Careers
We are a small firm doing work with real consequences for real people. That shapes who we bring in and how. We would rather carry less work well than more work badly, and we hire accordingly.
Three ways in
Most people join through the practitioner network rather than a posted role.
Practitioner network
Experienced coordinators, investigators, and ADA officers who take engagements with us on a contracted basis. This is the way most people join the firm, and it is open continuously rather than when a role is posted.
Core team
Salaried roles at the firm itself. These are few, senior, and posted when they open. We would rather leave a seat empty than fill it with someone who has not done the work.
Fellows program
For people early in the field, or moving into it, who want to train inside live practice under supervision rather than learn on a live matter alone.
See the fellowshipOpen roles
Core team roles are listed on Wellfound when they open. The practitioner network is open continuously, and most people who join the firm arrive that way rather than through a posting, so write to us whether or not something is listed.
What we promise, and what we ask
Stated before you apply rather than discovered afterward.
You will be corrected
In detail, on the record, by someone whose name is on the file. If that sounds unpleasant, this is not the right firm. It is the entire reason our work holds up.
You will be screened
Every practitioner working under our name completes background screening before touching an engagement, and we meet any further screening a client requires.
You will be a mandatory reporter
In every engagement, regardless of how a particular state classifies the role. We do not treat that as a jurisdictional question.
You will hold confidences permanently
During the engagement and after it ends. Nothing about a client, a matter, or a party leaves with you.
You will not be sold as a body
We scope work to what a practitioner can carry properly. Capacity is a constraint we respect rather than a number we stretch.
You will be senior, or supervised
There is no third category. If you are still learning a framework, someone experienced carries the file with you.
How hiring runs
Write to us
A short letter about what you have carried and what you want to carry next. A resume helps, but the letter is what we read first. There is no portal and no form to game.
A working conversation
Not an interview. We put a procedural problem in front of you and talk through how you would handle it. Saying you do not know is a legitimate and often correct answer.
References and screening
We speak to people who have watched you work, then complete background screening before any engagement contact.
Scope and terms
For network practitioners, a contracted engagement with defined scope and rate. For core roles, an offer. Either way the terms are written down before you start.
First file
You are matched to a supervising practitioner and a body of work sized to what you can carry. The first correction usually arrives in the first week.
Perks and benefits
What the firm puts behind you, beyond the pay.
A MacBook Air, day one
We are an Apple shop. Your machine is waiting when you start, and it is yours to work on, not a loaner you hand back at the end of a project.
$100 every quarter to spend
A no-questions equipment stipend. Headset, second display, standing desk riser, the good chair. If it makes the work better, buy it.
Train on the whole catalog
Every Learning Institute program is open to you, workshops through certifications, at no cost. The credentials we sell to institutions are the ones you earn.
Perks worth using
Discounted travel, hotels, gear, and experiences through our perks program, for the parts of life that are not work.
A week together in Portland
One week a year, the whole team in one place. Good food, real conversation, and the kind of trust that a video call never quite builds.
Yoga, once a week
A standing class on the calendar. Bring a mat or borrow one, and no, nobody checks whether you are any good at it.
Weekly morning jogs
A group run before the day starts, at whatever pace the slowest person is running. Portland weather permitting, which is to say most of the year with a jacket.
Kombucha on tap
On tap at HQ, alongside the coffee that gave the Coffee Talks their name.
Lunch, on the firm
Provided every day for anyone working out of the Portland office.
The rest of it
Health, retirement, and leave come with a salaried seat and are set out in writing with the offer. Equipment, the stipend, and the retreat go with the core team. Yoga, the morning jogs, kombucha, and lunch are for anyone working out of the Portland office, and the firm is remote by default, so nobody is expected to be there to collect them.
Read the questions we getWhat you get access to
The Learning Institute
Certifications, cohorts, and residential retreats, taught from the casework the firm carries.
See the catalogThe Playbooks
Four volumes covering Title IX investigations, Title VI, ADA and Section 504, and Title VII.
See the seriesCoffee Talks
Off-the-record peer exchange with practitioners who hold the same role you do.
Join a sessionQuestions people ask
Whether network practitioners are employees or contractors, where the work happens, whether you need to have held a coordinator title, how conflicts work if you are still inside an institution, and what to do when nothing is posted. All answered in full, alongside the questions institutions ask us.
Read the questions we get