About the Role
CCLA is seeking a Managing Director to continue its legacy of providing excellent legal services to poor and vulnerable individuals and families in Broward County. The Managing Director must possess avision and a passion for advocating for the poor of South Florida.
High priority roles and responsibilities for Managing Director will include, but are not limited to:
• Serving as the public face of CCLA and strengthening its collaborations with local and state legal
advocacy, community and governmental organizations
• Providing policy and advocacy leadership to CCLA staff
• Leading efforts to develop new and expanded financial support for the program’s mission,
including through grants and fundraising
• Managing CCLA with transparency, open communication and team work
• Supporting CCLA staff members in delivering high quality client-centered legal services for
clients through professional development opportunities and up-to-date equipment and
technology
• Assessing the impact of COVID-19 and developing plans using lessons of the pandemic to meet
client needs and staff needs
• Enhancing the capacity to address current and emerging client needs, including adopting
technology tools to expand client services and increase staff efficiency
• Ensuring compliance with LSC regulations
• Leading an organization and staff that is recognized for providing effective client-centered
advocacy utilizing both service and impact strategies
• Communicating and collaborating with the Board of Directors
• Committing to an ongoing partnership with Legal Aid Service of Broward County
• Working with other legal aid programs in the state in the coordination of the delivery of services
to clients.
Preferred qualifications of the Managing Director include, but are not limited to:
• Demonstrated passion for the mission of CCLA and offering a vision for CCLA’s future
• An in-depth knowledge and understanding of issues that impact low-income persons
• Attorney in good standing, licensed in Florida or willing to become licensed in Florida upon hire
• Successful leadership in a multi-million-dollar organization, preferably a legal aid organization
• Ten years of legal practice
• At least five years of management experience involving staff supervision, financial oversight and
reporting, budget development, compliance with grant and contract requirements, and grant
reporting
• An aptitude and enthusiasm for resource development, including private fundraising and grant
writing
• Demonstrated experience working successfully with organizations and individuals with diverse
perspectives
Requirements
The candidate for the CCLA Managing Director position will be open to the need to help lead the two organizations into a new future with the possible structural changes designed to establish a cooperative and collaborative approach to leadership. CCLA currently has a staff of 45, including 24 attorneys, and an annual budget of approximately $5 million. The organization's staff is multicultural, reflective of the population in the service area. Free civil legal assistance is provided in the following primary areas of law: (1) family law and domestic violence; (2) civil legal problems of senior citizens, including housing/foreclosure, health, consumer, public benefits, and abuse and exploitation; (3) health and public benefits; and (4) services for veterans. The organization provides services to 2700 clients each year. CCLA is guided by a 21-member Board of Directors.
About the Company
CCLA was founded as part of a statewide
reorganization of civil legal aid programs in the State of Florida. Legal Aid service of Broward County (LAS), the county's only civil legal aid program at the time, was split into two programs so that the region would have both an LSC-funded and a non LSC-funded program. CCLA's executive leadership and some of its current staff had been on the staff of Legal Aid Service of Broward County prior to the split and share its history of providing civil legal services to the poor in our community for more than 45 years. Up until 2021, the two organizations had an overlapping board of directors. They are located in the same building and work collaboratively to serve the community.
In 2021, the two organizations are re-assessing their current relationship and envisioning a future with a structure of leadership that will unify the two organizations around a mission of effective and efficient services to clients, delivered in a cooperative and collaborative fashion. To emphasize, the goal of the reassessment is to assure unified leadership which provides an ongoing collaborative approach to the provision of legal services, with a full range of services for eligible clients in the region, and the development and expenditure of limited resources in a manner which maximizes effectiveness and efficiency, while meeting the administrative needs of all funding sources. The structure will be designed with the LSC requirements around program integrity in mind. As an example, one possible new corporate structure may be a “legal aid holding corporation,” perhaps named “Legal Aid Corporation of Broward and Collier Counties,” which then has both CCLA and LAS as subsidiaries.