Request for Proposal | Legal Team Lead
About LSSC and Our Team
The Local Solutions Support Center (LSSC) is a national hub focused on the misuse of state preemption, documenting its consequences - particularly on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), LGBTQ people, women, immigrants, and working people - and devising counter-strategies to affirm and strengthen local democracy to advance equity.
We believe that our democracy should work for all people. A healthy democracy should allow historically excluded people to build power and exercise agency over their own lives and communities. State preemption of local policymaking - a higher level of government stripping authority from a lower level of government - should only be used to protect the health and well-being of residents and should create the foundation upon which localities can go further in advancing equity and addressing their communities’ needs. Unfortunately, preemption today is being abused to undermine a healthy democracy and harm marginalized communities.
Building a more just society means that every community should have the authority to advance equitable policies and decide how to most urgently meet the needs of their residents. LSSC is committed to supporting this work by both sharing best practices and supporting locally-led strategies that center local expertise and lived experience. You can read more about LSSC’s vision, values, and strategic priorities.
What We Are Looking For
LSSC is looking for the next leader of our Legal Team. Our Legal Team Lead is a member of our Core Team of consultants and is responsible for advancing our strategic priority of rebalancing the power between state and local governments by creating and deploying the foundation of legal expertise on preemption issues.
Focus areas for the Legal Team Lead include authoring and/or project managing white papers; delivering high-quality, real-time legal technical assistance to the preemption ecosystem; fostering, engaging, and leveraging legal expertise within the preemption ecosystem, LSSC’s law professor panel, and grantees; crafting and delivering training curriculum; ensuring accuracy in LSSC’s legislative tracking and trend analysis; and partnering with the Lead Consultant and fellow Team Leads to coordinate LSSC’s work, support funder engagement efforts, cultivate and maintain strategic relationships, and participate in occasional media interviews.
The Legal Team Lead will not and does not enter into an attorney-client relationship with LSSC, other consultants with LSSC, or LSSC’s grantees and partners. The scope of the Legal Team Lead’s work includes research and analysis of legal issues related to preemption and home rule reform. At no time will the Legal Team Lead offer legal advice or represent LSSC or anyone affiliated with LSSC as its lawyer.
How to Submit a Proposal
The Legal Team Lead Consultant will be a part-time independent contractor and will execute a contract with LSSC’s fiscal sponsor, New Venture Fund, to start in January 2024. The contract would run through the end of 2024 with the hope of renewing.
Proposals will be reviewed on a rolling basis, with priority given to proposals received by Friday, November 18, 2023. We intend to conduct interviews, make a selection, and start the contracting process by Friday, December 15, 2023, before LSSC closes for our Winter Break between December 16, 2023 - January 1, 2024.
Interested independent contractors or consulting firms should submit a proposal of no more than 4 pages to lssc@supportdemocracy.org. Please reference the proposal in the subject line of your email. Proposals will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.
Your proposal should demonstrate your (1) alignment with our values and approaches; (2) ability to meet the expectations outlined in the core competencies and scope of work below; and (3) your availability to complete the work, meet virtually with a member of the LSSC team, and to start in early January 2024.
The contract for the Legal Team Lead Consultant will be structured as a monthly retainer at $13,000 per month. We encourage individuals and firms led by BIPOC, women, LGBTQ folks, and immigrants to submit proposals. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, national origin, age, marital, and/or veteran status, or any other characteristic or activity protected by federal, state, or local law.
Core Competencies & Profile
The Legal Team Lead should possess the following skills and experience:
Vision / values aligned with LSSC’s mission and approach and an ability to serve as a consultant in the distinctive LSSC structure.
An understanding of the connection between the current misuse of state preemption and the systemic oppression of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), women, LGBTQ people, immigrants, and working people - core elements of LSSC’s vision and values.
6+ years of relevant legal and policy expertise in municipal law, the inner workings of local government, home rule, and state preemption, along with the ability to successfully manage the day-to-day work of LSSC’s legal portfolio by engaging with and translating legal concepts for a diverse array of partners – including non-lawyers and advocates.
A law degree from an accredited law school.
Vision, creativity, and planning capacity.
Ability to bring detailed legal acumen to the task of legal technical assistance and strategy, while successfully engaging a diverse array of partners, scholars, and fellow consultants, and project managing the day-to-day work of LSSC’s legal portfolio.
Detailed project management services.
Experience providing services, meeting deliverables, and collaborating with clients as an independent consultant.
Accustomed to balancing immediate, real-time, and long-term priorities, including experience meeting deadlines on complex projects and ensuring the functioning of project teams in the short and long term.
