and admitted students, alumni, clients, national conferences on legal education, and other outside parties.

Minimum Qualifications

• Law degree plus 5-7 years of relevant legal experience required. Experience as an educator and teaching experience with law students or lawyers in a law clinic setting strongly preferred. Experience with law practice management strongly preferred.
• Must be highly organized with the ability to efficiently and flexibly multitask. Must have strong project management skills. Strong analytical skills and capacity are necessary, as is the ability to design, plan, and implement programming in a higher education setting. Must have a high level of facility with technology, including in a law practice setting.
• Must be able to work collaboratively and effectively within a complex organization with diverse constituencies.   Must be capable of communicating clearly and effectively with diverse audiences and collaborate successfully with diverse constituencies, particularly with clients, faculty, students, and colleagues. Must be committed to supporting an inclusive work environment.
• Some limited travel and evening and weekend work required. Must be able to work with diverse constituencies and support an inclusive work environment.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.

About Columbia University

Columbia University is one of the world's most important centers of research and at the same time a distinctive and distinguished learning environment for undergraduates and graduate students in many scholarly and professional fields. The University recognizes the importance of its location in New York City and seeks to link its research and teaching to the vast resources of a great metropolis. It seeks to attract a diverse and international faculty and student body, to support research and teaching on global issues, and to create academic relationships with many countries and regions. It expects all areas of the university to advance knowledge and learning at the highest level and to convey the products of its efforts to the world.

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