Temporary Staff Attorney - Medical Legal Community Partnership

Temporary Staff Attorney

Medical Legal Community Partnership

Anticipated Start date: September 2025

Hiring Timeframe: Rolling

Application requirements: Cover letter, resume, references and a five-page writing sample

BACKGROUND: Philadelphia Legal Assistance’s Medical-Legal-Community Partnership (MLCP) integrates legal advocates into public health settings to meet the health-harming legal needs of patients. Core to the model is the co-location of an inter-professional team of healthcare providers, social workers and legal staff, who collaborate in a hands-on, consistent manner to meet the complex, inter-related needs of underserved populations. Philadelphia Legal Assistance (PLA) currently operates a Medical-Legal Community Partnership in order to provide collaborative, free legal assistance to patients on-site at all of the City of Philadelphia’s public health centers; at two Federally Qualified Health Centers: Esperanza Health Center (EHC) and Delaware Valley Community Health (DVCH); Temple University Health and Einstein Medical Center.

PLA is currently seeking a replacement attorney for a temporary 6-month position to fill a vacancy created by a team member taking leave. The position will be located at Health Center 10 and/or Health Center 6. This position may become permanent if funding permits. Over the past two years, the MLCP has expanded significantly to new partner locations. If there is funding available to make this position permanent, the candidate may be offered reassignment to another project site.

The Temporary MLCP Attorney will work in person at Health Center 10 (located at 2230 Cottman Ave) and/or Health Center 6 (located at 321 W. Girard Ave). In this position, the MLCP Attorney will collaborate with the healthcare team to address the legal aspects of patients’ medical and social service needs that so often undermine access to care. The MLCP Attorney will provide generalist legal services, in the areas of health insurance access and income supports; Public Benefits (for example: Medicaid denials, disability benefits, and food stamps); housing safety and security; utility shutoff prevention; family stability and child welfare issues; domestic violence and other health-harming legal issues.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

· Law degree and admission to a PA Bar, or a willingness to take the PA bar exam when available. Candidates of all levels will be considered.

· Fluency in Spanish a plus.

· Flexibility to work in multiple physical locations and a variety of work spaces.

· Demonstrated commitment to providing sensitive, respectful, culturally competent, trauma informed appropriate legal aid to patients of diverse backgrounds.

· Demonstrated passionate commitment to providing high-quality legal advocacy and representation for low-income, culturally diverse populations.

· Demonstrated collaborative approach to legal service delivery, including delivery of legal services in conjunction with other types of professional services.

· Very strong communication skills.

· Experience working in a medical-legal partnership or a similar, inter-professional model a plus.

· Deep commitment to social justice

· Creativity, tenacity, and empathy in advancing justice for low-income individuals

· Strong team orientation and a passion for public interest law

RESPONSIBILITIES:

· Provide legal consultation and direct representation to patients referred by health center staff (physicians, nurses, social workers, public benefits counselors, and other staff);

· Research rights and available benefits for clients;

· Collaborate with Health Center administrators, providers and staff to work toward achieving full integration of legal staff into healthcare team through consistent contact, communication and collaboration to advance patient health, using a team-based approach;

· Identify health patterns that warrant policy change and advocate to change to improve the patients’ and community’s health;

· Help plan and coordinate trainings for health center staff on substantive medical-legal issues;

· Participate in all health center staff activities, including staff meetings and retreats.

· Supervise paralegals and National Health Corp volunteers as needed;

· Engage in systems advocacy efforts with other legal aid and public health organizations;

· Track cases through a web-based legal case management system and assure entry of data necessary for program evaluation; and

· Communicate and collaborate regularly with the MLCP Supervisor about case acceptance, case strategy and operational and other programmatic issues.

SALARY AND BENEFITS:

Salary is commensurate with years of experience based on union scale. For example, Attorney 1 (less than 1 full year practicing law with bar passage) salary is currently $68500 annually. Attorney VI (five years practicing law) salary is $83500 annually. These salaries will increase by $2500 annually on October 16, 2025. PLA offers a generous benefit package in addition to salary: health insurance premiums paid in full for employee and family, cash incentives for health insurance opt out, vacation, personal, and sick leave, thirteen (13) paid holidays, 403(b) retirement plan with employer contribution based on years of service, paid parental leave, life insurance and short and long- term disability benefits.

APPLICATION PROCESS: Philadelphia Legal Assistance (PLA) is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applicants of all backgrounds to apply. PLA does not discriminate in the selection of employees on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, sexual identity, genetics, age, national origin, disability, or veteran status. In addition to federal law requirements, PLA complies with all applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall and transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

Interested applicants should email a cover letter and resume, preferably in one PDF document, to: work@philalegal.org.

Applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible, as the position will be filled as soon as an appropriate candidate is identified