At A Glance
Location: Calgary
Department: Program
Reports to: Director of Litigation Practice
Closing Date: Rolling until the position is filled
About Us
At Ecojustice, we build a case for a better earth every day! We fight, and win, for our planet in court. Our Mission is why people join Ecojustice. People who choose to join us recognize that this planet is our most treasured inheritance, and it is our imperative to be good stewards for the generations who follow us. We use the power of the courts to defend what we value most. We believe in protecting the environment while having enough time off to enjoy it. If you are courageous, collaborative and dedicated to the fight for a healthier environment, you will find your people here.
About The Role
The Managing Lawyer maximizes Ecojustice’s impact by ensuring excellence in Ecojustice’s regional program staff and operations. Specifically, they lead all day-to-day office legal activities and direct, mentor, and support Program Staff regionally. The Managing Lawyer serves as the liaison for Ecojustice, translating national, integrated priorities into regional, actionable legal work.
This role will impact Ecojustice’s program priorities by:
- Assuming the responsibilities of a Lawyer by executing Ecojustice’s program (litigation and law reform) strategic plans, participating in full range of litigation and regulatory advocacy tasks, cultivating relationships with clients, allies, coalition partners, co-counsel, and experts, and keeping up-to-date on new developments in relevant areas of law including researching legal precedents and gathering evidence for legal proceedings;
- Managing Ecojustice’s regional/local office legal staff and law practice by building program legal staff (lawyers, legal support and students) law practice skills including by assisting in developing internal and external continuing legal education and building long-term professional development plans and budgets;
- Ensuring professional case carriage and file management including ensuring effective and professional lawyer-legal support relationships;
- Assisting communication and philanthropy activities by collaborating with staff to develop communication opportunities and cultivating relationships with current and future foundations and donors;
- Overseeing program staff performance management through goal setting, development, recognition, coaching, and including regularly engaging program staff 1 on 1 with clear objectives, intended outcomes and effective feedback;
- Overseeing allocation of employee resources including delegating, prioritizing and distributing the workload of regional employees, and assisting in maximizing collaboration and distribution of work among regions;
- Collaborating and supporting the program team to ensure effective implementation of Ecojustice’s integrated program strategy;
- Oversees excellent law practice facilities, systems and procedures.
Role Success
We are currently working to embed our commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, and reconciliation (JEDI-R) into all aspects of our organization. We value candidates who enjoy building meaningful, collaborative partnerships with equity-seeking groups, and in operationalizing JEDI-R values in day-to-day practices and operations.
Typically, we find that people who succeed in this role bring:
- A Law Degree, with active practice status and a minimum of 7 years litigation experience, including demonstrated litigation and negotiation expertise.
- Member of a Provincial Law Society in good standing.
- Understanding of environmental law and policy.
- Experience in mentoring and managing people.
- Knowledge of technical/legal writing and the ability to explain legal and scientific information and concepts to the general public.
- A desire to contribute to building diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environments, including incorporating reconciliation into high level strategy and day-to-day activities.
- Ability to motivate program staff to identify and achieve their goals.
- The ability to clearly articulate your message both through verbal and written communication at all levels in the organization, with the public, and external partners.
- Strong active listening skills, empathy, and demonstrated emotional intelligence when working with others.
- Ability to organize and prioritize responsibilities and work on more than one project at a time.
- Mission-aligned with our organizational dedication to environmental protection.
Our Commitment To Workplace Accessibility, Equity, and Inclusion
Ecojustice is committed to creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment and is responding to the calls for action to further reconciliation. We encourage applications from people with relevant job-related skills and who come from communities which have been structurally marginalized based on race, religion, nationality, social or ethnic origin, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression. Members belonging to communities that experience marginalization can self-identify during the application process if they choose to do so.
Ecojustice strives to ensure that our online application system and recruitment process is accessible to individuals with different abilities and encourages candidates to contact careers@ecojustice.ca for any accommodation requests.
Great Reasons To Join Us
- Recognized as one of Canada’s Top 100 charities by Charity Intelligence.
- A hybrid work environment and flexible work schedule that best suits you and how you work.
- 5% of your salary as non-mandatory RRSP contribution.
- Parental leave top-up for birthing and non-birthing parents.
- Colleagues dedicated to environmental impact through their work at Ecojustice (over 95% mission alignment rating from 2019-2021 internal surveys).
- A culture of collaborations where employees are fostered by their managers (over 95% manager satisfaction rating from 2019-2021 internal surveys).
- Abundant paid time off options that recognizes 13 public holidays (including National Day for Truth and Reconciliation), starts with 3 weeks of vacation, 1 week of winter holidays, 2 float days and more.
- Additional flexible leave policies that accommodate physical and mental health leave, caregiving responsibilities, volunteering, and other life events.
- A focus on supporting your health and well-being through extended health benefits package, employee and family assistance program and a wellness spending of $500 per year.
- Monthly learning opportunities to further our strategic commitment towards justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, and reconciliation.