Job Description:
WHO WE ARE:
The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization working to ensure a fair, inclusive financial marketplace that creates opportunities for all. Through research, legal analysis, policy development, and state and national advocacy engagement, CRL fights for economic equity for underserved communities—including Black and brown communities, low-to-middle income families, and rural families. CRL’s staff, allies, and funders reflect a collective commitment to eliminating systemic injustice in America’s financial services.
CRL provides a strong voice on both the state and national levels for these families to expand family wealth and financial stability through sustainable homeownership, affordable higher education, and support for small businesses. We also protect their financial stability by preventing harmful products that trap families in debt and strip away their income including predatory high-cost lending and other unfair financial practices. CRL is an affiliate of Self-Help, a community development lender founded in 1980.
The Julian Bond Institute (JBI) produces research that illuminates the financial barriers families face, builds the evidence base for policy change, and holds the financial system accountable to the communities it must serve — with the rigor of academic research and the urgency of a civil rights mandate. JBI was launched in early 2025 as part of CRL.
State-level financial regulation is where much of the fight for consumer protection plays out right now and every shift in a state legislature or regulatory agency creates real consequences for the families CRL fights for. We're looking for a Policy Counsel who wants to be in the room where that fight happens: tracking legislation and rulemakings across the states as they move, building the legal case for CRL's positions, and turning that analysis into comment letters, testimony, and amicus briefs that hold up under scrutiny.
Reporting to the Director of State Policy, you'll take ownership of priority issues, monitor developments, spot opportunities and threats early, and recommend the strategy to meet them. You'll work shoulder-to-shoulder with CRL's research, communications, and federal policy teams, and you'll be a visible presence with allies, coalition partners, state regulators, and legislative staff across the states.
This role also puts you at the center of CRL's litigation strategy by helping build amicus briefs, coordinating with outside counsel, and fielding legal questions from ally organizations. If you want a job where your legal training directly protects people from predatory financial products, and where good writing and sharp analysis are rewarded with real influence, this is it.
WHAT YOU'LL DO:
Strategy Development and Policy Recommendation
Own priority issues for CRL, build subject-matter expertise, lead or participate in issue working groups, and drive the strategy that turns policy goals into results.
Track legislative and regulatory developments in real time and get ahead of them, flagging risks and openings before they become urgent.
Analyze proposed legislation and regulations for their real-world impact on consumers, particularly people of color and low-income people, and translate that analysis into CRL's position.
Shape draft legislation and regulatory proposals through hands-on legal research and policy recommendations.
Write and edit regulatory comment letters, testimony, speeches, articles, and policy briefs and sharpen the writing of colleagues across research and communications.
Review and advise on coalition sign-on letters.
Litigation Support
Help shape CRL's litigation strategy on consumer policy issues, including amicus briefs, and support coordination with federal regulators.
Build and maintain relationships with outside counsel and litigation partners and keep litigation efforts coordinated internally and externally.
Draft amicus briefs and other litigation…