Staff Attorney – Licensed in California

Core responsibilities:

• 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
• 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

This role fights the ground-level harms AI causes low-income communities by supporting local justice movements to identify and fight harmful uses of AI, creating pathways to accountability and protection for those affected by AI decision-making.

Required skills, experience, qualifications:

• Active license to practice law in California
• Extensive experience actively representing clients in a civil legal aid organization (including disability protection and advocacy organizations)
• Experience collaborating with community organizers in some capacity
• Substantive expertise in issues of concern to low-income Californians, particularly workers' rights, public benefits, housing, and K-12 education
• Experience with fact-finding investigations through Freedom of Information laws, community relationships, and outreach
• Demonstrated capacity for and success in complex affirmative litigation and/or appellate advocacy to effect systemic change
• Familiarity with California's access to justice ecosystem and social services infrastructure
• Extensive experience with trainings and/or presentations to audiences that include other attorneys, policy professionals, and affected communities
• Excellent public-facing communication skills, both verbally and in writing
• Independent initiative that does not require intensive, detail-heavy supervision
• Ability to manage several different kinds of work activities concurrently, prioritize appropriately, and deliver quality work product promptly
• Flexibility to adapt as needed to a fluid environment of a startup nonprofit organization
• Empathy and righteous fury
• Collaborative spirit and the skills needed to work affirmingly with teammates, partners, coalition members, and the communities we exist to serve
• Comfort articulating the intersections between poverty, race, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, language, age, disability, and related characteristics
• Driver's license, access to a car, and proximity to a convenient airport for travel

Compensation, perks, culture highlights:

• Salary: $100K-$130K, depending on experience
• Annual cost-of-living salary increases
• Service time raises anticipated (subject to budget considerations)
• 100% of quality medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance for the employee
• 50% of dependents' medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Automatic contribution by TechTonic Justice of 4% of annual salary to a Vanguard 403(b) retirement account
• Unlimited paid time off, subject to approval
• Monthly internet reimbursement up to $75
• Professional development fund of $1,500
• Schedule flexibility to fit personal situation, including health needs or caregiving responsibilities
• Travel costs covered (mileage, airfare, hotels, meals, and other necessary travel costs)

TechTonic Justice fights the ground-level harms AI causes low-income communities by supporting local justice movements—legal aid organizations, frontline service providers, grassroots organizers, and affected communities—to identify and fight harmful uses of AI through a multidimensional advocacy approach that blends litigation, community activation and organizing, public education, and narrative advocacy.