Social Worker

Provides social work support to the Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic, including primarily the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Clinic, the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic, the Civil Rights and Police Accountability Clinic, the Employment Law Clinic, the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, and the Abrams Environmental Law Clinic. 

Attends meetings with clients, experts, and others with the supervising attorney(s) and student teams, conducts interviews with clients, family, and community members, acts as a liaison with social service organizations, gathers clients’ social histories, and performs psycho-social assessments of clinic clients as needed. 

Drafts social history reports, mitigation reports, release plans, and treatment plans, completes paperwork for client files and client cases, and testifies in court regarding findings and recommendations as needed. 

Connects clients and clients’ family members to needed social services and resources in the community, follows clients through their legal cases to ensure court-mandated requirements are met, and provides therapeutic intervention for clients in crisis. 

Provides post-disposition services to clients who may have ongoing psycho-social or other needs, as determined by the legal team. 

Develops plans for treating, documenting, and proving clients’ emotional injuries in civil rights cases involving police abuse and consults on issues related to the impact of environmental contamination on affected communities. 

Builds and maintains relationships with the University of Chicago’s Crown School of Social Service Administration, other University of Chicago entities such as those within the University of Chicago Medical Center, and community service providers. 

Attends and/or facilitates local and regional committee meetings, conferences, and seminars with community service providers or relevant partners. 

Assists clinic attorneys and law and social work students in processing vicarious trauma. 

Supervises law and social work students (at least 4 social work students in their first- or second-year placement) and completes evaluations for social work student supervision requirements. 

Teaches clinic seminar classes and provides general advice to law faculty and law students relating to social work topics. 

Uses broad knowledge and experience to develop and coordinate programs related to emotional, social, and financial care. Programs may involve family-centered services, treatment and education of youth, employment and financial support, or health insurance and provider services.  

Serves as a liaison between schools, families, and community agencies. Maintains relationships with various social worker departments within the University as well as community agencies at the local and state levels. 

Performs other related work as needed. 

Strong written and verbal communication skills. 

Ability to work efficiently individually and as a part of a team. 

Ability to request and maintain records. 

Ability to research and write mitigation reports, assessments, and the like. 

Ability to exercise discretion and confidentiality while handling sensitive situations. 

This position is available for one day of remote work per week contingent on the needs of the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic and student supervision needs. 

Ability to travel by car within the regional area and Chicagoland area. 

Ability to work evening and weekend hours with advance notice, as needed. 

Resume/CV (required) 

Cover Letter (required) 

Professional writing sample (preferred)