Senior Counsel

Community Progress is the only national nonprofit dedicated to helping people transform vacant spaces into vibrant places. Our team provides urban, suburban, and rural communities looking to revitalize vacant properties with the tools and resources needed to address those properties at the policy and systems level. Since 2010, we have delivered customized, expert guidance to leaders in over 300 communities and provided hundreds of hours of free educational resources as well as leadership programming to help policymakers, practitioners, and community members across the country return properties to productive use. Learn more at www.communityprogress.org/about.

About the Technical Assistance Team

The nine-member Technical Assistance team at Community Progress is made up of former public sector practitioners, attorneys, and urban planners who are passionate about revitalizing communities by addressing vacant properties at the policy and systems scale. We partner with local governments and land banks to assess and reform their policies and practices with a strong focus on racial equity and community impact. Drawing on our decades of legal and executive experience, we help communities tackle code enforcement, delinquent property tax enforcement, land banks, vacant land stewardship, data and market analysis, and comprehensive planning. We lead with curiosity and care—listening closely, challenging thoughtfully, centering residents, and supporting implementation efforts. We bring creativity, joy, and mutual respect to our work and to each other. Our team has provided technical assistance to more than 350 communities in over 35 states; click to see our past deliverables for cities like St. Louis and Louisville and states like West Virginia, Missouri, and New York.

Job Summary

This is a unique opportunity for an experienced attorney to apply their legal and policy expertise to advance community development across the country. While maintaining a limited in-house legal role, the Senior Counsel will primarily serve as a legal and policy advisor to local and state partners, as opposed to providing direct legal services.

This position offers variety, flexibility, and national reach. The Senior Counsel will work across multiple legal and policy areas—such as code enforcement, property tax foreclosure, land banking, zoning, employment, or contract law. One week may involve drafting state statutes, facilitating a multi-disciplinary convening, analyzing a local ordinance, and writing a national publication. The next may include presenting to elected officials, drafting a substantive report of local recommendations, training staff, or proactively identifying opportunities to shape policy the at the national, state, and local levels.

Primary Role: Technical Assistance and Policy Expertise (~90%)

Most of the Senior Counsel’s time will be spent as a core member of the Technical Assistance team, delivering specialized guidance to state and local governments working to reform systems that impact vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated (VAD) properties. The role involves collaborating with the nation’s top experts on topics like delinquent property tax enforcement, code enforcement, land banking, and alternative land use. Responsibilities include:

• Serving on small technical assistance project teams, providing legal analysis, contributing to written reports or memoranda, and presenting findings to state and local partners.
• Analyzing state and local laws and summarizing key provisions of the legal systems that impact vacant and abandonment, including but not limited to property tax foreclosure, code enforcement, rental regulations, land banking and public acquisition tools, and other areas of housing or municipal law.
• Helping state and local partners identify and understand the need for potential legislative or policy reforms, make recommendations, and help draft local ordinances, policies, and state statutes.
• Developing and delivering trainings or author short pieces (e.g., blog posts) for legal and non-legal audiences.
• Travelling domestically, for site visits and Community Progress events, up to 25% of the time.

Highlights of past projects the Senior Counsel role was involved in include:

• Supporting a two-year coalition effort in St. Louis that led to state legislative reforms allowing jurisdictions new access to land banks and more equitable tax enforcement.
• Facilitating a year-long policy cohort in the Mississippi Delta that produced a statewide brief on local innovations.
• Leading a national coalition to discuss and develop policy guidance following the Tyler v. Hennepin County Supreme Court decision.
• Helping Detroit revise its proactive rental inspection program to improve tenant protections and landlord accountability.
• Advising New York land banks on how to support homelessness response efforts.

Neither Community Progress nor the Senior Counsel provide direct legal advice or enter into an attorney-client relationship with the communities we serve. The Senior Counsel’s role as a member of the Technical Assistance team is to consult on the laws and policies impacting VAD property, subject to the review and guidance of our client partners’ local counsel.

Secondary Role: In-House Legal Support (~10%)

The Senior Counsel will also support the General Counsel in providing Community Progress with core legal advice and guidance. Responsibilities include assessing legal risk applicable to the field of practice, assisting with contract review and drafting, and review and development of internal policies. This work is grounded in trusted relationships with colleagues and an understanding of the nonprofit and policy landscape.

Qualifications and Experience

Qualifications

The Senior Counsel must have a J.D. and a minimum of 10 years as a licensed attorney, including at least 5 years working in-house or closely with federal, state, or local government; a nonprofit; or in a closely related setting. They must also be a member currently in good standing of a state bar.

Candidates should have demonstrated experience in at least one of the legal systems that shape outcomes for vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties, including:

• Housing and building code enforcement
• Delinquent property tax enforcement
• Land reuse or land banking systems

Core Competencies and Attributes

Mission Alignment: This role is ideal for an attorney who shares a commitment to Community Progress’ mission and a passion for advancing reforms that improve the quality of life for people in the communities we serve. The ideal candidate leads with empathy, builds trust with colleagues and clients, and enjoys navigating multiple roles.

Soft Skills and Problem Solving: The Senior Counsel is strategic, creative, a persuasive communicator, and a reliable partner who cares deeply for the people who live in the communities we serve. Candidates should demonstrate strong listening skills, empathy, humility, and social intelligence to quickly identify and understand a client’s or colleague’s core goals and be able to develop effective legal or policy strategies accordingly.

Salary, Benefits, and Location

The salary range for this role is $131,000 – 149,000 commensurate with experience and qualifications. For exceptionally qualified candidates, some flexibility in salary or other accommodations may be considered.

Additionally, the Center for Community Progress provides an excellent and comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, 401k match, professional development, access to flexible spending or health savings accounts, and generous personal time off benefits.

This Community Progress has a strong remote work culture and will consider candidates who are fully remote or hybrid with one of our offices in Washington DC, Flint, Chicago, or Atlanta. The anticipated tentative start date is September 1, 2025.

Application Instructions

Interested applicants must submit a cover letter, resume, and one writing sample which demonstrates your ability to concisely and clearly make complex or technical legal information accessible to a broad audience by 5:00pm EST, Friday, June 20. We reserve the right to accept applications submitted after this date but will remove the posting once the position has been filled. Please apply by emailing your materials to hiring@communityprogress.org or by using the form on our Jobs page

Equal Opportunity Employment

The Center for Community Progress (Community Progress) does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, age, or sex in administration of its programs or activities, nor does it intimidate or retaliate against any individual or group because they have exercised their rights to participate in actions protected, or oppose action prohibited, by 40 C.F.R. Parts 5 and 7, or for the purpose of interfering with such rights. Community Progress’ Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) is responsible for coordination of compliance efforts and receipt of inquiries concerning non-discrimination requirements implemented by 40 C.F.R. Parts 5 and 7.

If you have any questions, or believe that you have been discriminated against with respect to a Community Progress activity, you may contact Courtney Knox, CAO, at cknox@communityprogress.org or at (877) 542-4842 ext. 154. You may also visit our website for more information: https://communityprogress.org/notice-of-non-discrimination/