Staff Attorney

Beyond the Bars
Florida

Position Title: Staff Attorney

Classification: Full-Time, W-2

Location: Miami-Dade County

Start: ASAP

Compensation: $60,000 to $80,000, based on BTB’s salary scale (negotiable!)

Schedule: Full-time; occasional early-morning, evening, and weekend work based on worker availability

About Beyond the Bars

Beyond the Bars is a Southern worker organization led by people with records, building power on the job to fight for the rights, dignity, and future we deserve.

Position Overview

Beyond the Bars seeks a full-time Staff Attorney to help use legal strategies to build worker power. The Staff Attorney will identify opportunities for strategic enforcement, revenue-based litigation, and administrative advocacy that can strengthen BTB’s infrastructure and organizing campaigns. They will also provided as-needed legal assistance to BTB’s members.

Note: this is not a traditional direct-services position. The Staff Attorney will help workers understand and exercise their rights in ways that support collective action, leadership development, and long-term improvements in working conditions.

Key Responsibilities

Improving BTB’s Legal Infrastructure

• Provide organizers with timely, accessible guidance about relevant laws, legal risks, case developments, and enforcement options
• Create internal legal resources and reusable worker-education materials
• Maintain regular communication with the organizing team about the intake pipeline, case status, referrals, deadlines, and next steps
• Work with BTB leadership and organizers to identify opportunities to combine legal and organizing strategies in worker campaigns
• Review worker intakes and field information to identify shared violations, patterns of exploitation, and potential strategic enforcement matters
• Participate in campaign and organizing meetings and help assess how legal interventions could strengthen or undermine collective worker action
• Help build and maintain a network of attorneys and legal organizations available to support BTB members, campaigns, and organization

Worker Intake and Referral

• Conduct in-person and remote legal intakes with workers, primarily in English and Spanish
• Gather facts, documents, and other evidence needed to evaluate potential legal claims and organizing opportunities
• Explain workers’ rights, legal options, risks, and possible outcomes in clear and accessible language without overpromising results
• Develop and deliver Know Your Rights trainings, legal clinics, and worker-facing materials that support peer education, collective action, and worker leadership
• Maintain accurate and confidential records of intakes, evidence, case status, referrals, and dispositions
• Develop and refine intake frameworks, screening criteria, referral protocols, confidentiality practices, and case-tracking systems
• Screen matters for legal merit, organizational and campaign fit, potential collective impact, and referral or co-counsel opportunities

Strategic Enforcement

• Research legal issues affecting temp and construction workers, including wage and hour violations, workplace safety, retaliation, discrimination, staffing-agency practices, and barriers related to criminal records
• Support issue identification, case theory development, evidence preservation, and preparation of matters for strategic enforcement
• Under attorney supervision, assist with demand letters, administrative complaints, agency charges, arbitration, litigation, and other enforcement strategies
• Coordinate case referrals and co-counsel relationships with nonprofit, government, and private-bar legal partners
• Help develop productive relationships with labor-enforcement agencies and other relevant government officials

Key Deliverables

• Timely completion of legal intakes and written screening assessments
• Clear intake summaries, case analyses, and referral recommendations
• Legal research and strategy memoranda for active and prospective campaigns or cases
• Accessible Know Your Rights trainings and worker-facing legal materials
• Accurate intake, referral, evidence, deadline, and case-tracking systems
• Regular updates to BTB leadership and the organizing team
• Other deliverables established through work planning with the Co-Executive Director

Qualifications

• Fluency in English and Spanish required
• Must be located in South Florida (or willing to relocate) and able to conduct in-person worker intakes and trainings in Miami-Dade County
• Valid driver’s license and reliable transportation required
• J.D. preferred
• Experience conducting intakes in a community setting
• Ability to explain complicated legal information clearly and compassionately to people without legal training
• Proficiency with Google Workspace

Preferred, but not required

• Experience in labor or employment law and/or criminal defense
• Familiarity with Westlaw, LexisNexis, or comparable research tools
• Experience with worker centers, labor unions, or other base-building organizations
• Experience developing or facilitating Know Your Rights trainings or legal clinics
• Experience coordinating with external counsel, government agencies, or legal referral networks

How to Apply

Please send your resume, cover letter, and a legal writing sample to jobs@beyondthebars.org. Applications and interviews will be conducted on a rolling basis.