Democracy Forward

Attorney

• Support the Director of Regulatory Affairs & Legal Research in monitoring federal regulatory activity, including proposed rules, executive actions, and other administrative actions.
• Analyze proposed rulemakings and administrative actions to identify opportunities for engagement.
• Draft public comments, responses to requests for information, and other regulatory submissions.
• Assist in coordinating timely responses to regulatory actions, including partner engagement and related advocacy materials.
• Help maintain systems for identifying, tracking, and prioritizing rulemakings of strategic interest.
• Prepare and deliver verbal and written presentations and briefings on legal and regulatory developments to internal teams and external partners.
• Help build and maintain relationships with partner organizations, policy experts, and external stakeholders to strengthen the broader pro-democracy coalition.
• Conduct rigorous legal research and analysis on emerging administrative, constitutional, and regulatory legal issues to inform Democracy Forward’s litigation and advocacy strategies.
• Draft high-quality legal work product—including legal memoranda, issue area guides, and policy papers—that explain complex legal issues for a range of audiences.
• Support the development and maintenance of internal research infrastructure to enable rapid, high-quality analysis across teams.
• Track legal and policy developments in key issue areas and provide regular updates to internal teams and coalition partners.
• Advance proactive engagement in the pro-democracy movement through research and analysis that supports affirmative litigation, amicus briefs, and coalition partnerships.

Staff Attorney, Senior Attorney – Regulatory Affairs, Legal Research

Director

• Lead a team of fellows to redesign process across key federal functions (e.g. HR, procurement, regulation, customer experience, technology, AI, public engagement).
• Build and manage a small internal team of HR and technical experts supporting cross-functional design and research.
• Support organizational leadership in cultivating a culture of accountability, inclusivity, and excellence.
• Convene and collaborate with external domain experts (AI, regulatory, HR, tech, etc.) to co-design staffing models.
• Ensure new team models are agile, tech-enabled, interdisciplinary, and built to solve real problems.
• Develop and implement a strategy to identify and recruit mission-ready talent from various sources.
• Define the skills, values, and lived experience needed for 21st-century public service.
• Lead the development of a digital platform to match individuals with redesigned teams.
• Build and manage partnerships with academic institutions and workforce programs.
• Collaborate with legal, research, and communications partners to test and refine talent transformation efforts.

Director – Future of Government Talent Program

• Drive a transformational process to reimagine how government recruits, supports, and empowers its workforce.
• Lead a national reform coalition and run high-impact working groups.
• Translate insights from public servants and cross-sector experts into a reform options library.
• Architect the Federal Capacity Solutions Lab to modernize government personnel management.
• Build out proposals across key domains like hiring, pay, performance, and AI integration.
• Serve as lead strategist and convener of a national table of civil service experts and innovators.
• Supervise fellows and oversee policy tracks tackling urgent workforce challenges.
• Integrate outputs into a dynamic policy architecture that builds towards the options library.

Director of Government Workforce Reform

General Counsel

• Litigate Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in federal and state court and to a limited extent, other transparency-focused litigation, on behalf of Democracy Forward and other clients, with the highest standards of legal skills, and independently manage a caseload. This includes:
• Serve as lead counsel across an active, diverse caseload of federal open records litigation in courtrooms across the country, helping to propose cases, setting litigation strategy, and handling day-to-day case management.
• Research, draft, and edit court filings, including complaints, motions, and briefs at the trial and appellate levels, including, as needed, amicus briefs.
• Conduct discovery where appropriate, including written discovery and depositions, as well as participate in evidentiary hearings.
• Conduct oral arguments in federal and state courts at the trial or appellate level.
• Draft, as needed, other advocacy materials, e.g., demand letters, administrative complaints, and other tools for demanding accountability.
• Proactively, creatively, and independently propose and develop ideas or candidates for future public records cases, including novel or creative litigation and non-litigation strategies for accountability and transparency.
• Develop and draft (or consult on) FOIA requests designed to advance DF’s litigation strategy (independent of its FOIA litigation). Work closely with litigation case teams to accomplish this.
• Work with DF’s Oversight team to research and develop investigation strategies and opportunities consistent with relevant federal and state open records laws. Review investigative plans and public records request drafts and advise on FOIA and state open records laws as well as best practices for evidentiary development and reasonable request drafting.
• Negotiate with the federal executive branch and state or local open records officials in connection with a high volume of pending open records requests. Maintain active communication and follow up with FOIA or open records officers in government agencies as DF’s point of contact for assigned active open records requests, or manage such correspondence handled by other team members.
• Partner with DF’s communications and research teams to develop messaging materials, blog posts, or other non-legal advocacy materials, as needed.
• Represent Democracy Forward in meetings with partners, coalitions, presentations, training, and meetings with congressional staff, consistent with Democracy Forward’s 501(c)(3) status.

Staff Attorney, Senior Attorney – Regulatory Affairs, Legal Research

Director – Future of Government Talent Program

Director of Government Workforce Reform

Oversight Counsel