Clinical Social Worker

Stanford Law School

Mills Legal Clinic 

 Stanford Law School seeks to hire the best talent and to promote a safe and secure environment for all members of the university community and its property. To that end, new staff hires must successfully pass a background check prior to starting work at Stanford University.

The Stanford Law School (SLS), Mills Legal Clinic (MLC) is seeking a full-time Social Worker to work alongside MLC attorneys, students, and other staff providing holistic representation and advocacy to individuals with immigration, criminal defense, education, disability, and housing-related needs. The ideal candidate is an experienced social worker and client advocate with excellent case management and organizational skills, experience working with economically disadvantaged communities and communities of color, a willingness to work collaboratively across legal and social work disciplines, an interest in working in an academic setting, and a desire and entrepreneurial skills to create best practices in integrating social workers into a legal organization. 

About the Mills Legal Clinic at the Stanford Law School

The Stanford clinical program is unique in that students participate in a clinic on a full-time basis; the clinic is the only course a student takes during the term of enrollment. The Mills Legal Clinic occupies an entire floor in an award-winning central campus building.

About the Position

This in-person position reports directly to one of the Directors of the four MLC clinics described below. Supervision will rotate between the four Directors at the beginning of each academic year.

The social worker will work regularly with MLC’s Immigrant Rights Clinic, Youth & Education Law Project, Community Law Clinic, and Criminal Defense Clinic to support and improve the lives of clients of those MLC programs. The social worker will work closely with the Directors, Clinical Supervising Attorneys, paralegals, legal assistants, and SLS students in serving their clients. Each of these four MLC clinics provide free legal services to the most vulnerable populations—including people with disabilities and chronic illness, members of the LGBTQ community, undocumented immigrants and refugees, children and youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, and people involved with the criminal justice system. Attorneys and advocates counsel and represent individuals in matters including deportation defense, special education, criminal misdemeanors, land-lord-tenant disputes, and access to public benefits. MLC’s clients often are dealing with multiple life challenges in addition to their legal issues and face cross-cultural barriers to accessing services. 

*This is a non-clinical position.  This position is for an initial three-year fixed term.  The position may have the option for an extension or movement to a continuing term based on funding. 

Primary Responsibilities: 

·     - Work with the Clinic instructors to integrate social work services into MLC’s provision of legal services.

·    -  Develop relationships with local social service organizations and agencies

·     - Participate in trainings of and with legal team, including teaching students on the intersection of social work and legal case management.

·      - Work collaboratively with attorneys and staff in meeting the psychosocial and legal needs of clients

·     - Conduct psychosocial needs assessments of clients, identify client needs and goals, and assist clients in meeting these goals

·     - Provide intake appointments, case management services, and crisis intervention support to clients and their families

·     - Identify client needs and match client with appropriate social services and support

·    -  Provide advocacy for clients in non-legal settings (i.e., meetings with county case workers, probation, social service offices, community-based organizations etc.) 

·    -  Complete tasks involved with client case management

- Participate in professional development to improve client services

- Participate in administrative meetings of the MLC

*Note: The job duties listed are typical examples of work performed by positions in this job classification and are not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, tasks, and responsibilities. Specific duties and responsibilities may vary depending on department or program needs without changing the general nature and scope of the job or level of responsibility. Employees may also perform other duties as assigned.