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OCR MISSION & VISION
The Office of the Child’s Representative (OCR)'s mission is to give children and youth a voice in Colorado legal proceedings through high-quality legal representation that protects and promotes their safety, interests, and rights.

Our Vision: Justice, opportunity, and healthy families for all court-involved children and youth.

OCR VALUES

• Accountability: Colorado’s children, attorneys, families, and communities can count on OCR to ensure that each decision we make and action we take advances our mission in a fair, equitable, inclusive, and transparent manner.
• Efficiency: OCR strives to accomplish its mission and conserve resources by streamlining efforts, adhering to deadlines, resolving conflict constructively, and honoring well-defined projects, processes, and roles. We balance our drive to achieve with thoughtful planning and implementation.
• Empowerment: OCR cultivates an environment of respect, honesty, and equity. We value the diverse experiences and expertise of the children we serve, our attorneys, and our staff. We invest time to reflect and connect, focus on strengths, value feedback, and recognize success. We stand for justice and support each other in our mission to empower children.

GENERAL STATEMENT OF DUTIES
OCR is an independent agency within the State of Colorado Judicial Branch that supports and oversees attorney guardians ad litem (GAL), child's legal representatives (CLR), and counsel for youth throughout the state. OCR contracts with approximately 265 attorneys to provide these services and employs 12 attorneys and five case consultants in its El Paso County GAL Office. OCR is responsible for payment and oversight of attorney services in 11 case types, including but not limited to Dependency and Neglect, Delinquency and Direct File, Domestic Relations, Probate, Paternity, and Truancy. In Fiscal Year 2021, OCR spent approximately 77% of its Court Appointed Counsel Expenditures on Dependency and Neglect appointments and 15% on Delinquency and Direct File appointments.

The Appellate and Affirmative Litigation Strategies Attorney will advance children’s rights and promote equity and justice for children and youth by coordinating strategies, supports, and programs that ensure excellence in representation. This is a newly-created position at the OCR and presents an opportunity for an experienced and skilled attorney to translate a vision for justice for children and youth into concrete action steps and litigation strategies. This is a full-time, non-classified position that is exempt from overtime under the Federal Labor Standards Act, serving at the pleasure of the OCR’s Executive Director. All prospective employees of the Colorado Judicial Branch are subject to background investigation prior to hiring.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE POSITION
The Appellate and Affirmative Litigation Strategies Attorneywill serve as an OCR liaison to OCR’s appellate litigation support team and select judicial districts, support effective litigation as a statewide resource to attorneys on key legal and practice issues, and develop strategies, training, and resources to support OCR attorneys in providing excellent legal representation throughout all phases of proceedings. The substantive focus of this position will be twofold: 1) D&N trial and appellate litigation strategies and supports; 2) diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies across all OCR’s case types. Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

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  Serve as staff attorney liaison to OCR’s appellate litigation support program and coordinate OCR’s appellate strategies.
  • Monitor appellate trends at both the national and state levels.
  • Serve as a resource to OCR’s appellate litigation support team.
  • Enhance OCR’s existing appellate litigation support program by recommending and implementing programming and policies.
  • Develop and maintain appellate resources for OCR’s Litigation Toolkit.
  • Assess attorneys' appellate practice; recommend and implement enhancements to OCR’s appellate program and appellate oversight and support procedures.
  • Identify legal issues and develop strategies to protect the interests and promote the legal rights children and youth at the appellate level.
  • Participate in amicus briefing on legal issues impacting OCR’s mission and mandates.
• Develop and implement strategies to advance children’s rights and promote effective representation throughout all phases of D&N proceedings.
  • Analyze legal trends and develop strategies to protect the interests and promote the rights of children and youth at the trial level.
  • Maintain legal resources in OCR’s Litigation Toolkit, update and enhance as indicated by legal developments.
  • Complete annual updates to Colorado’s Guided Reference in Dependency book; propose and implement complete rewrites as necessary.
  • Provide routine updates on caselaw and other legal and practice developments.
  • Serve as key staff attorney/content lead on OCR’s trial skills training and inform and contribute to OCR’s overall training program.
• Develop and implement strategies to address disproportionality and promote equity and justice for children and their families in Colorado’s child welfare, juvenile justice, truancy, and other proceedings.
  • Monitor trends regarding disproportionality and inequities across OCR’s case types, focusing on race, ethnicity, disability, LGBTQ, and other populations impacted by disproportionality and discrimination; advocate for additional data collection and analysis as necessary to advance justice for Colorado’s children and youth.
  • Identify and develop best practices and concrete litigation strategies to combat disproportionality, discrimination, and injustice in all OCR case types.
  • Develop practice materials and supports.
• Support and oversee OCR contract attorneys as a liaison to assigned judicial districts.
  • Serve as the primary point of contact for OCR attorneys, court personnel, and other professionals in districts.
  • Assess sufficiency of pool of attorneys and district needs.
  • Implement OCR’s robust attorney oversight process by reviewing quantitative and qualitative performance measures, following up with attorneys as indicated, and recommending actions to address identified performance issues.
  • Investigate complaints.
• Advance OCR’s mission and vision through committee work and other stakeholder outreach and collaboration.
  • Actively participate in assigned committees.
  • Engage in outreach to and collaboration with child welfare, juvenile justice, education, and other stakeholders.

QUALIFICIATIONS
The successful candidate must be an attorney licensed in the state of Colorado or licensed and in good standing in another state who is eligible to obtain Colorado licensure by December 2021. The successful candidate will have experience in the child welfare and/or juvenile justice systems, as well as direct litigation (trial and/or appellate) experience. The successful candidate must have strong legal knowledge and advocacy skills, excellent organization and project management abilities, strong written and oral communication skills, and exceptional leadership. The successful candidate must be creative, self-motivated, and able to work in a decentralized environment without close supervision.

WORK ENVIRONMENT
This position will likely begin 100% remotely (working from home) during the Covid-19 pandemic with an eventual transition to either a full-time or hybrid return to the office. OCR is willing to consider applicants outside the Denver metro area as long as they reside in Colorado, are able to effectively perform their job responsibilities from their remote work environment, and will make themselves reasonably available for metro area in-person meetings and other events as required by OCR.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. This position occasionally handles emergency or crisis situations and may be frequently subject to interruptions, multiple calls and inquiries. The noise level in the shared office environment is usually moderate.

OTHER DUTIES/TRAVEL
The OCR is a small office that must adapt to changing needs quickly, and special projects or duties outside the primary scope of the position may be assigned by the supervisor or Executive Director. The OCR serves the entire state of Colorado, and agency needs may require travel to events outside of the Front Range, including annual jurisdictional visits and conferences (state and national). The estimated amount of work time related to travel outside of the Front Range for this position is less than 15 percent.

HOW TO APPLY
Complete the online application form at https://fs30.formsite.com/COCR/2021Attorney/index.html no later than 11:59pm on August 15th, 2021 (Mountain Daylight Time). You must advance to the last page of the online form and "Submit" it before the deadline. You will receive a confirmation and copy of your application at the email address you provide on the form. This electronic application form will prompt you to upload a PDF resume, cover letter, and writing sample. The form will also prompt you to answer a few brief open-ended questions.

Applications will not be considered that are late or contain documents that are illegible, incomplete, emailed or mailed outside of this electronic form, or uploaded in a file format OCR cannot open or read. Be sure your application materials specifically address your experience and qualifications for the position described on this document. Selected applicants will be contacted to schedule an interview.