Chief Executive Officer: Juvenile Law Center

OVERVIEW

Juvenile Law Center fights for rights, dignity, equity, and opportunity for youth. We work to reduce the harm of the child welfare and justice systems, limit their reach, and ultimately abolish them so all young people can thrive.

Founded in 1975, Juvenile Law Center was the first nonprofit, public-interest law firm for children in the country. As a legal and advocacy organization we now use multiple approaches to accomplish our mission: legal advocacy, policy advocacy, youth-led advocacy, and strategic communications. Our strategies are interconnected. We pair impact litigation with policy advocacy and community outreach to push for lasting and transformative change. Our policy agenda is informed by—and often conducted in collaboration with—youth, family members, and grassroots partners. Our youth advocacy campaigns respond to legal and policy opportunities in the field. In all our work, we seek out strategic communications opportunities to enhance the work and to shape public opinion. We seek opportunities across the country to work where we can respond to identified needs in the community, build on local partnerships, leverage legislative and legal reform opportunities, and create momentum for change.

We strive to ensure that laws, policies, and practices affecting youth advance racial and economic equity and are consistent with children’s and youth’s unique developmental characteristics and human dignity.

Our advocacy has contributed to several landmark United States Supreme Court rulings on the importance of adolescent development to the law, including Roper v. Simmons, Graham v. Florida, J.D.B. v. North Carolina, Miller v. Alabama, and Montgomery v. Louisiana, as well as other United States Supreme Court cases on related issues. We support attorneys across the country, serve as co-counsel and/or file amicus curiae briefs in state and federal court in cases protecting the rights of court-involved young people. Our litigation docket includes class action and impact litigation cases, including the internationally recognized Luzerne County, PA “kids-for-cash” scandal, where the rights of thousands of children were violated by then juvenile court judge Mark Ciavarella. We have four active class action cases currently pending. We are nationally known for our policy reports and advocacy, including national efforts to protect the confidentiality of young people in the juvenile legal system, and for our Debt Free Justice campaign to end fees and fines imposed on court-involved young people nationwide.

Our current strategic plan emphasizes our priority of keeping youth in their homes and communities and out of the child welfare and justice systems. It continues our work of reducing harm to those youth who are currently, or will in the future, be system involved, and launches new work imagining alternatives that support well-being rather than imposing systems of policing, incarceration, and institutionalization. We have five strategic priorities of work: (1) keep youth out of the child welfare and justice systems; (2) keep youth out of the adult criminal justice system;  (3) keep youth in their homes and communities; (4) reduce harm; and (5) imagine the future.

OUR ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Juvenile Law Center is a highly successful, productive, innovative, and collegial organization. We expect the next Chief Executive Officer to cultivate these qualities and provide strong leadership for continued innovation and growth.

● Retiring CEO Sue Mangold has provided decisive leadership while facilitating a robust and transparent process for a skilled senior leadership team to share in organizational leadership and decision-making.

● Co-founder and Chief Legal Officer Marsha Levick leads our litigation and policy advocacy. Her credibility and influence have established Juvenile Law Center as a leading legal voice nationally on youth law issues.

●  Juvenile Law Center has a strong and collaborative management team including experienced leaders from our legal, development, communications, and operations teams, who bring decades of experience in their fields and at Juvenile Law Center. We believe the healthy and strategic dialogue among senior staff leaders, built up over decades of practice, has helped make Juvenile Law Center an innovative and nimble organization. We want to see this continued with the next generation of leadership.

● The Board has delegated considerable autonomy to organizational leaders- the CEO, CLO, and members of the management team- and that autonomy has been exercised responsibly, collaboratively, transparently, generously, and with intellectual integrity. The Board will coordinate with the new Chief Executive Officer to ensure performance measures continue to achieve effective Board oversight while supporting creative and effective decision-making at the management and staff leadership level.

● Juvenile Law Center has a culture of excellence and growth, and a staff of creative, visionary, and effective advocates. We believe it is critical to maintain this high standard and to continue to develop skilled attorneys, paralegals, and communications, development, and operations staff who can continue to contribute to a culture of excellence, creativity, and open collaboration.

● Juvenile Law Center voluntarily recognized its first union of non-supervisory staff in 2023 and is working toward our first negotiated contract. We expect the new Chief Executive Officer to work collaboratively with management, other non-union staff, and members of the union to prioritize a positive and inclusive work environment.

● Juvenile Law Center is a hybrid office with some staff members fully remote and others working in our Philadelphia office two or more days per week. We expect the new Chief Executive Officer to create an inclusive environment for all staff members, in-person and remote.

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Reporting to the Board Chair and the Board of Directors, the Chief Executive Officer has responsibility for the planning, implementation, and management of all Juvenile Law Center programs and systems, including meeting the organization’s performance and outcome goals and implementing the organization’s strategic plan.

