Intake Paralegal/Legal Services Assistant, Disability Advocacy Project (DAP)

Legal Services NYC (LSNYC) fights poverty and seeks racial, social and economic justice for low-income New Yorkers. For over 50 years, we have challenged systemic injustices that trap people in poverty and provided legal services that help our clients meet basic needs for housing, income and economic security, family and immigration stability, education, and health care. LSNYC is the largest civil legal services provider in the country; our staff of more than 600 people in neighborhood-based offices and outreach sites across all five boroughs helps hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers annually. We partner with scores of community-based and client-run organizations, elected officials, public agencies, pro bono lawyers, and the courts to maximize our effectiveness. Our work fights discrimination and helps to achieve equity for all low-income New Yorkers. LSNYC employees have numerous opportunities for growth and professional development, including access to our internal Justice Learning Center, which provides opportunities to earn free CLEs and gain experience as a trainer. MANHATTAN LEGAL SERVICES, a part of Legal Services NYC, is seeking an Intake Paralegal/Legal Services Assistant to join its Disability Advocacy Project Manhattan Legal Services is part of Legal Services NYC (LSNYC), the largest provider of free civil legal services for low-income people in the country. The Manhattan office is dedicated to providing high-quality legal services in the areas of housing, family law, public benefits, employment, immigration, consumer, education, and disability rights, and LGBTQ/HIV advocacy. We work in partnership with community-based organizations in the communities we serve to address the causes of homelessness, hunger, and family disintegration. This is an exciting opportunity for skilled and motivated advocates. The Intake Paralegal/Legal Services Assistant will work on our Disability Advocacy Project unit (“DAP”) and include HRA MAX SSI work. The DAP assists persons with disabilities with obtaining and retaining Social Security benefits based on physical and/or mental impairments. The unit assists persons who encounter barriers to receiving culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate health services. The unit’s clients, who receive a wide range of health services, range from minors to older adults throughout Manhattan. As its core practice, the DAP assists and represents persons in their Social Security claims and matters in the various appeal steps following a benefit denial, including reconsideration, Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) hearings, Appeals Council, and Federal Court. The DAP also handles a certain number of Social Security applications and benefits suspensions, terminations, and overpayments. Roles and Responsibilities The Intake Paralegal/Legal Services Assistant will: • Conduct eligibility screenings of potential clients, including obtaining necessary demographic data and helping to identify the scope of a client’s request for assistance. • Conduct intake and interviewing clients, both virtually and in-person, in the office and at off-site locations. • Enter and track client information in databases and grants management systems, running data reports, and assisting in grant compliance or audit preparation. • Open and close case files and ensure compliance with program protocols. • Coordinate follow-up services, including appointments, referrals, and client correspondences, and gathering documents and other information. • Maintain client-related files, including copying, scanning, uploading, and distributing documents. • Provide litigation support to attorneys, including, interviewing and gathering documents from clients, investigating facts, requesting and reviewing medical records, and assistin