Senior Counsel Defense and Strategic Litigation

Overview

Mother’s Outreach Network, Inc. (MON), based in Washington, DC, is a nonprofit, tax-exempt, racial justice and antipoverty organization advancing family preservation by transforming income and family regulation laws, policies, and practices from punitive to empowering. MON uses movement lawyering strategies that build parents’ power, reduce harm, shrink the reach of family policing systems, shift resources to community-based supports, and eliminate unnecessary surveillance of families.

MON Advances This Work Through Three Primary Programs:

• Legal
  : representation, advice, and referrals for mothers navigating/defending against CPS intervention, including practice in DC Superior Court related to CFSA involvement and CFSA-connected family law matters such as custody, visitation, and related proceedings impacted by child protective services involvement.
• Advocacy
  : litigation-grounded strategy and systemic advocacy to transform how systems treat families, guided by families most impacted by CFSA.
• Community partnership
  : outreach, know your rights workshops, community-driven research, and mutual aid.

Position Description

The Senior Counsel for Family Defense and Strategic Litigation will lead MON’s legal strategy to keep families together by litigating and winning in individual cases, building strong factual records of harm, and using strategic litigation and systemic advocacy as a central tool for durable system transformation. This role is ultimately about protecting parents’ constitutional rights and furthering racial justice, including the fundamental right to direct the care and upbringing of their children and the right to be free from unlawful searches.

This is a senior litigator role for someone who believes parents deserve zealous defense and client-led decision making. You will stay close to practice in the DC Superior Court Abuse and Neglect Division while also shaping test cases, appeals, administrative challenges, and amicus work that shrink the system, end harmful surveillance, and move resources toward supports that keep families safely together.

A civil rights, community and/or movement lawyering background is welcome and highly preferred, as this role offers a meaningful opportunity to shape policy through litigation in alignment with organizing efforts led by families most impacted by CFSA.

To succeed here, you will partner with families to spot patterns across cases and translate those patterns into a clear litigation pipeline. You will work in tandem with MON’s policy and legislative advocacy efforts when necessary so that constitutional and practice-based litigation lessons strengthen legislative and administrative strategies, and policy wins reinforce litigation goals. The role may also include affirmative and original litigation, including matters filed in federal district court in partnership with colleagues and pro bono counsel, to advance economic justice and protect parental rights in support of family preservation.

Key Responsibilities

• Family Defense Leadership and Strategic Litigation (60%)
  • Participate in and supervise matters in the DC Superior Court Abuse and Neglect Division, including hearings, motions, and appeals strategy.
  • Center constitutional rights in litigation strategy, including due process protections, the right to family integrity, and freedom from unlawful searches, and use the legal record to document violations and secure durable protections for parents.
  • Coordinate the legal program for the Mother’s Outreach Network Mother Up pilot, including provision of legal representation, assistance, and referrals to participating mothers.
  • Develop and advance litigation that may include filings in federal district court, in partnership with colleagues and pro bono counsel, to secure economic justice and protect parental rights in support of family preservation.
  • Support appellate and amicus work conducted on behalf of MON through a pro bono program with law firms that specialize in constitutional law, including issue framing, record development, and strategic alignment with MON goals.
  • Coordinate litigation with pro bono legal providers and law firm partners, including…