Paralegal, Voting Rights Project

ABOUT THE JOB

The ACLU seeks applicants for the full-time position of Paralegal in the Voting Rights Project (VRP) of the ACLU’s National office in New York, NY. This is a hybrid role that has in-office requirements of two (2) days per week or eight (8) days per month.

Established in 1965, VRP has worked to protect the gains in political participation won by voters of color since passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA). Since its inception, the Voting Rights Project has litigated hundreds of voting rights cases and has aggressively and successfully challenged efforts to suppress voting or to dilute minority voting strength.

The ACLU Voting Rights Project was established in 1965 – the same year that the historic VRA was enacted – and has litigated more than 350 cases since that time. Its mission is to build and defend an accessible, inclusive, and equitable democracy free from racial discrimination. We have three principles: (1) all Americans should be eligible to vote; (2) voting should be free and easy; and (3) all people should count equally. The Project employs an integrated advocacy approach, combining legislative advocacy, public education, and litigation, and has active cases in over a dozen states.

The Voting Rights Project’s recent docket has included more than 30 lawsuits to protect voters during the 2020 election; a pair of recent cases in the Supreme Court challenging the last administration’s discriminatory census policies: Department of Commerce v. New York (successfully challenging an attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census), and Trump v. New York (challenging the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the population count used to apportion the House of Representatives); challenges to discriminatory congressional and state legislative maps, including two recent cases in the Supreme Court: Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP (2023), challenging South Carolina’s congressional map as an unconstitutional and starkly racially gerrymandered map; and Allen v. Milligan (2023), successfully challenging Alabama’s congressional map as unlawfully diluting the Black voting power under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act; challenges to voter purges and documentary proof of citizenship laws; and challenges to other new legislation restricting voting rights in states like Georgia and Texas. The ACLU Voting Rights Project is currently litigating voter suppression and minority vote dilution cases in over twenty states, from coast to coast, in every region of the country.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Reporting to the Deputy Project Director, the Paralegal will provide litigation and administrative support to the Project’s legal team. This includes but is not limited to cite checking and formatting litigation documents, maintaining litigation calendar, files and other litigation items, processing invoices, generating expense reports, and handling travel arrangements, as well as providing onsite administrative, logistical and other support for trials and hearings.

YOUR DAY TO DAY

• Provide paralegal support for a wide range of federal, state, and administrative litigation, including by filing, reviewing, and organizing litigation documents such as briefs, motions, declarations, deposition summaries, discovery requests, and responses, and correspondence with co-counsel, including cite-checking, proofreading, and formatting such documents.
• Handle general administrative duties for the Project, including processing invoices, tracking expenses, case costs, generating expense reports, and ordering supplies, etc.
• Handle travel arrangements.
• Provide logistical administrative, and document management support for hearings and trials.
• Assist in case management, including maintenance of electronic files, physical files, court records, and litigation calendars; anticipate and identify potential litigation tasks and prepare accordingly.
• Coordinate logistics for depositions, client meetings or phone calls, service of process, courtesy copy delivery, and other litigation support.
• Work jointly with interns and communicate routine and/or procedural guidance on projects assigned by managers.
• Conduct internet and other factual research.
• Handle special projects and other duties as assigned.

FUTURE ACLU'ERS WILL

• Be committed to advancing the mission of the ACLU
• Center and embed the principles of equity, inclusion and belonging in their work by demonstrating commitment to diversity with an approach that respects and values multiple perspectives
• Be committed to work collaboratively and respectfully toward resolving obstacles and conflicts

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

• Demonstrated interest in civil rights and civil liberties
• Bachelor’s degree
• One year of paralegal or related administrative experience
• Basic knowledge of the bluebook
• Strong computer skills with advanced knowledge in Microsoft Office Suite, e.g., Outlook, Word, Excel, etc.
• Experience creating tables of contents, tables of authorities, mail merges, and creating/inserting macros.
• Must take initiative, be highly organized and detail-oriented, and possess strong interpersonal and time management skills.
• Ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously and see projects through to completion.

COMPENSATION

WHY THE ACLU

For over 100 years, the ACLU has worked to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Whether it’s ending mass incarceration, achieving full equality for the LGBTQ+ community, establishing new privacy protections for our digital age, or preserving the right to vote or the right to have an abortion, the ACLU takes up the toughest civil liberties cases and issues to defend all people.

We know that great people make a great organization. We value our people and know that what we offer is essential not just their work, but to their overall well-being.

At the ACLU, we offer a broad range of benefits, which include:

• Time away to focus on the things that matter with a generous paid time-off policy
• Focus on your well-being with comprehensive healthcare benefits (including medical, dental and vision coverage, parental leave, gender affirming care & fertility treatment)
• Plan for your retirement with 401k plan and employer match
• We support employee growth and development through annual professional development funds, internal professional development programs and workshops

OUR COMMITMENT TO ACCESSIBILITY, EQUITY, DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Accessibility, equity, diversity and inclusion are core values of the ACLU and central to our work to advance liberty, equality, and justice for all. For us diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion are not just check-the-box activities, but a chance for us to make long-term meaningful change. We are a community committed to learning and growth, humility and grace, transparency and accountability. We believe in a collective responsibility to create a culture of belonging for all people within our organization – one that respects and embraces difference; treats everyone equitably; and empowers our colleagues to do the best work possible. We are as committed to anti-oppression, anti-ableism, and anti-racism internally as we are externally. Because whether we’re in the courts or in the office, we believe ‘We the People’ means all of us.

With this commitment in mind, we strongly encourage applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status and record of arrest or conviction, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

The ACLU is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual with a disability and need assistance applying online, please email benefits.hrdept@aclu.org. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.