Indiana Legal Services (ILS) seeks a Chief Executive Officer
Indiana Legal Services (ILS) seeks a Chief Executive Officer to lead this statewide provider of civil legal aid to low-income Hoosiers. Over the past decade the exceptional leadership of the CEO has supported ILS’s strong culture of advocacy, its robust appellate practice and its precedent setting victories in multiple venues. Staff are known for innovative and collaborative work and deep institutional expertise. The ILS Board of Directors anticipates building on its reputation for high- quality impactful work and strong fundraising under the leadership of its next CEO.
ILS has a staff of about 165, including 90 attorneys. It has eight regional offices, located in Bloomington, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Lafayette, Merrillville, New Albany and South Bend. The administrative office is in Indianapolis. The current ILS budget is $17 million. ILS is funded by the Legal Services Corporation and other funders.
About the CEO Position
The CEO leads ILS as this legal aid organization provides high-quality legal work for clients, continues its leadership role in Indiana and throughout the legal aid community, and nurtures new generations of ILS staff.
Primary duties include:
- Serve as the public face of ILS, maintaining a leadership role in local, state and national networks of legal aid, client and social services communities, and the organized bar and government
- Lead ILS to achieve the goals established by the Board of Directors in its strategic plan
- Provide leadership and structural support for staff to strengthen, protect and focus high-quality work of maximum impact for clients
- Oversee and participate in resource development and fundraising
- Provide oversight for ILS’s complex finances, including 80 funding sources with unique budgeting, reporting, compliance and legal requirements
- Preserve institutional expertise and leadership, and hire and develop staff
- Work with the Board of Directors so that its members actively contribute to ILS success
- Demonstrate commitment to advocacy in support of the legal rights of eligible clients and to equal access to justice
- Manage staff, financials, reporting, budget development, and compliance with grant contracts and legal requirements
- Collaborate with partners and service providers on behalf of eligible clients
Desired qualifications and experience:
- Management experience involving staff supervision, financial oversight and reporting, budget development, and compliance with grants, contracts and legal requirements
- Demonstrated experience as a manager in a multi-million-dollar, multi-office organization
- Experience with federal and state civil legal aid organizations
- Demonstrated success in resource development and fundraising
- Outstanding oral and written communication skills
- Skills in relationship building and stakeholder interaction rooted in collaboration
- Commitment to the use of technology to extend services throughout the state
- Experience and skill in communicating with a strong active board of directors
- Ability to establish and maintain close working relationships with an experienced staff
- Possession of a JD and Indiana license or willingness to become licensed in Indiana within a reasonable period of time
To apply:
To receive full consideration, applicants are encouraged to submit application materials by August 3, 2026. Submit a letter expressing your interest in the position, your qualifications for the job with reference to the specific qualities described above, and what you hope to contribute to ILS’ future. Include a resume and the names and contact information for three professional references. Materials should be submitted electronically to
[email protected] in Microsoft Word or PDF format.
ILS is assisted in its search for a CEO by Patricia Pap, Consultant, Management Information Exchange, 508-737-4010,
[email protected]. Candidates with questions about the position, listed qualifications, or the search process are encouraged to contact her.
ILS expects to make a hiring decision in October and to have the successful candidate join the organization in December.
Compensation:
Salary depends on experience based on a competitive public interest salary scale. The expected range is $150,000 to $190,000, commensurate with experience. ILS offers an excellent fringe benefits package including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, Rx), disability insurance, life insurance, a 401(k) plan, a flex benefit plan and generous vacation and sick leave. ILS will pay up to $2,500 in moving expenses if the successful applicant needs to move from another city to assume this position.
Equal Employment Opportunity Employer:
ILS is committed to being an equal opportunity employer. ILS recruits, employs, trains, compensates and promotes without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, or any category protected by law.
About Indiana Legal Services:
The ILS Mission: Indiana Legal Services uses the law to fight poverty and racism, empower clients, and improve access to justice
The ILS vision is dignity, fairness, and equality for all people under the law
ILS values: Work is guided and informed by beliefs and commitments to:
- Courage in legal work and advocacy positions
- Compassion for clients and colleagues
- Dignity and respect for clients, colleagues, and all people
- Inclusiveness and diversity in all aspects of the organization and work
- Collegiality in working with one another
- Partnerships with the communities served
- Adaptability in responding to changes in the legal landscape
- Strategy in addressing problems facing the client community
ILS uses its resources to address the most vital issues, including housing, safety, and income. It acts to enforce protections for clients that they cannot enforce themselves and that the government does not enforce for them, such as consumer protection, domestic violence orders, and housing codes. It pays special attention to vulnerable populations and populations that would have special difficulty representing themselves.
ILS assists with legal problems in areas such as housing (including eviction defense), family law, public benefits (including health), consumer law (including debt collection defense), expungement, drivers licenses, immigration, and elder law. ILS operates targeted projects for veterans, immigrants, migrant farmworkers and survivors of human trafficking, seniors, and
those experiencing elder abuse. It also has projects funded by heath care providers to address patients' legal issues that have health harming effects (via medical-legal partnerships) and a project funded in part by the IRS to assist low-income people with tax disputes.
In 2025, ILS closed 16,353 cases for households containing nearly 38,000 people. Of clients, 70% were women, 29% men; 35% were African American or Black, and 8% were Hispanic. 93% of clients had income at or below 200% of the federal poverty level.15% were over the age of 60. 94% used English, 5% Spanish, with additional needs including Arabic and French.
Special populations included 2790 domestic violence-related cases and 714 veterans.
The current ILS budget is $17 million. Its largest funder is the federally chartered Legal Services Corporation. It also receives funding from the federal Victims of Crime Act, nearly all of Indiana’s Area Agencies on Aging, several veterans’ organizations, its medical legal partners, private foundations and donations from law firms, lawyers and the public, totaling about 80 funding sources.
The outcomes for the approximately 5800 cases on which ILS provided extended or brief services in 2024 were: preventing eviction in 1133 cases; preventing homelessness in 104 cases; obtaining citizenship in 26 cases, and other immigration relief in 266 cases; expunging or sealing criminal records in 539 cases; sealing 840 eviction records; obtaining drivers licenses in 89 cases; and creating advance directives in 207 cases. Its advocacy avoided more than $3.6 million in claims against clients and obtained monetary recoveries of more than $1.9 million.
For more information about Indiana Legal Services, visit https://www.indianalegalservices.org/
