Job Title:
Legal Advisor
Company/Organization:
MLPB
Location:
Boston, MA
Position Description:
MLPB, a non-profit social enterprise, seeks a Legal Advisor to support its mission-driven capacity-building work. MLPB (f/k/a Medical-Legal Partnership | Boston) equips health and human service organizations with upstream problem-solving strategies that improve people’s social determinants of health (SDOH). Leveraging our public interest law expertise, we advance health equity for individuals, families and communities. MLPB’s operating model is evidence-based and prioritizes capacity-building strategies for our organizational partners – based in healthcare, human services, and early childhood systems – and their workforces. These strategies include:
• Workforce training and interprofessional education (IPE);
• A range of legal technical assistance services, including Integration of our team members within interdisciplinary case reviews/rounds/huddles to support effective, strengths-based problem-solving with people and populations;
• Facilitating workforce connections with MLPB-curated legal experts to enable “accountable” safe hand-offs of some individuals/families with acute/complex legal needs; and
• Informing system design and policy change strategies at multiple levels (team-based, organization-based, sector-based) in ways that honor care/service quality imperatives, individual and family autonomy, and the critical distinction between social determinants of health and health-related social needs.
MLPB partners with 20+ health and human services organizations in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and nationally. In 2018, we were certified by MassHealth as a DSRIP technical assistance vendor in several domains, including Community-based Care and Social Determinants of Health. MLPB is a fiscally sponsored project of TSNE MissionWorks.
NOTE: MLPB and its staff do not provide direct legal representation to consumers. Attorneys seeking to provide direct legal representation to individuals, families, or classes of consumers should not apply for the Legal Advisor position.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
The Legal Advisor will join a talented group of MLPB legal advisors and advance the organization’s mission and successful growth through, primarily:

Workforce Training & Interprofessional Education (IPE)
• Lead (or partner on) live and web-based trainings for a range of stakeholders that cover:
o How law and public policy (historical and current) impact people’s social, economic and environmental health (a/k/a social determinants of health, which operate at population and community levels);
o Common barriers that people confront when trying to access services, benefits and other supports for which they are legally eligible;
o Strengths-based, role-appropriate (scope of practice-aligned) problem-solving steps that can be undertaken by team members in partnership with individuals and families who have screened positive for HRSN (health-related social needs, a recent concept that focuses on the individual / household level);
o Best practices for expectation management (and other supportive planning) that can be deployed when no remedies for HRSN exist under current law or public policy; and
o System- and policy-level strategies available to health and human service sector leadership and workforce members
• Develop, refine and update MLPB’s branded training/IPE content based on learner feedback and changes in laws and public policies that impact people’s legal risks, rights and remedies in a range of legal domains.

Legal Technical Assistance:
• Attend interdisciplinary team meetings to inform SDOH need detection, assessment, and care plan development in ways that account for people’s legal risks, rights and remedies;
• Respond thoughtfully, efficiently and creatively to a high volume of capacity-building consults from workforce colleagues on behalf of individuals, families and communities;
• Develop tools and publications that respond to needs reflected in consumer need and consult demand;
• In some instances, facilitate workforce members’ safe hand-offs of individuals/families with acute or complex legal needs to appropriate legal community resources;
• Co-design organizational systems and protocols that promote strengths-based, person-centered approaches both to HRSN and SDOH;
• Identify opportunities to influence systems and policy in collaboration with partner with teams/organizations to promote the health of populations impacted by inequities; and
• Represent MLPB in a range of settings dedicated to collective impact on health equity goals.
Quality Assurance & Improvement
• Maintain timely documentation of all activities on central case management database to assure rigorous tracking of process and outcome measures linked to MLPB’s capacity-building work;
• Prepare regular reports on services and outcomes, identifying trends in consumer- and population-level needs and highlighting health equity implications;
• Inform and co-design (with organizational partners) professionally responsible protocols for information-sharing/feedback loops and legal/fiduciary obligations in ways that account for consumer protection laws, individual and family autonomy, informed consent, and potential conflicts of interest;
• Cultivate and nurture relationships with professional networks that enhance our capacity to provide quality consultation as legal generalists; and
• Bring a health disparities reduction and race equity lens to the role, including collaboration with appropriate coalitions locally, regionally and nationally.

Organizational Development
• Support research and evaluation activities, including efforts to demonstrate how MLPB’s work promotes Strengthening FamiliesTM protective factors and advances the Quadruple Aim
• Support best practice dissemination, including participation in conferences and publications
• Support fundraising through grant proposal and report drafting, participation in funder site visits, etc.
• Supervision of interns
• Miscellaneous / general non-profit “pitching in”

Minimum Qualifications and Skills:
Qualifications:
• JD required
• Licensed and in good standing in Massachusetts required
o Licensed and in good standing in multiple states preferred
• At least 4-6 years of legal practice experience
o Experience with training and education contexts preferred
• Appreciation of a non-traditional lawyering opportunity that places a premium on
(a) interdisciplinary collaboration, (b) train-the-trainer approaches to legal information dissemination and problem-solving, and (c) centering allied workforce members as the primary consumers of our services, and the people and populations they assist as the intended beneficiaries:
o Excellent oral and written communication skills; specifically: versatility in translating and communicating legal concepts for a range of stakeholders
o Demonstrated commitment to meeting the needs of people and communities that experience health inequities, and better aligning the systems/sectors that are intended to serve those populations (e.g., health, public health, legal, housing, education, urban planning, etc.)
o Enthusiasm for a generalist legal practice that accounts for the complex social, economic, and environmental contexts in which many people live
o Commitment to building and maintaining proficiency in the operational jargon and culture of the health, human service, and early childhood sector(s)
• Strong planning and project management skills
o Ability to work independently
o Self-starter with can-do attitude
o Creative solution-finder
• Commitment to contributing to a positive, collegial, and inclusive team culture
o Strong interpersonal and communication skills with a focus on teamwork, collaboration and engagement
o Commitment to continuous learning
o Interest in joining a mission-driven social enterprise that embraces unpredictability and change
• Willingness and ability to travel periodically to locations in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New England, and across the country in the course of the work
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office products and cloud-based document management systems like Box; familiarity with and enthusiasm for educational technologies preferred
Application Deadline
04/01/2019
Application Requirements
  • Resume
  • Cover Letter
Who should be contacted for further information on this opportunity?
Meg Baker
Email
admin@mlpboston.org
Email
mbaker@mlpboston.org
Address
200 Portland Street
Boston, MA 02114
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Website
http://www.mlpboston.org/jointheteam-0