Vacancy expired!
Full-time, high-impact customer service role with competitive pay
NOTE
We're actively hiring several folks for this role, and wanted to particularly encourage those who have lost restaurant/hospitality jobs due to COVID-19 to apply. You need to be a good writer, a quick learner, and great with people — but you don't need any past experience in law, and some of our best people came from restaurant and service industry backgrounds. The expectation is that you'll work from our office (in LA's Arts District) once things return to normal, but the work can be done fully remotely for now.
ABOUT US
Today, 90% of Americans don’t know where they’d turn for legal help in a crisis. Atticus is a startup on a mission to change that.
We use a marketplace model to bridge the gap between the many ordinary people who need legal help and the few great lawyers who provide it. To our clients, we're the legal equivalent of a primary care doctor: We diagnose their issue, advise them on their options, and, if needed, refer them to a specialist — a vetted, top-tier lawyer who can win their case. To lawyers, we operate as a broker: we send them pre-vetted clients and earn a percentage of what they make from each successful representation.
Who are our clients? We’ve helped immigrants facing deportation, employees sexually harassed by their bosses, and drivers hospitalized after awful car accidents. For now, though, our primary focus is on helping disabled people get government benefits. Our customers are among the 15 million American adults who have lost their ability to support themselves due to a severe illness or injury. They’re eligible for life-changing government support — a monthly check and health insurance — but a byzantine system prevents most from qualifying. We help them understand their rights and find the help they need to get benefits. (We’ll formally launch several other fields of law later this year.)
Atticus was founded in 2018. Our team remains small — we’ll grow from 8 to 16 people this year — but we’ve served thousands of happy customers (see our 400+ 5-star reviews), generated substantial revenue, and recently closed a $4.5 million funding round led by True Ventures. We’re the first of our kind: a mission-driven firm offering free legal services to ordinary people, driven by new technology and on track to build a huge and profitable business.
THE JOB
Each day, hundreds of people seek our help getting disability benefits. They’re daunted by this process, unsure where to turn, and desperate for good advice.
As one of our Intake Coordinators, your job is to get these people on the right path. You’ll spend each day talking to our clients — mostly by phone, sometimes by email or text — to understand their situation, advise them what to do, and help them move forward. If a client qualifies for benefits, you’ll work with them to plan next steps and hire the right lawyer in our network. If a client doesn’t qualify, you’ll gently explain that and offer some free advice on alternatives. These conversations are often quite personal but deeply rewarding, and the people you speak with will be profoundly grateful for your help.
On a typical day, you’d talk with 30 people, each with a unique story. Half would be new clients, whom you’d talk with at length to document their cases, offer advice, and recommend lawyers. The other half would be people you’d already referred to lawyers, whom you’d follow up with to see how they’re doing and field any questions.
To succeed in this role, you’ll need to master three things: (1) The art of guiding a conversation quickly and effectively without sacrificing compassion. (Hopefully you have this already.) (2) The software we use to store client data and automate repetitive tasks. (It’s a custom platform built on Salesforce, and you’ll get the hang of it quickly.) (3) The knowledge you’ll need to understand this complex field of law. (This will take time, but we’ll offer plenty of resources and support. In the early days you’ll regularly escalate cases to our staff attorneys, and over time you’ll get comfortable handling most things yourself.)
Note that this job is very different from traditional customer service or sales. Everything we offer is free, and clients are typically desperate for our help — so very rarely will you have to talk down an angry customer or sell someone a service they don’t want. But you will have to navigate conversations on deeply personal and sad topics, gently move people along, and handle many different situations over the course of a day.
QUALIFICATIONS
Critical:
You’ve excelled in a past job that involved talking to strangers all day (customer service, sales, support, hospitality, etc.) — ideally for at least several years.
You can connect with people from all walks of life. You could explain a complex process to a client with limited education in plain English, then relay her situation to a top-tier lawyer in professional terms.
You’re a quick learner, able to master complex new topics when given instruction and support, and a fast and competent writer.
You have a demonstrated commitment to doing good and helping people.
Bonus / Nice-to-Have:
You’ve previously worked at a fast-growing startup or particularly high-performing service/sales/support team
You’ve had a metrics-driven role where you monitored key measures for service volume and satisfaction; you can set quantitative goals and achieve them.
You’re fluent in Spanish
We have a strong commitment to building a diverse team. If you’re from a background that’s underrepresented in law and tech, we’d particularly love to meet you.
BENEFITS
This is a rare opportunity to join a startup that has strong traction (substantial funding, great backers, and many happy customers) but is still small enough that you can have a huge impact and play a role in shaping our culture.
We’re a certified B Corporation tackling a critical social problem. Our mission to help needy people drives everything we do, and your work here will touch a lot of lives.
We offer great pay and benefits:
Health insurance with 100% of premiums covered
15 vacation days & 14 paid holidays each year
Personal weekly coaching and mentorship through BetterUp
Free memberships to ClassPass, TalkSpace, and OneMedical
401(k) and optional HSA
Free snacks, drinks, weekly lunches, and occasional team dinners/events/retreats
A beautiful office in LA's Arts District (across from Salt & Straw)
Free parking or a Metro Pass
Humble, thoughtful, smart, fun colleagues
NOTE ON COVID-19
In turbulent times, you'd be right to worry about working at a startup. Thankfully though, Atticus will remain strong even if this crisis worsens:
Since most of our business involves helping people who are out of work, this is a rare field that grows markedly during recessions.
We recently closed a sizable funding round and won't need to raise again until late 2021.
Our team already has several employees outside LA, so we’ve built our processes and platforms from the ground up to easily enable remote work.
For now, we've gone fully remote to protect our team (though we'll return to our office after crisis is over).
In keeping with our values, we’ve always offered every team member unlimited sick leave.
As more families are forced to seek help from our nation’s broken social safety net, this work matters more than ever. We're continuing to hire as planned, with accommodations to our process to make sure that everyone involved stays safe.
HOW TO APPLY
Send your resume and a brief note to EC892CD9B5@jobs.workablemail.com.
