About Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is the leading advocacy organization working to reduce tobacco use and its deadly consequences in the United States and around the world. Through our Global Health Advocacy Incubator, we tackle other critical public health challenges across the globe – including food and nutrition policy, injury and overdose prevention, and building resilient and equitable health systems.
Our vision is a healthier and more equitable future for all.
The Opportunity
The Legal Director will oversee all the food and nutrition legal work and supervise legal staff and consultants in close collaboration and alignment with the Food and Nutrition Program leads. They will provide leadership, strategic planning, and technical advice to the food and nutrition legal and program teams to support in country advocacy campaigns and strategic litigation through review of legal contexts for policy reform; drafting and review of pending legislation or regulations; and providing guidance for strategic litigation that advances the program goals. This includes working with food and nutrition program leadership, the lawyers and program teams, and collaborate with local and global partners.
The Legal Director will provide leadership, management, and mentoring to the food and nutrition legal team and facilitate coordination on legal issues and approaches across the program as necessary and helpful. The Legal Director will also provide guidance in developing high quality, tailored training and technical assistance frameworks to strengthen the capacity of lawyers on staff and at local partner organizations.
Reporting to the Vice President of Food & Nutrition, the Legal Director will serve on the Food & Nutrition Leadership Team and will lead a team of five attorneys and consultants working across Washington, DC, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
Key Responsibilities
As head of the food and nutrition Legal Team, the Legal Director will have overall responsibility for the Legal Team’s efforts, providing strategic direction and supervision of the legal team, most of whom are assigned full-time to specific Food and Nutrition Program and have content expertise in those program areas. The Legal Director will work with legal staff, consultants, and partners/grantees to develop and implement legal strategies as an integrated part of the program teams’ overall advocacy strategies. This includes:
Legal analysis and legislative reviews:
- Provide strategic guidance to the legal team to ensure high quality legal analyses of legislation, regulations, and other initiatives at the global, national and/or subnational level to ensure that they reflect best public health and legal practice.
- Identify gaps in legislation to inform the setting of policy change priorities on public health and safety issues.
- Assist with the drafting of legislation or regulations and providing continuing assistance as the draft is modified or changed by the government.
- Support development and maintenance of legislative drafting tools for those considering legislation for the first time or for comparing weaknesses in specific provisions.
- Work with global tobacco legal team to develop appropriate synergies and to learn from the decades of work advanced there.
- Provide oversight for Food and Nutrition legal team’s development of resource materials and tools relevant to advancing policy.
Food and Nutrition Management:
The Legal Director will serve on the Food and Nutrition Leadership Team to contribute to the management and strategic direction of the Program, including plans for growth and ensure high quality legal support for the program. S/he will work to increase the Food and Nutrition Program visibility of legal efforts in the policy areas where we work. This will include:
- Develop overall strategic vision for the Food and Nutrition legal work and promote links with international and in country legal partners.
- Contribute to strategic advocacy planning and ensuring that legal efforts are an integrated part of policy change campaigns.
- Supervise and support food and nutrition lawyers and work with them to develop appropriate professional development and other capacity building opportunities.
- Capture best practices and document success stories resulting from the work of the legal team and partners.
- Represent the legal team and its work to current and potential funders.
- Conceptualize and pursue opportunities for organizational growth.
Litigation:
When strategic or necessary, offensive and defensive litigation may be part of advocacy efforts – defending laws/regulations, efforts to affect government or corporate action/inaction, etc. The Legal Director will provide oversight and guidance to the legal team and these efforts, including the following:
- Review legal context in priority countries to determine what litigation approaches might further overall program efforts.
- Work closely with staff attorneys and local legal counsel to manage caseload of pending legal actions.
- Support the development of work products of local counsel as needed, which could include providing feedback to pleadings and briefs, discovery and motion practice, and documents for evidentiary hearings and oral arguments.
- Identify and work with outside lawyers and litigation counsels to support legal efforts.
- Provide technical assistance and expert legal advice to cooperating attorneys.
Compensation and Benefits
Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience. The salary range for this role is $150,000 - $180,000 and offers an excellent benefits package that includes: comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plan for employees and dependents, 403b plan participation (with 9% company contribution), 12 paid company holidays, 15 vacation days, 10 sick days, and 5 personal days (on an accrual basis each calendar year)
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We believe our programs are strengthened when they are developed and supported by individuals with diverse life experiences, whose understanding of social and cultural issues can help make The Campaign's work more inclusive. We encourage qualified applicants of all ages, racial, economic, social, cultural, sexual orientation, ability and gender expressions, national origins, and veteran statuses to apply.