Staff Writer

At any given time, 15 million Americans are experiencing a crisis that requires urgent help from our legal system or government. The right assistance could transform their lives. But today, most never get it. 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, among many others. 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.

Atticus was founded in 2018. Our team remains small — we’ll grow from 9 to 20 people this year — but we’ve served thousands of happy customers (see our 500+ 5-star reviews), generated substantial revenue, and raised $5.8 million from top venture capital investors. 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 Role

Our clients are desperate for high-quality, accurate information. What they find instead is “content” — page after page of low-quality articles that have more search keywords than they do useful advice, often from sites hoping to collect their phone number and sell it to a crappy law firm for $5-10. At Atticus, we do our best to educate our clients in detail, but today we do that via staff lawyers having person-to-person conversations, and as a result we can only help so many people.

We’re launching a project to change that: to build a high-quality, readable, interesting library of articles, guides, explainers, and interviews that will have genuine worth and value for people in crisis. The goal is to shed light on a complex and fascinating system that’s bewildering to most Americans, and to educate people in crisis at the moment they need it most. We’re seeking a great writer to join our team and lead that effort.

Responsibilities

Your mission:

Get smart on this field: Work with our staff lawyers to learn the law (don’t worry, it’s not rocket science), speak with our clients to understand their experiences and needs, and do your own research via secondary sources
Work with us to create a strategy and calendar for what pieces to publish, then start writing quickly and well
Review our analytics to see what people are reading and how they engage with it. Use that knowledge to shape and improve your strategy going forward
Potentially manage, and edit freelancers for shorter and simpler pieces
Use the broad knowledge you gain to join in high-level company discussions and help shape our strategy
A rough estimate of the mix of work you’d publish:

Educate consumers about legal issues via medium-length explainer articles (50%)
Hold our clients’ hands through lengthy processes via longer-form guides (20%)
Educate professionals (like doctors and social workers) via white papers (15%)
Highlight personal stories by profiling our lawyers and clients (10%)
Share brief updates on relevant news and data releases (5%)
Qualifications

Critical:

A portfolio of written work that shows years of professional experience and strong writing and editing skills
Demonstrated success digesting technical topics or complex concepts and explaining them to ordinary readers with clarity, simplicity, and precision
Experience interviewing and building rapport with diverse groups of people
Ability to research and write quickly on deadline, and to maintain a high volume over time
Ability to work independently, with lots of freedom and little supervision
A demonstrated commitment to doing good and helping people

Bonus / Nice-to-Have:

Experience as a journalist and/or writing across short-form genres — news, features, explainers, interviews, etc.
Conceptual understanding (or more) of SEO
Past work at a fast-growing startup
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
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