Collaborative team-player with an appreciation for diverse approaches.
The ability to build strong partnerships with a diverse set of stakeholders, with meeting facilitation skills and the ability to navigate complicated intra-state and coalition dynamics.
The ability to use a variety of tools (i.e., Doodle, When2Meet, Google Calendars, etc.) to schedule, confirm, and coordinate meetings.
Attention to detail, exceptional writing skills, and the ability to track, lead, and/or implement multiple projects and priorities simultaneously.
The flexibility, humor, and humility to thrive in a fast-paced remote environment with a constellation of fellow consultants and partner organizations.
Scope of Work
1) Coordinate day-to-day Legal Team activities and ensure completion of deliverables. This work includes:
Ensuring the work of the Legal Team is in alignment with and furthers LSSC’s vision, mission, and values.
Convening a regular meeting (typically weekly during legislative sessions) of the LSSC Legal Team, including scheduling and agenda setting.
Developing and maintaining Legal Team work plans and calendars per LSSC’s work planning process.
Receiving, vetting, prioritizing, and developing rapid response and long-term action plans for legal technical assistance from LSSC’s partners, campaigns, and policymakers.
Conducting real-time legal research on questions related to preemption and home rule.
Drafting and/or coordinating the drafting of amicus briefs.
Partnering with the Chair of LSSC’s law professor panel to ensure meaningful engagement and maximize utilization of panel members. This includes:
Scheduling and preparing interactive agendas for regular (approximately six/year) panel meetings.
Identifying and tracking opportunities to expand our network of legal scholars.
Providing feedback to the Lead Consultant on the approach to professor panel contracts.
Serving as the main contact for LSSC’s tracking vendor, including:
Ensuring accurate and comprehensive tracking via our vendor’s AI-powered online dashboards.
Reviewing and confirming all tracking reports to provide LSSC the ability to accurately communicate the scale (numbers) and scope (issue, geographic, and other trends) of abusive preemption;
Working with the tracking vendor to review and confirm search terms and bill categories used to organize LSSC’s tracking.
Developing the legal foundation of expertise on key preemption trends, primarily through the development of 2-3 legal white papers per year. This work may include authoring papers, collaborating with legal scholars on authorship, or project managing the development of white papers.
Identifying and engaging partners with critical legal expertise to share, promote, and support our Legal Team’s work, including advising the Lead Consultant on regranting opportunities, informing the development of legal regrant proposals and deliverables, and managing key relationships with partner organizations.
Leading the development of legal tools, fact sheets, or other written materials related to preemption and home rule.
Consulting with individuals, policymakers, institutions, and partner organizations seeking assistance on issues related to preemption.
2) Lead the Legal Team’s engagement in cross-team collaboration, strategic planning, and other organizational priorities, including:
Participating in LSSC’s annual strategic planning process, including all virtual and in-person retreats and planning sessions, as well as informing the development of LSSC’s overall strategy and corresponding legal team priorities.
Producing and gathering content from the Legal Team for grant proposals and reports, as well as ad hoc funder updates.
Partnering with the Lead Consultant and other project and Team Leads to:
Foster and support deep cross-team collaboration.
Support the Team Leads in executing LSSC’s strategic plan within their teams.
Triage and respond to issues, challenges, and questions that have implications across the LSSC teams (state campaigns, home rule, comms, legal, research, admin/dev).
Determine goals, topics, and approaches to full Core Team meetings
Uphold and participate in equity programming.
Representing the Legal Team on regular Team Leads, Communications Team, State Campaigns Team, Home Rule, and other project meetings as needed.
Supporting LSSC’s work as a hub serving the preemption ecosystem by cultivating and maintaining relationships with key organizational partners and stakeholders in the preemption ecosystem.
3) Provide the following general Core Team member services:
Providing the Lead Consultant with a quarterly written report on progress made on deliverables outlined in this scope of work.
Joining regular planning calls for the project, including check-in calls with the Lead Consultant as needed, Core Team meetings, and other periodic meetings to discuss the work and project direction.
Speaking about preemption and home rule at events, including but not limited to conferences, webinars, and conference calls.
Serving as a media spokesperson when needed and coordinated by the Communications Team.
Participating in LSSC internal equity trainings and related activities, as needed.
Engaging in periodic funder communications, meetings, and outreach.
Utilizing and being responsive to communications on LSSC’s Slack platform.
Creating, hosting, and organizing files on LSSC’s Google Drive platform.
Complying with LSSC’s budget, travel, and expense request processes.