Deputy Executive Director

Summary

Description

The Opportunity 

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee) was established in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy. This marked the mobilization of the nation’s leading lawyers as agents for change in the Civil Rights Movement. With this rich legacy and the increasing attacks on progress of the past, the Lawyers’ Committee is urgently writing the next chapter in the history of Civil Rights.

The Lawyers’ Committee uses legal advocacy to achieve racial justice, fighting inside and outside the courts to ensure that Black people and other people of color have the voice, opportunity, and power to make the promises of our democracy real. Under the leadership of its President and Executive Director, the Lawyers’ Committee is developing a future-focused agenda, along with a revamped infrastructure and staff capacity grounded in this purpose, which the organization refers to as the “why” of its work. Driven by a clear vision about both the plight and the possibilities facing the communities it serves, the organization is also revamping “how” it does the work.

“Racism is so dangerous because it divides us, and it’s so elusive because it’s a shape-shifter, taking on new forms as the years march on. At a time when we are under attack, we should be demanding more—not asking for less. We know how to fight back, but that’s not enough. We must also fight forward to claim the future we deserve.” – Damon Hewitt, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee

Fighting forward includes taking a strategic and integrated approach to not only defending prior gains, but also gaining new ground in the fight for racial justice.

Internally, the organization is more strategically aligning its work across units and subject matter—from voting rights, justice reform, and fair housing, to digital justice, economic justice, and educational opportunities—to better reflect how these issues intersect in the lived experience of the communities it serves. The organization also seeks to more deeply integrate the modalities of its work, connecting litigation, policy, and other forms of advocacy in a manner that amplifies the voice of the Black community, creates tangible opportunities for access and advancement, and builds power on issues of vital importance to the Black community and other people of color.

The Lawyers’ Committee seeks a Deputy Executive Director to partner in this transformation and to lead, manage, and ensure execution of its programmatic agenda, which includes litigation, policy, and programs.

The Deputy will work closely with the President and Executive Director to effectuate these strategic shifts, manage the internal programmatic work, and enhance execution and impact. The Deputy will have a strategic mindset, a sophisticated, nuanced sense of prevailing civil rights issues, and understand how litigation, policy, and advocacy programs work together to drive change.

The Organization

The Lawyers’ Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. It implements its mission and objectives through its expert staff and also by marshaling the pro bono resources of the private bar in litigation, public policy, advocacy, research, and other forms of service. The nationwide network of law firms with lawyers committed to the cause of civil rights differentiates the Lawyers’ Committee from other civil rights groups.

These lawyers lend their expertise by partnering on critical cases as co-counsel in impact litigation, taking on research projects, and assisting with policy and legislative advocacy.

By providing a “strategic home-base” for racial justice pro bono efforts, the organization leverages the private bar as a force-multiplier in the cause of civil rights. In the last decade alone, the Lawyers’ Committee has leveraged one million pro bono hours from leading law firms and in-house counsel. Over the past 20 years, the value of donated pro bono services is nearly $1 billion adjusted for inflation.

The organization’s current project areas include the following, each supported by Public Policy and Communications teams:

• Criminal Justice
• Digital Justice
• Economic Justice
• Educational Opportunities
• Fair Housing
• Voting Rights & Election Protection

Its work is effective, ongoing, timely, and crucial. Highlights of recent work include:

• Argued the Harvard and University of North Carolina affirmative action cases before the U.S. Supreme Court after litigating both cases for nearly a decade;
• Challenged multiple voter suppression schemes by government and private actors, including mass voter purges prior to major elections votes;
• Influenced a state court to rule that the process of certification of election results is mandatory—not discretionary;
• Advised Congress on voting rights and frequently testifies at hearings, including the first hearings on voting rights in both the House and Senate at the start of the 118th Congress;
• Won a redistricting trial in Mississippi and secured a federal court order that requires the creation of three new majority-Black state legislative districts;
• Co-convened the nonpartisan Election Protection Coalition and led the 866-OUR-VOTE Hotline for two decades, reaching hundreds of thousands of voters and deploying thousands of attorney volunteers for voter support and litigation each election cycle;
• Based on a call to the Election Protection Hotline, filed and won a landmark case finding that an orchestrated disinformation campaign spreading false information to tens of thousands of Black voters via robocalls constituted unlawful intimidation under the Voting Rights Act;
• Secured preliminary injunctions to limit the impact of classroom censorship laws in Oklahoma and Arkansas that threatened students’ freedom to learn and educators’ freedom to teach fact-based curriculum about race and racism;
• Won a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, stopping the dismantling of a majority-Black public housing development;
• Secured a settlement against a small town that unlawfully jailed people for failing to pay municipal fines and fees, creating a modern-day debtors’ prison.

