Senior Director of Litigation

Description

The Center for Reproductive Rights has partnered with Koya for this search: Link to Apply on Koya site

Title: Senior Director of Litigation

Unit: Litigation, U.S. Program Division

Center Background: The Center for Reproductive Rights is a global human rights organization working to ensure that reproductive rights are protected in law as fundamental human rights worldwide. With offices in New York City, and Washington, D.C.; Nairobi, Kenya; Bogota, Colombia; and Geneva, Switzerland, the Center is a non-profit, non-partisan organization changing law and policy throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the United States. Our 270+ diverse professionals are committed to advancing the Center’s human rights mission through game-changing litigation, legal policy, and advocacy work. This has powered the Center’s exceptional growth to an operating budget of over $67 million and won the respect of law firms in countries around the world. Our global pro bono network includes over 3,000 lawyers across 6 continents, 88 countries, and 140 law firms. Last year, law firms contributed over $35 million USD in pro bono legal services. The Center’s Strategic Plan sets a high mark for impact: By 2030, half of the world’s population will be living under stronger protections for reproductive rights than they were in 2020. The Center has a record of success to back up this ambitious goal. Since our founding in 1992, the Center has transformed how reproductive rights are understood and applied by courts, governments, and human rights bodies worldwide on issues including maternal health, abortion, assisted reproduction, and adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights. We have won groundbreaking cases before national courts, U.N. Committees, and regional human rights bodies. The Center has also led development of historic, proactive legislation advancing robust protections for reproductive rights. It has built the legal capacity of women’s rights advocates in more than 65 countries and counting. To learn more about the Center, please go to www.reproductiverights.org

The Job: In the midst of an escalating assault on reproductive freedom in the United States, the Center for Reproductive Rights is seeking a bold, strategic, and visionary litigator to lead its U.S. Litigation team.

The Senior Director of Litigation sets the strategic vision for the Center’s litigation efforts nationwide and ensures alignment with broader institutional goals. Reporting to the Chief Program Officer, U.S. Division, the Senior Director works closely with cross-functional leaders in Policy and Advocacy and Corporate Engagement to drive an integrated strategy that secures lasting legal protections and prevents regression across the reproductive rights landscape.

As the head of the Litigation Unit, a team of 27 professionals, including 23 attorneys, the Senior Director is responsible for ensuring high-quality legal execution and internal coordination. This includes overseeing case development and implementation, translating strategic goals into impactful litigation, and ensuring the team’s legal work is timely, coordinated, and rigorous.

The Senior Director also provides unified leadership across the Litigation Unit’s internal structure, directly supervising senior leaders and cultivating an inclusive, transparent, and accountable team culture. They are responsible for fostering alignment across workstreams, providing guidance to team leaders, and ensuring that staff are well-supported in their growth, collaboration, and contributions.

A core component of the Center’s litigation model involves partnering with leading law firms, corporate legal departments, and other pro bono allies. In collaboration with the Center’s internal pro bono team, the Senior Director will steward and grow a robust network of pro bono partners, expanding capacity, deepening expertise, and extending the reach of the Unit’s litigation docket.

Finally, the Senior Director plays a key role in external engagement, serving as a visible leader and spokesperson for the Center’s litigation work. They will represent the Center in courtrooms, coalitions, donor briefings, media opportunities, and other public forums, helping to elevate the Center’s visibility and cultivate support for its mission. This position requires approximately 35% travel.

This position will be based in the Center’s New York City headquarters in a hybrid model of 3 days in-office, 2 days working-from-home.

Primary Responsibilities:

Strategy Development

The Senior Director of Litigation is responsible for developing and executing a bold and effective litigation strategy to advance reproductive rights and justice across the United States. They will ensure that the Litigation Unit’s work is grounded in legal excellence, responsive to emerging threats and opportunities, and advances the Center’s broader long-term strategic goals. The Senior Director will collaborate with the Chief Program Officer, U.S. Division, to ensure cohesion across the Division’s integrated strategy and will work closely with leaders of the Policy and Advocacy and Corporate Engagement teams to maximize the Center’s impact.

• •Serve as a key strategic advisor to the Chief Program Officer and an active member of the U.S. Division leadership team. Contribute to cross-divisional priority setting, high-level decision-making, and long-term planning.
• •Lead the development of an ambitious, impactful, and cohesive state and federal litigation strategy to secure legal guarantees for reproductive rights, prevent regression, and advance the Center’s integrated U.S. Division strategy.
• •Drive strategic thinking and innovation by setting long-term goals, fostering a culture of experimentation, and translating complex ideas into actionable litigation strategies responsive to changing legal and political conditions.
• •Collaborate with fellow senior leaders across Corporate Engagement and Policy and Advocacy Units to ensure that each team’s work is strategically aligned and mutually reinforcing.
• •Identify timely opportunities for coordinated action on high-impact issues and in key jurisdictions, bringing forward bold and creative ideas that maximize the Center’s overall impact.
• •Represent the Litigation Unit in division-wide and organization-wide strategic planning forums, offering insights that reflect both deep subject matter expertise and a broad, cross-functional perspective.

Program Execution

The Senior Director is responsible ensuring that the Unit’s work is carried out with excellence, coordination, and urgency. They are accountable for translating strategic goals into impactful legal action, overseeing the quality, timeliness, and effectiveness of the team’s litigation activities.

• •Ensure that litigation activities are aligned with the Division’s integrated strategy and reflect the Center’s long-term vision and values.
• •Provide strategic input on case development, litigation priorities, and related non-litigation work, in coordination with senior leaders.
• •Effectively execute annual and multi-year plans, while adapting to changing external conditions and emerging priorities.
• •Oversee development and management of Unit budget.
• •Track progress toward programmatic goals and ensure clear lines of accountability across the team. Identify gaps, risks, or areas where course correction is needed, and guide timely, strategic adjustments and prioritization.
• •Lead and participate in coordinated rapid response efforts to legal and political developments by working with internal teams to take timely, strategic, and effective action in response to crises and opportunities.
• •Stay abreast of U.S. legal developments and regularly brief the Chief Program Officer and CEO, and the Center leadership on jurisprudential developments, emerging risks, opportunities, and their implications for the Center’s strategy and operations.
• •Proactively elevate issue