Appellate Specialist

About the Community Economic Defense Project (CEDP) & CED Law 

Our Mission

We partner with low-income and working people to build economic and racial equity. We do this by confronting economic abuse and investing in community wealth. We use an ever-evolving set of legal, economic and advocacy tools to challenge and dismantle unjust systems, building quickly towards a world where all people have what they need to live and thrive. 

Our Organization

The Community Economic Defense Project (CEDP) is a Colorado-based nonprofit. Launched in 2020 as the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project, our organization was formed to keep our neighbors housed during the pandemic. Working with clients, we built a deeply integrative approach to eviction, foreclosure, and homelessness prevention that centers the legal and financial needs of housing-insecure families and uses a variety of tools to keep them housed. 

Our team now serves more than 1,000 people per month, bringing together housing lawyers, economists, data analysts, policy-experts, organizers, and technologists to serve our clients. We have served more than 68,000 low-income Coloradans across 54 counties, distributing more than $280 million in emergency assistance. We have also contributed to the passage of major legislation to prevent eviction, stop economic abuse, and make credit and life-saving medication cheaper.  CEDP’s model has been cited as a best practice by the White House and HUD in 2022-2023, think tanks like the Urban Institute, and in the media.

Building on our work to stop evictions, CEDP has further expanded its integrated services model to include disaster response, predatory towing, debt collection, benefit access & navigation, long-term rental assistance, and homelessness response. Similar to CEDP’s work on rental housing, these efforts offer a continuum of care that includes navigation and advisory services, targeted payments, legal support, and the ability to participate in advocacy.

More about the Appellate Specialist Role:

As our law firm evolves, we are seeking an experienced attorney to focus on strategic litigation and appeals for our tenant and homeowner legal services teams. This appellate specialist will be responsible for contributing to grant goals by closing a number of limited cases per month and focusing the rest of their time on strategic litigation and appeals in conjunction with our defensive and affirmative tenant and homeowner legal services teams. The appellate specialist will be responsible for handling their caseload primarily on their own but may work on cases with other attorneys at the trial level to prepare cases for appeal. The role reports directly to the Director of Tenant Legal Services.

In this role you will:

• Create the appellate strategy and framework for the law firm to ensure long-term strategic impact
• Set overall goals, priorities, and growth trajectories for CED Law appeals in collaboration with the Directors of Tenant Legal Services, Director of Homeowner Legal Services, and Chief Legal Services Officer and through engagement with CED Law staff
• Refine and develop appellate policies and procedures
• Be responsible for a full docket of eviction and homeowner defense and affirmative appeals as well as a number of limited/advice only eviction defense cases to meet grant requirements
• Be responsible for completing case goals
• Coordinate across CEDP to ensure holistic service of legal clients when appropriate and consented to by client
• Complete required documentation for case and data tracking
• Assist with staff training and onboarding, substantive skills development, and professional development and growth with support from the Directors of Tenant Legal Services and Homeowner Legal Services
• Assist with trial preparation and second chairing on cases with important issues that we are likely to appeal
• Take on new, and modify existing, duties as the law firm and its appellate/strategic needs evolve, grow, or shift 
  

Position Requirements: 

• Colorado bar admission and JD 
• 3+ years' experience as a housing attorney in Colorado 
• Experience with trial and appellate litigation, including appeals to the Colorado Court of Appeals and Colorado Supreme Court 
• Affirmative litigation experience in housing law 
• Experience working in a legal aid/legal services/non-profit environment 
• Demonstrated passion for social and racial justice.
• A supportive, client-focused attitude.
• Strong desire to center client and community needs.
• Ability to work collaboratively with other attorneys, paralegals, legal support staff, and supervisors in a rapid-change environment centered on social justice and equity. 
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills.
• A creative, self-driven attitude.
• Position possible to perform remotely with a secure and private environment in compliance with CEDP’s IT requirements and high speed internet to perform the responsibilities of the role 
• Strong organizational abilities.
• Knowledge of MS Office suite, CLIO, Google Suite, Adobe Acrobat desired
  
• Other language skills are not required but are a strong plus and may be eligible for an additional language salary differential
  
  

Additional Details: 

• The position includes competitive pay, flexible time off, benefits package (including medical, dental, vision), and 401(k).
• A competitive annual salary of $110,000
  
• All employees receive a technology stipend of $720 per year
• Employees who utilize two languages or more at work are eligible for a $2,000 salary differential per year added to the salary grade listed above.  Language assessment will be conducted by the organization as a requirement to receive the differential
• Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis but must be received by July 17th, 2026
• The estimated time to complete the recruitment process will be by July 31st, 2026
  
• As in-person work is required, all employees at CEDP & CED Law are expected to maintain current vaccination status in keeping with CDC recommendations.
• CEDP is an equal opportunity employer, committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status.