Legal Aid Alberta is seeking to fill a full time, permanent, Legal Services Manager position for our Family Law team in our Edmonton office. You will help to lead a team of staff family lawyers and justice navigators. This position will appeal to an individual that likes to take initiative, performance coach and manage a team, is client focused and is exceptionally strong in delivering high-quality results.

Who We Are

As a publicly funded, non-profit organization, Legal Aid Alberta provides affordable legal services in family law, domestic violence, child welfare, immigration, and youth and adult criminal defense. We are Alberta-wide, with 300 staff and 1,200 private practice lawyers helping people overcome their legal challenges in more than 75 communities across the province.

Who You Are

Working at Legal Aid Alberta means you are an expert in the area of family law and are ready to lead a team of lawyers to provide exceptional legal services to vulnerable Albertans. You care about people and empathize with their situations. You have excellent people skills especially in tough situations. You know how to support and motivate others. You have experience in coaching, mentoring and performance managing a team. You are a strategic thinker, able to provide sound advice and thrive in a fast-paced work environment. You have strong communication and interpersonal skills as well as enjoy learning new things and can adapt to change quickly. You care deeply about the success of our team and have solid understanding of our organization’s mission and values.

Job Description

Reporting to the Managing Director, Family and Immigration Legal Services, some of the key responsibilities include:

• Provide mentorship, coaching, information sessions and provide legal practice advice to staff lawyers with the respective area of legal expertise.
• Support Justice Services, Legal Services Leaders with strategic planning, staff development, and day-to-day management activities with an organizational approach to problem solving.
• Attendance and performance management for direct reports in consultation with other Legal Service Managers, Office Manager and Human Resources (HR).
• File Allocations and scheduling in consultation with Managing Directors as it relates to organizational lawyer case load requirements and file types.
• Review file related potential conflicts, in consultation with team members and/or Managing Director
• Process internal change of counsel requests from clients or direct reports.
• Participate in Legal Service Manager and other office/leadership meetings and lead team meetings of direct reports.
• Participate in recruitment activities in consultation with HR.
• Provide accurate information when requested for Board and other reporting, strategic planning activities and operational planning activities.
• Participate in various committees and in stakeholder meetings as applicable to enhance access to justice for our clients and to improve Alberta’s overall justice system.
• Occasional travel as required.
• Responsible for other duties and/or project work as assigned by the Managing Director
• Conduct of assigned files to professional standards and in accordance with the Rules and Code of Conduct of the Law Society of Alberta and the Rules of LAA.
• Duty Counsel representation of assigned dockets or Duty Counsel out of court representation to professional standards and in accordance with the Rules and Code of Conduct of the Law Society of Alberta and the Rules of LAA.
• Negotiate competent resolutions of files to achieve early, cost effective and lasting outcomes for clients.
• Complete and accurate statistical record keeping.
• Compliance with office policy and procedures.
• Participate in performance and staff meetings as required.

Qualifications

Education and Experience:

• Law degree from a recognized law school.
• Active member of the Law Society of Alberta.
• A minimum of five years of litigation and court experience in Family law, specifically, child welfare, child representation, emergency protection orders, family law act proceedings, support applications, family property proceedings, and divorce act proceedings.
• Experience in criminal and/or immigration law is an asset
• Previous coaching, mentorship and/or leadership experience will be considered an asset.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Excellent knowledge of Alberta Rules of Court and applicable legislation within the respective area of practice expertise.
• Legal research, writing and drafting, legal analysis, preparation of facts and written briefs, application of the law to the relevant facts, negotiation, advocacy, problem-solving, and conflict resolution.
• A high level of comfort working with technology and a keen enthusiasm for learning new systems including, computer literacy in MS Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, CRM), web-based legal research tools, and other web-based resources.
• Excellent analytical, logic, problem-solving, and organization skills, as well as sound business judgement.
• Ability to investigate facts, identify issues, ascertain organizational objectives, consider alternative solutions, analyse risk and advise clients and/or LAA on the appropriate course of action.
• Strong personal practice management skills.
• Demonstrated commitment to continuous improvement.
• Engaged in development and progression of the organization.
• Ability to engage reports and manage reporting team.
• Excellent critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Engages in active listening with reports.
• Acts as a mentor to others through the organization or externally.
• Ability to build relationships, earns confidence, and collaborates with all levels across the organization.
• Well-organized and able to deal with conflicting immediate priorities.

What We Offer

Perks of working with us

• Competitive wage
• RRSP employer contribution
• Health and dental benefits
• Health and wellness accounts
• Employee assistance program
• Hybrid work opportunities

How to Apply

If you got excited at the prospect of being a part of our team when you reviewed this posting and you meet the minimum qualifications, please select ‘Apply Now’ to create your candidate profile.

Requirements

Successful candidates will be required to provide an acceptable criminal record check.