Legal Counsel, Director of Blackstone Professional Development at Alliance Defending Freedom in Lansdowne, VA; Dallas, TX

Job description

• Make a difference with us! At Alliance Defending Freedom, we believe God has brought you here for His purpose—to stand for truth and defend the God-given right to live and speak it. Together, we protect religious freedom, free speech, the sanctity of life, marriage and family, and parental rights. Review our Statement of Faith to ensure we’re a fit for you.
• Locations: Lansdowne, VA / Dallas, TX
• The Blackstone Legal Fellowship is a rigorous formation for gifted Christian law students whose judgment and moral imagination are rooted in the rule of law, and who go on to shape law and culture—courtrooms, boardrooms, legislatures, and law schools are the visible examples, but the reach is wider: agencies and regulatory bodies, state and federal government, media and publishing, medicine and bioethics, technology, education, ministry, and the institutions that have not yet been built.
• The Director of Professional Development owns the quality of the counsel that shapes those decisions. The role does not place Fellows into positions. It equips them to discern, prepare for, and compete for opportunities of real consequence, and it builds the curriculum, advisor network, and institutional relationships that deliver that counsel to a full class each summer and to a growing body of alumni in practice.

Responsibilities

• Assessment and Investment
• Form and defend judgments about individual Blackstone summer interns and Fellows’ capacity, trajectory, and professional fit, and calibrate those judgments over time against actual career outcomes.
• Develop and maintain the assessment framework used across the professional development function, including the signals that predict success.
• Deliver candid, specific assessments to Blackstone summer interns and Fellows regarding the capabilities standing between them and the positions they are pursuing.
• Curriculum and Program Design
• Set the intellectual direction of the professional development curriculum and own its design, sequencing, and annual revision across all phases of the Fellowship.
• Determine what is taught, by whom, and what is removed, informed by doctrinal developments, hiring market conditions, and Fellow outcomes.
• Establish and enforce quality standards for all workshops, seminars, guest lectures, and outside speakers.
• Teach the portions of the curriculum where the Director's own judgment and experience are the substance.
• Oversee the summer internship program, including placement, employer expectations, performance standards, and evaluation.
• Clerkship and Career Advising
• Own clerkship outcomes end-to-end, including application strategy, materials review, recommender cultivation, and interview preparation.
• Build and maintain relationships with federal chambers and clerkship alumni sufficient to ensure Fellow applications receive serious consideration.
• Advise Fellows on decisions with long-term consequences, including first position selection, transitions, and the choice among private practice, government service, academia, and public interest litigation.
• Counsel Fellows on sustaining conviction and effectiveness under institutional pressure during the early years of practice.
• Placement and Employer Relations
• Cultivate the employer relationships that establish the standing of the Blackstone credential in advance of any individual application.
• Serve employers actively recruiting Fellows, and protect the credential by advancing only candidates who meet the standard.
• Place Fellows deliberately, prioritizing strategic position over volume of placements.
• With the Alumni Team track Fellow career trajectories and treat departures from the field as a diagnostic input to program design.
• Advisor Network
• Recruit senior practitioners and accomplished Fellows into a structured external advisory network.
• Train advisors on the standard of counsel expected, and hold the network to consistent candor and quality so that Fellow outcomes do not depend on advisor assignment.
• Sustain institutional relationships with law schools, student organizations, faculties, government agencies, and the public interest bar.
• Represent the Fellowship at regional events and conferences.
• Team Leadership
• Lead as a servant leader by training, coaching, and developing professional development staff.
• Coach in specifics and deliver corrective feedback early rather than at scheduled review.
• Meet regularly with direct reports to discuss progress and conduct Career Path Discussions.
• Foster a team culture of trust, candor, and innovation in which staff can identify what is not working without hesitation.
• Approve PTO requests, time cards, and expense reports.
• Internal Coordination
• Work with ADF recruitment to ensure Fellowship intake reflects the standards the professional development function requires.
• Coordinate across ADF teams so that the function meets the needs of Fellows, internal partners, and employers.
• Participate in Fellowship leadership planning and contribute to organizational strategy on legal talent development.

Requirements

• J.D., active license in at least one US state bar, and capable of meeting admission requirements in relevant jurisdiction within one year
• 5+ years of experience in public policy advocacy, governmental relations/affairs, or legislative work at the federal or state level.
• Written and oral communication with law students, hiring partners, and sitting judges.
• Professional network development — relationships with judges, practitioners, and academics durable enough to draw on for a Fellow's benefit.
• Complex program management on a fixed calendar set by the clerkship cycle and academic year rather than internal preference.
• Staff leadership and development, including setting standards and delivering corrective feedback early enough to matter.
• Sustain extended travel and full summer residency, including full participation in the Blackstone summer program and regional travel the rest of the year.
• Operate without direction, setting the agenda rather than receiving it, with judgment evaluated over years rather than weeks.

Skills

Required

• J.D. and active bar license
• Public policy advocacy
• Governmental relations/affairs

Preferred

• Professional network development
• Complex program management
• Staff leadership and development
• Ability to operate without direction

Benefits

• At Alliance Defending Freedom, we offer a competitive compensation and benefits package to support your well-being and growth. While we do not disclose specific salary ranges, our compensation is competitive with top non-profit law firms. Our benefits include 100% covered medical and dental insurance, medical and dependent care reimbursement, paid disability, long-term care, life insurance, and a 401(k) plan with a 4% company match. We prioritize work-life balance with paid time off and 12 paid holidays each year.
• This salary range is reflective of a position based in Lansdowne, VA. This range is a good-faith estimate, and the actual salary may vary based on the candidate’s experience, skills, qualifications, and office location.
• $142,600 - $156,900 USD