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Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, Inc. (SMRLS) is seeking a Bilingual (English/Spanish) Summer Advocate to assist its Agricultural Worker Project (AWP).  The position will be located in AWP’s Moorhead, Minnesota office with significant travel throughout North Dakota and northwest Minnesota. 

SMRLS provides free, high-quality legal help in critical civil matters to low-income people in southern Minnesota, as well as to eligible agricultural workers throughout Minnesota and North Dakota.  For more than 100 years, SMRLS has helped individuals and families secure and protect their basic needs, maintaining freedom from hunger, homelessness, sickness, and abuse. 

AWP provides free civil legal services to agricultural workers in Minnesota and North Dakota focused on improving clients’ working and living conditions through legal representation, outreach, and education.  It handles cases involving wage theft, workplace health and safety violations, inadequate employer-provided housing, labor trafficking, employment discrimination and retaliation, H-2A contract violations, and other legal matters that specifically impact agricultural workers.  Additionally, AWP educates agricultural workers in Minnesota and North Dakota regarding their legal rights through extensive outreach and presentations to agricultural worker communities.

The summer advocate will play a vital role in increasing the program’s outreach and legal education capacity throughout North Dakota and northwest Minnesota during its busiest season.  The applicant selected will have the opportunity to learn firsthand about, and contribute to the effective resolution of, the legal problems of agricultural workers under the supervision and guidance of AWP’s dedicated attorneys and paralegals.

Responsibilities:

• Perform outreach to agricultural workers throughout North Dakota and northwest Minnesota, including during the evening, with other AWP staff in order to provide information regarding legal rights and AWP’s services and to conduct intake interviews

• Draft reports related to outreach

• Conduct legal research and draft memos, if a law student

• Draft letters in an effort to resolve legal disputes, if a law student

• Answer/return phone calls, conduct intake interviews by phone, and provide referrals as necessary

• Other duties as based on interest, education, and skill set