The Chief Executive Officer is a key spokesperson for the organization in a wide and highly visible range of situations, providing inspiring leadership, mobilizing broad-based support, and acting with confidence, knowledge, and wisdom on behalf of the organization.  The Chief Executive Officer is responsible for forming external relationships to bolster programmatic strategies, assisting staff to develop subject matter expertise, and acting on behalf of the organization in a variety of public settings. The Chief Executive Officer is expected to speak to the press in a range of situations and on a range of topics with regularity, as well as respond to press queries from the Director of Communications during and after regular office hours. This includes print/online, radio, television, and podcast speaking.

The Chief Executive Officer is responsible for effective fundraising, the operating budget, and fiscal controls over expenditures. The Chief Executive Officer is expected to provide leadership in identifying potential sources of support, including but not limited to individuals, foundations, and other philanthropic sources. The Chief Executive Officer is responsible for enhancing the organization’s brand and communications in support of development and programmatic goals.

The Chief Executive Officer is expected to support Juvenile Law Center’s commitment to team building ensuring that all members of the organization are working collaboratively and effectively toward the same goals, with a dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

QUALIFICATIONS

Juvenile Law Center is seeking a Chief Executive Officer who has a demonstrated commitment to a more just and equitable world, and who is committed to promoting the well-being and rights of children who come into contact with the justice, child welfare and other public systems. The position requires strong leadership, management, financial control and management, communication, fundraising, decision-making, and interpersonal skills. The successful candidate should have the proven ability to encourage teamwork and collaboration among individuals and organizations.

The Chief Executive Officer is expected to be a leader with extraordinary vision who is able to realize that vision through a rich interaction with the Board, staff, coalition members, volunteers, clients, funding sources, and the public. The Chief Executive Officer must value a culture based upon mutual respect and camaraderie, support an inclusive and equitable environment, promote considerable staff-level stewardship of the organization’s work, and have high ethical standards and a commitment to excellence and a passion to make a difference in the world.

The Chief Executive Officer must have the skill to ensure that Juvenile Law Center’s programs are responsive to the dynamic, changing needs of those it serves, and that the methods and resources employed reflect best practices. The ideal candidate will have significant experience working on legal and policy issues central to the organization and will be able to explain such issues clearly and effectively to the media, government agencies, lawmakers, nonprofit organizations, research institutions, and those working in philanthropic circles. The Chief Executive Officer must be skilled at collaborating with a diverse array of stakeholders, including directly impacted individuals, community organizations and movement leadership, academics, and government stakeholders.

The candidate is required to:

● Be an attorney licensed to practice in the United States with significant legal practice experience in related fields;

● Have a regular presence in the Philadelphia office and be ready and able to travel as required to achieve the goals of the organization;

● Have a significant demonstrated record of leadership and collaboration in a professional environment;

● Have a demonstrated record of building an institutional funding base through cultivating their personal network, and be prepared to work with the Board and the development team to increase and diversify financial support from individual donors, foundations, corporations, and government funders; and

● Demonstrated financial control experience including effective budgeting, managing & meeting a budget within a non-profit environment.

The ideal candidate will also demonstrate the following skills, expertise, and experience:

Leadership

● Vision: Has a clear vision for advancing opportunities to combat and eradicate injustice and a plan to leverage  the resources of the Board, staff, funders, policymakers, the general public, activists, and the media to realize this vision.

● Leadership Skill and Style: Commands respect and inspires others. Models and supports a collaborative professional environment.

● Expertise: Possesses a depth of knowledge about the role of law in movements for social change and the importance of partnering with individuals directly impacted by juvenile and criminal legal and family regulation systems to make change. Has significant experience working with nonprofit organizations, government, policymaking and grant-making institutions and leaders, as well as community organizations and movement leaders locally and nationally.

● Creativity: Is a visionary thinker with a history of creative and innovative contributions and solutions to promoting human rights and achieving a more just world.

● Commitment: Demonstrates a personal commitment to racial, social, and economic justice and human rights.

Management

● Collaboration and Staffing: Has a proven ability to create positive collaborative work environments both internally and with external partners. Has a demonstrated commitment to developing and promoting diversity, equity. and inclusion in the workplace. Has a proven ability to develop and retain outstanding and diverse talent.

● Development: Has a demonstrated expertise as a fundraiser and experience in the design and implementation of coordinated fundraising efforts including the contribution of the Board, management, and staff. Has expertise in creative and effective fundraising.

● Communication: Has demonstrated exceptional communication skills and, when appropriate, directs and inspires Board leaders and program directors to effectively represent the organization in their areas of expertise.

● Financial Controls: Has demonstrated expertise in financial management, controls, and budgeting within a non-profit environment.

Juvenile Law Center offers excellent benefits, including employer-paid health, dental and vision insurance for employees and their families, short- and long-term disability and life insurance, and employer contributions to 403b retirement plans after the first year. Paid time off includes fifteen (15) vacation days, five (5) personal days, and twelve (12) sick days. Juvenile Law Center is closed for twelve holidays and the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.