California Civil Rights Attorney

Organization: Governments, landlords, employers, and other powerful actors use artificial intelligence (AI), algorithms, and related technologies to make decisions about how low-income people work, live, learn, and survive. When people are hurt by AI decision-making, they have few places to turn. TechTonic Justice exists to change this. TechTonic Justice fights the ground-level harms AI causes low-income communities. We do this mainly by supporting local justice movements--legal aid organizations, frontline service providers, grassroots organizers, and affected communities--to identify and fight harmful uses of AI. We emphasize a multidimensional advocacy approach that blends litigation, community activation and organizing, public education, and narrative advocacy. We are based in Los Angeles and offer our services nationwide, with emphasis on the South and the West Coast. Position description: This permanent, full-time Staff Attorney position is located in California. The person will work remotely from within California, with ready access to Los Angeles or the San Francisco Bay Area preferred. Candidates should anticipate 1-2 overnight trips per month within California and occasional trips elsewhere. As discussed below, candidates must be licensed to practice in California and have extensive experience actively representing clients in a civil legal aid organization (including disability protection and advocacy organizations). Candidates that lack extensive practice experience in a civil legal aid setting are unlikely to move forward. See below for more details. The Staff Attorney will work as part of TTJ’s Legal Department with three other attorneys. The Staff Attorney will be hired alongside TTJ’s State Organizing Director for California. Together, these roles are intended to operate in close partnership—integrating organizing, legal advocacy, public education, and narrative strategy to surface AI-related harms and build durable pathways to accountability and protection.

• Build relationships with and networks among frontline legal aid providers, worker centers, labor unions, community health clinics, social service providers, community-based organizations, policy professionals, and low-income communities
• Educate and learn from these audiences to understand how AI harms low-income people and how to fight back
• Directly support communities and advocates to resist harmful AI by offering multidimensional strategic assistance and, as appropriate to the situation, capacity to litigate or do litigation-adjacent work
• Educate the broader public about the ways AI harms low-income communities, including through OpEds, conference presentations, other speaking engagements, and other contributions to our communications efforts
• Devise and disseminate scalable strategies to challenge AI-based decision-making in core legal aid issue areas, like public benefits, employment, education, and housing, among others
• Devise and disseminate scalable strategies leveraging the new regulations issued pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act and Fair Employment and Housing Act to benefit low-income California subjected to AI-based decision-making
• Research and track reported uses of AI in core legal aid issue areas
• Review, revise, and otherwise comment upon legislation and regulations at the local, state, and federal levels
• Work in coalition with other organizations opposing the harmful use of AI
• Build infrastructure to facilitate engagement by affected communities and their frontline advocates in AI policy discourse, including, for example, through accessible policy analysis, participation opportunities and guidelines, and storytelling skills
• Supervise legal interns and fellows
• As needed, support internal organizational compliance with applicable laws around taxes, employment, tax-exempt status, lobbying, and the practice of law Job requirements:
• Active license to practice law in California
• Extensive experience actively representing clients in a civil legal aid organization (including disability protection and advocacy organizations). Successful candidates will have experience with at least some of the following:
• the pressures that frontline legal aid attorneys with significant caseloads face
• the emotional toll of injustice on low-income client communities and their attorneys
• litigating cases with imperfect facts under less-than-ideal circumstances
• the tensions between adequate resolutions for individual low-income clients and opportunities for systems-level advocacy
• laws that regulate the activities of federally-funded legal aid organizations Note: We anticipate gaining the requisite experience would take someone around 3-5 years in a civil legal aid organization. However, this is not a strict threshold. Candidates who are familiar with these issues and otherwise meet the job requirements should still apply.
• Experience advocating around AI-related injustices is preferred, but we recognize

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