Tenant Legal Services Attorney

About the Community Economic Defense Project (CEDP) & CED Law 

Our Mission

We partner with low-income and working people to build economic and racial equity. We do this by confronting economic abuse and investing in community wealth. We use an ever-evolving set of legal, economic and advocacy tools to challenge and dismantle unjust systems, building quickly towards a world where all people have what they need to live and thrive. 

Our Organization

The Community Economic Defense Project (CEDP) is a Colorado-based nonprofit. Launched in 2020 as the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project, our organization was formed to keep our neighbors housed during the pandemic. Working with clients, we built a deeply integrative approach to eviction, foreclosure, and homelessness prevention that centers the legal and financial needs of housing-insecure families and uses a variety of tools to keep them housed. 

Our team now serves more than 1,000 people per month, bringing together housing lawyers, economists, data analysts, policy-experts, organizers, and technologists to serve our clients. We have served more than 68,000 low-income Coloradans across 54 counties, distributing more than $280 million in emergency assistance.  We have also contributed to the passage of major legislation to prevent eviction, stop economic abuse, and make credit and life-saving medication cheaper.  CEDP’s model has been cited as a best practice by the White House and HUD in 2022-2023, think tanks like the Urban Institute, and in the media.

Building on our work to stop evictions, CEDP has further expanded its integrated services model to include disaster response, predatory towing, debt collection, benefit access & navigation, long-term rental assistance, and homelessness response. Similar to CEDP’s work on rental housing, these efforts offer a continuum of care that includes navigation and advisory services, targeted payments, legal support, and the ability to participate in advocacy.

More about the Tenant Legal Services Attorney Role:

As our law firm evolves, we are seeking an experienced attorney to support our Clinic and Community Law team by providing high-quality limited representation and advice, know your rights education, and legal information and resources, supporting our internal non-legal teams and community partners, and helping to set the strategic scope of the tenant legal practice through data tracking, trend analysis, and subject matter research. The TLS attorney will be responsible for contributing to grant goals by attending clinic and community events each week, closing a number of limited cases per month, providing a number of know-your-rights or legal information sessions per month, and may assist with defensive or affirmative litigation efforts and other projects as needed and desired. 

In this role you will:

• Attend our Denver Courthouse Clinic and Community Events weekly, some of which occur on weekends and evenings.  
• Advise and provide limited representation to clients at these events.
• Provide support to our Community Partners and internal non-legal teams in the form of know- your-rights and legal education trainings. 
• Assist with tracking and analyzing trends to inform legal strategy and strategic focus in response to community need with the assistance of the Clinic and Community Law team.
• Conduct research on the most important legal issues our clients face.
• Assist with defensive or affirmative litigation if desired.
• Assist with other projects as needed.
• Be responsible for completing case goals and grant requirements
• Coordinate across CEDP to ensure holistic service of legal clients when appropriate and consented to by client.
• Complete required documentation for case and data tracking.
• May include the supervision of legal support staff if desired.
• Assist with staff training and onboarding, substantive skills development, and professional development and growth with support from other attorneys and the Directors of Tenant Legal Services.
• Take on new, and modify existing, duties as the law firm and its needs evolve, grow, or shift 
  

Position Requirements: 

• Colorado bar admission and JD or the ability to waive in and practice pending admission
• At least 1 year of legal experience with litigation experience preferred and a preference towards candidates with 3+ years of experience in housing litigation, which could include eviction defense or affirmative housing work in both or either trial or appeals.  
• Demonstrated passion for social and racial justice.
• A supportive, client-focused attitude.
• Strong desire to center client and community needs.
• Ability to work collaboratively with other attorneys, paralegals, legal support staff, and supervisors in a rapid-change environment centered on social justice and equity.
• Must be available to attend events approximately 3-5x a month on weekends and evenings and have reliable transportation to attend events. Most events occur in Denver Metro area, but some are in Colorado Springs or rural
• Colorado, requiring occasional overnight stays. Flex time is available for these events, and mileage and other cost reimbursement is available for events outside Denver Metro area.
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills.
• A creative, self-driven attitude.
• Strong organizational abilities.
• Knowledge of MS Office suite, CLIO, Google Suite, Adobe Acrobat desired.
• Spanish language fluency is not required but is a strong plus and is eligible for an additional stipend.
  
  

Additional Details: 

• The position includes competitive pay, flexible time off, benefits package (including medical, dental, vision), and 401k.
• A competitive annual salary of $75k-$110K, based on years of experience and subject matter expertise, plus a $1,000 per year hybrid employee salary adjustment.
• Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis but must be received by October 5, 2026.
• The estimated time to complete the recruitment process will be by November 2, 2026.
• Employees who utilize two languages or more at work are eligible for a $2,000 salary differential per year added to the salary grade listed above. Language assessment will be conducted by the organization as a requirement to receive the differential
• All employees receive a technology stipend of $720 per year.
• As in-person work is sometimes required, all employees at CEDP & CED Law are expected to maintain current vaccination status in keeping with CDC recommendations.
• CEDP is an equal opportunity employer, with a demonstrated commitment to challenging systems of inequity.