Description
About the job
The Executive Director serves as the chief executive officer of the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati (LASGC), providing visionary leadership and strategic direction for one of the nation's premier civil legal aid organizations. Reporting to and partnering closely with the Board of Trustees, the Executive Director is responsible for advancing LASGC's mission, ensuring organizational excellence, and strengthening the long-term impact of the organization throughout the Greater Cincinnati community.
This is a pivotal leadership opportunity to build upon a distinguished legacy while thoughtfully guiding the organization through its next chapter of continued excellence and impact. The successful candidate will respect the organization's strong foundation, listen and learn from its experienced team, and identify opportunities to advance long-term organizational effectiveness and impact.
As the organization's primary ambassador, the Executive Director will cultivate trusted relationships with community organizations, government officials, funders, donors, philanthropic partners, and the Greater Cincinnati legal community. The Executive Director will elevate Legal Aid's visibility, strengthen public understanding of its impact, and advocate effectively for policies and resources that advance access to justice.
The Executive Director will oversee all aspects of organizational leadership, including strategic planning, financial stewardship, operations, talent development, governance, compliance, fundraising, and organizational performance. Success in this role requires exceptional executive leadership, legal judgment, political acumen, financial discipline, organizational stewardship, and the ability to inspire confidence across diverse constituencies while leading the organization through executive transition.
The Executive Director will provide leadership across LASGC and its affiliated organizational structure, including its relationship with Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio, LLC (LASSO) and leadership of the Volunteer Lawyers for the Poor Foundation. Working collaboratively with LASSO leadership, the Executive Director will strengthen regional alignment, operational effectiveness, private-bar engagement, and the delivery of high-quality civil legal services throughout the seven-county service area.
Requirements
Key Leadership Themes & Priorities
Executive Leadership & Strategic Direction: Significant leadership experience within a legal, nonprofit, governmental, public interest, corporate, or similarly complex organization, with demonstrated success setting strategic direction, partnering with governing boards, leading high-performing teams, and driving execution of organizational priorities.
Legal Services & Regulatory Acumen: Strong understanding of civil legal services, access-to-justice issues, and the regulatory and compliance responsibilities of publicly and philanthropically funded organizations.
Financial & Organizational Stewardship: Demonstrated experience overseeing organizational and financial stewardship and operations with a proven track record of operational excellence.
People & Culture Leadership: Proven ability to lead high-performing teams, navigate a complex employee environment, and position people and teams for sustained success.
External Leadership, Community Engagement & Resource Development: Accomplished relationship-builder and community ambassador with demonstrated success engaging legal, civic, governmental, philanthropic, business, and nonprofit stakeholders. Proven ability to fundraise and build strategic partnerships that advance organizational impact, visibility, and long-term sustainability
Who We Are:
Legal Aid helps make the justice system fair and accessible to all, especially the most vulnerable in our society, by providing free, comprehensive civil legal assistance across a seven-county service area in Southwest Ohio: Brown, Butler, Clermont, Clinton, Hamilton, Highland, and Warren counties.
Our mission since 1908 has been to resolve serious legal problems of low-income people, to promote economic and family stability and to reduce poverty through effective legal assistance.
We work with individuals to achieve case-by-case problem resolution and use legal advocacy to improve large systems. To assist as many people as possible, we’ve created innovative programs with high-impact strategies in partnership with local nonprofits serving those living in poverty. Our collaborative community connected approach is recognized as a “best practice” in yielding lasting change moving people towards economic self-sufficiency.
The Legal Aid Society of Cincinnati, doing business as the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati (LASGC), is an Ohio nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation. LASGC operates in affiliation with Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio, LLC (LASSO) and provides leadership to the Volunteer Lawyers for the Poor Foundation, extending Legal Aid's reach and strengthening access to civil legal services throughout the region.
What We Do:
We resolve legal problems for the most vulnerable in our community, helping them achieve greater economic and family stability.
We help low-income families and individuals by providing free, comprehensive civil legal assistance to address a wide range of major obstacles. For example, we help to prevent evictions and foreclosures, address domestic violence and divorce, fix unsafe and unhealthy living conditions, obtain Medicaid and other health and income benefits, overcome barriers to employment or resolve school problems.
Our approach is two-pronged: to help individuals with case-by-case problem resolution, and to use legal advocacy to improve systems, often by forming collaborative service and advocacy projects with other human services organizations.
Legal Aid also provides leadership to coordinate our services with other non-profit and government agencies, to develop innovative programs, and to present community legal education.
Our staff attorneys and paralegals handle over 9,000 cases a year. Their efforts are amplified by over 200 private attorneys who take cases referred by the VLP. We serve clients from two full-service offices: one in Cincinnati and one in Hamilton, as well as a satellite office at Children’s Hospital Pediatric Primary Clinic in Avondale.
We conduct our legal work through four practice groups: Children and Education, Family and Immigration, Housing and Consumer and Income, Work and Health.
