Immigration Director

Legal Services NYC (LSNYC) fights poverty and seeks racial, social and economic justice for low-income New Yorkers. For over 50 years, we have challenged systemic injustices that trap people in poverty and provided legal services that help our clients meet basic needs for housing, income and economic security, family and immigration stability, education, and health care. LSNYC is the largest civil legal services provider in the country; our staff of more than 600 people in neighborhood-based offices and outreach sites across all five boroughs helps hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers annually. We partner with scores of community-based and client-run organizations, elected officials, public agencies, pro bono lawyers, and the courts to maximize our effectiveness. Our work fights discrimination and helps to achieve equity for all low-income New Yorkers.

LSNYC employees have numerous opportunities for growth and professional development, including access to our internal Justice Learning Center, which provides opportunities to earn free CLEs and gain experience as a trainer. 

BROOKLYN LEGAL SERVICES & 

MANHTATTAN LEGAL SERVICES

SEEK AN IMMIGRATION DIRECTOR

Brooklyn Legal Services (BLS) & Manhattan Legal Services (MLS) seek a Director for their Immigrants’ rights practice.  BLS and MLS’ legal-social work interdisciplinary team uses a holistic, trauma-informed collaborative advocacy model to provide free immigration legal services to low-income New Yorkers.  Our immigration practice includes removal defense, affirmative asylum, defensive asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (including Family Court proceedings), family-based petitions, naturalization, VAWA, U-status, T-status, and more. The work may require limited representation of detainees. The Immigration Director will report to the BLS Project Director and receive substantive supervision from Legal Services NYC’s City-wide Director of Immigrant Justice.

The Immigration Director supervises and mentors an interdisciplinary team of six to seven staff attorneys, two paralegals and two social workers, while maintaining a limited caseload. The team looks to the Director for leadership, guidance, and support to fight for our clients. In addition to supervising and carrying a very small caseload of individual clients, the Director also pursues impact litigation or advocacy opportunities.

Brooklyn Legal Services and Manhattan Legal Services are a part of Legal Services NYC (LSNYC) and provides high-quality, innovative representation to address the pressing legal needs of Brooklyn’s diverse low-income population. LSNYC’s mission is to fight poverty and seek racial, social, and economic justice for low-income New Yorkers. LSNYC is the largest civil legal services provider in the country. Our staff of over 600 people in neighborhood-based offices and outreach sites across all five boroughs helps more than 110,000 New Yorkers annually. We focus on the problems that have the greatest impact on our clients — preserving affordable and decent housing, maintaining income support, redressing abusive lending and consumer practices, promoting family stability and mitigating the effects of domestic violence, advocating for the disabled, and working with immigrant clients to adjust, maintain, and defend their immigration status.

As a community-centered, social justice organization, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and equitable workplace where staff and clients feel welcome. Through our various affinity groups and committees, we actively work to foster collegial relationships among staff and allow staff to explore, grow in our understanding of and challenge barriers to opportunity within our organization and through our legal work. All employees are expected to learn about and seek to understand, identify and overcome barriers to justice, from individual preconceptions to structural obstacles, and work to realize our organizational goals and mission.

Responsibilities:

• Supervising six to seven staff attorneys and two paralegal(s) and supporting other staff in handling immigration matters as needed.
• Working with social workers to provide interdisciplinary, comprehensive services to clients. The Director will provide task supervision for up to two social workers.
• Maintaining a limited caseload that includes advising and representing immigrants in cases filed with federal administrative bodies (USCIS, EOIR), family court, federal district, and appellate courts.
• Following the substantive leadership of LSNYC’s City-wide Director of Immigrant Justice and collaborating with immigration advocates throughout LSNYC on litigation matters and strategy.
• Helping to manage the reports for grants and doing some limited writing for grant proposals.
• Represent BLS and MLS in community events and stakeholder meetings, and foster grassroots and community partnerships.
• Collaborating with community-based organizations and working with government agencies as appropriate.
• Work and travel between two office locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Requirements:

• Five years’ experience practicing immigration law.
• A demonstrated passion for social justice and commitment to working with low-income communities and communities of color to advance racial equity.
• Excellent organizational, analytical, writing, communication, and advocacy skills.
• Ability to provide supportive and consistent supervision to attorneys, paralegals, interns, and provide task supervision to social workers.
• Strong interpersonal skills, empathic leadership, and team-building skills.
• Knowledge of vicarious trauma and experience cultivating a supportive environment to help mitigate the stressors of immigration defense.

Preferred Experience and Qualifications: we prefer the following, but they are not required:

• 1-3 years of experience supervising others.
• Experience leading or working as part of an interdisciplinary team, and demonstrated commitment to holistic, trauma-informed advocacy.
• Experience working on humanitarian applications with LGBTQ and young clients.
• Expertise on immigration consequences for criminal convictions, public benefits, and other civil matters.
• Fluency in a language spoken by communities we serve is strongly preferred.
• Ability to connect with teammates while working remotely, both to build connections and to give greater flexibility in a hybrid work environment.

How to Apply

Interested individuals should submit a resume, cover letter, and two writing samples via the Greenhouse portal.

Only candidates selected for interviews will be contacted. No telephone calls please.

LSNYC offers an excellent benefits package and highly competitive public interest salary. We offer excellent benefits, including health, dental, and vision plans; contributions to a 403(b) plan; and generous leave time. Salary is commensurate with experience.

Staff members who are not managers are members of the LSSA/NOLSW UAW Local 2320.

All employees are strongly encouraged to continue to receive and maintain up-to-date COVID vaccinations unless they are unable to for medical or religious reasons.

Legal Services NYC is an equal opportunity employer. People of color, women, people with disabilities, people over 40, and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people are strongly encouraged to apply.