Executive Director

Job Type

Full-time

Description

Legal Aid of West Virginia Seeks an Executive Director

Legal Aid of West Virginia (LAWV), the largest non-profit law firm providing free civil legal services and advocacy in West Virginia, seeks a visionary and collaborative individual to serve as its next executive director. For more than 70 years, LAWV (and its predecessor organizations) has been the primary provider of civil legal services and advocacy to low-income and vulnerable West Virginians. Legal Aid of West Virginia has a motivated and passionate staff of 170, including approximately 80 attorneys located in twelve regional offices across the state.

The next Executive Director will join LAWV at a time of strong organizational leadership, successful staff advocacy, and positive relationships with community partners and those involved in the justice community.

Key Areas of Responsibility Include:

• Providing visionary, strategic and collaborative leadership to accomplish LAWV's mission and to improve the availability and quality of civil legal aid for low-income and vulnerable people in West Virginia;

• Safeguarding LAWV's fiscal health, stability, integrity, and reputation through sound financial planning;

• Successfully managing an approximately $14.7 million civil legal aid program in accordance with the policies and programmatic decisions of LAWV's Board of Directors and the requirements of funders;

• Engaging and inspiring staff members, board members, clients, and other stakeholders to understand and support the organizational mission, including its work to address poverty;

• Working with the Board, leadership team, and staff to develop and implement policies to fulfill LAWV's mission.

Key qualities or qualifications of the successful candidate include:

• Successful and experienced non-profit, public interest, government or law firm experiences without a law degree; or

• Juris Doctor degree and admission to the West Virginia Bar, or the ability to obtain admission following hiring;

• Significant management experience necessary to direct LAWV's operations, manage staff, and oversee large budgets, with legal aid or nonprofit experience preferred;

• Significant knowledge of nonprofit budgeting, financial functions, grant reporting, and compliance;

• Broad and deep public interest legal experience across a range of issues;

• Experience working productively with an engaged board of directors;

• Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion activities;

• Application Process:

To receive consideration, candidates should submit their applications by November 15, 2024. Interested candidates should submit a cover letter expressing why they are interested in the position, as well as what they believe they can contribute to the future of the organization and its client community. The letter should be accompanied by a current resume and the names and contact information of three professional and three personal references.

Application materials should be in Microsoft Word or PDF format submitted to executivedirectorapplication@lawv.net. Applications will be held in confidence during the initial stages of the process. The organizational contact for candidates with questions about the position or process is Jennifer Greening, Director of Human Resources and Operations at jgreening@lawv.net . The Board of Directors contact is Andy Nason, President of the Board of Directors, at andyn@peppernason.com .

LAWV's Board intends to make a hiring decision in early February 2025, with the successful candidate joining the organization soon after. Salary depends on experience based on a competitive public-interest salary scale. Benefits include comprehensive health and dental insurance, a 403b retirement plan with matching contributions and a generous leave package. For additional benefits information see our careers page on our website.

Read more about LAWV's work at: www.legalaidwv.org

LAWV is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer committed to the value of workforce diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, age, religion, sex, gender identity, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected veterans or sexual orientation.

Requirements

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

(Salary Range for Hiring: To be Determined by LAWV Board of Directors-Exempt Employee)

Purpose of the Job:

The Executive Director has overall responsibility for the operation of Legal Aid of West Virginia (LAWV), including general administration of the program and its fiscal affairs, the securing of funds and the maintaining of funding levels sufficient to meet programmatic needs, Strategic Planning, the hiring, managing and dismissal of staff, and maintaining productive relationships with partner organizations and the client community. The Executive Director also undertakes additional duties as designated by the LAWV Board of Directors.

Scope of Responsibility:

Work performed in office setting both local and statewide

Essential Job Functions :

1. Directs the overall operations of the program in compliance with the mission of LAWV, and the policies established by the Board of Directors, the regulations established by the Legal Services Corporation and the requirements of other funding sources.

2. Sets program goals and objectives within a strategic planning process with the LAWV Board of Directors and develops organizational structures and functions consistent with achieving those objectives.

3. Provides leadership for and direction to LAWV staff and managers in the provision of aggressive, high quality legal representation and advocacy.

4. Oversees through via collaboration with and delegation to a management team:

• effective and efficient management of high quality legal and advocacy work.

• evaluation of personnel and program performance.

• development and implementation of relevant training programs.

• management of the financial matters of the program including fiscal oversight, budgeting and compliance.

• Recruitment, hiring and managing staff and all other personnel matters of the program.

• Development of secure, efficient and responsive technology systems.

• public relations and resource development activities of the program including contacts and relationships with admin courts, Bar Associations, private bar, governmental agencies and community organizations.

5. Assures that the Management Team members have an understanding of and commitment to the mission of LAWV and that they work together as a team to provide appropriate management, administrative, and support services to the LAWV offices and units.

6. Maintains a good working relationship with all members of the staff.

7. Establishes and maintains positive relations with the client community.

8. Support good governance through active support or and engagement with the LAWV Board of Directors.

Job Requirements:

1. The Executive Director should have, at minimum a four-year degree; advanced degrees, including a law degree, are encouraged.

2. The Executive Director should have, at minimum, ten years' experience in non-profit administration including strategic planning, supervision, budget development and management and grant compliance experience or comparable experience from the private sector.

3. The Executive Director should have a high energy level and be comfortable performing multifaceted projects in conjunction with day-to-day activities. She/he should have the ability to get along with diverse personalities and be tactful, mature and flexible. She/he should have strong reasoning abilities and informal problem-solving/negotiation skills, sound judgement and be well-organized with good communication skills.

4. The Executive Director should possess a participatory management style and be comfortable with the team management approach.

Physical Requirements:

1. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, or handle, objects, tools, controls or equipment; reach with hands and arms; balance; talk or hear; drive.

2. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 20 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision and the ability to adjust focus.

3. The physical demands described above are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Other Duties:

1. The statements contained in this job description reflect general details necessary to describe the principal functions of this job, the level of knowledge and skill typically required, and the scope of responsibility. It should not be considered an all-inclusive listing of work requirements. Individuals may perform other duties as assigned, including work in other functional areas to cover absences or relief, to equalize peak work periods or to otherwise balance the workload.

2. The Executive Director will work develop goals within program priorities and funding; and work with his/her supervisor to identify individual training needs.

3. The Executive will account for 100% of his/her time using LAWV time sheets on a bi-weekly basis.

Resignation Requirement:

All managers must give four (4) weeks written notice of their intent to cease employment with LAWV.

Supervisor:

The Executive Director is hired, supervised and evaluated by the LAWV Board of Directors.