The Lawyers’ Committee has 90 staff members and a budget ranging from $23 to $25 million. It is governed by a 20-member Executive Committee of the Board of Directors, and supported in pro bono and fund raising efforts by its 200-member advisory Board. In September 2024, the organization ratified its first collective bargaining agreement. The staff works in a hybrid fashion and is highly skilled and deeply committed to defending and advancing civil rights, centering on Black people and other people of color.

The Responsibilities

The Deputy Executive Director will serve as a key member of the Executive Management Team. The Deputy ED will:

• Oversee and manage the Program side of the organization (staff of 60);
  • In consultation with the President, the Deputy ED will set clear standards for the work and define success. The program work includes:
    • Litigation
    • Campaigns and Programs, including Election Protection
    • Policy (including lobbying and public education)
    • Other program work
• Provide strategy and vision for the work that translate into programmatic priorities;
  • Provide a forward-looking approach
  • Develop and implement planning and systems to strategically align the organization’s work across subject matter areas
  • Foster deeper integration of core strategies: litigation, policy, and other advocacy and program work to drive results and measurable impact
  • Foster the development and ongoing implementation of a strategic approach that has demonstrable impacts on the lives of clients and communities
• Develop and implement standards for the review and approval process for litigation, policy, and other advocacy and programs to ensure fidelity to plans and that the strategic impact of the work is articulated and aligned;
• Guide the completion and implementation of program-related components of the organization’s evolving strategic plan;
• Help to strengthen the managerial capacity on the program side of the house as part of the organization’s commitment to management excellence;
• Be a thought partner with the President and Executive Director;
• Support and represent the work of the President and Executive Director and step in as needed for internal and external events as an ambassador for the organization;
• Leverage the 200-member Advisory Board of Directors to assist as needed with program priorities.

The Candidate

The Deputy ED will have a demonstrated and abiding dedication to racial justice and civil rights work. The leader will have a track record of notable accomplishment in one or more areas of advocacy and organizational management skills.

Professional Experience

• A deep understanding of litigation, policy, and advocacy work and how they feed into each other to create change;
• Experience with complex civil and civil rights litigation, preferably in more than one subject matter area;
• A sophisticated understanding of political dynamics and opportunities for action from a non-partisan platform; experience with Congress, the White House, or a federal agency is a plus;
• Demonstrated experience building consensus, empowering others, and working in coalition;
• An experienced leader and manager with a proven track record of successfully leading large teams, mentoring staff, and fostering crossteam collaboration;
• Demonstrated experience working with and for Black people and communities of color.

Personal Assets

• Ability to communicate well and clearly in an inspiring fashion both internally and externally, verbally and written;
• Deep and demonstrated commitment to advancing racial justice and civil rights;
• Willingness to embrace the organizational commitment to center the work in the lived experience, struggles, and aspirations of Black people and communities of color;
• Experience and comfort engaging individuals and grassroots partners in Black communities in particular and communities of color more generally;
• Discipline and energy;
• Superior interpersonal communication skills;
• Ability to understand organizational dynamics and serve as a strong coach and diplomatic change agent.

The Relationships

Reports to: President and Executive Director

Currently manages: Acting Co-Chief Counsels Director of Public Policy Director of Pro Bono Director of Campaigns and Field Programs (Election Protection)

The Compensation

Compelling candidates will come from a variety of backgrounds. Compensation for this role will be competitive and commensurate with experience and ability. The expected range for this role will be $275,000 – $300,000.

The Location

The Deputy ED will work at the Lawyers’ Committee office in Washington, D.C.

For potential consideration or to suggest a prospect, please email: LawyersCommittee@BoardWalkConsulting.com or call Lysondra Somerville or Crystal Stephens, at 404-262-7392.

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