Staff or Senior Attorney Fellow, Immigration Program
Our Values
We value Service, Equity, Humility, and Inclusion and practice:
- Working towards our mission in concert with colleagues, our clients, and community. We recognize that people come to us as whole beings. Service is inherent in treating others the way you want to be treated and recognizing we all have the power to create change.
- Acknowledging, addressing, and reducing harm that results from inequities in society and within our own organization. Working for equity involves decreasing systematic mistreatment and barriers created by systems of social inequality. It also involves working towards increasing shared access to power, privilege, and resources in the community and within the workplace
- Understanding that learning is a life-long process, and we can learn from non-traditional sources, like clients and each other. Humility is listening with active curiosity and thinking about your own reactions and judgments. Humility is appreciating other identities, expressions, behaviors and ways of being and doing that are different from your own.
- Creating an environment where everyone, including those who have been historically excluded, is valued, able to participate fully, and have a voice.
CLSEPA is excited to announce a two-year Attorney Fellowship with our Immigration Program. The Immigration program’s legal work is essential for keeping families together and promoting economic resilience. As seasoned immigration advocates, we work with our clients who experience and endure our seriously broken immigration system. We work within the system for our clients, and we work to change the system with our advocacy work.
As an Attorney Fellow, you will:
- Provide legal advice and representation in immigration matters before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Immigration Court, Board of Immigration Appeals, state courts to obtain Special Immigrant Juvenile Status findings, and potentially Circuit or District Courts;
- Provide legal advice and counsel on immigration issues, including participating in clinics (occasionally taking place during evenings or weekends) and assisting with emergency cases;
- Manage a diverse caseload, which requires diligent and accurate recordkeeping and file management due to the long-term nature of immigration cases;
- Participate in policy advocacy efforts and community outreach events and presentations;
- Maintain and establish relationships with community partners and immigration service providers; and
- Stay informed and up to date with immigration law and procedural updates.
As an Attorney Fellow, you have:
- California Bar membership, pending Bar passage results or Provisionally Licensed Attorney status;
- Fluency in Spanish;
- Demonstrated commitment to serving low-income populations and communities of color;
- Excellent written and oral communication skills;
- Ability to relate to and communicate with a broad range of clients and colleagues; and
- Demonstrated ability to work cooperatively with others, both within the organization and in the community.
Compensation
This is a full-time exempt position with the following starting annualized salary ranges (dependent on experience and years out of law school):
- Staff Attorney Fellow: $78,000-$86,000
- Senior Attorney Fellow (at least three years’ relevant experience): $88,000-$110,000
The ranges provided are CLSEPA’s reasonable estimates of the base compensation for this/these roles. The actual salary amount may be higher or lower, based on non-discriminatory factors such as experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Benefits and Perks
In addition to a competitive compensation package, we offer competitive benefits, including health, vision, and dental insurance, a Health Reimbursement Account for mental health, 15 paid holidays, generous PTO and a 403(b). To promote and support financial wellness, CLSEPA pays state bar dues, and malpractice insurance. This position qualifies for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
Physical Requirements
Prolonged periods of concentration while sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
Location
CLSEPA is a hybrid workplace. Employees are expected to reside in the Bay Area/Northern California and at a distance allowing them to commute to their physical CLSEPA base location or other service delivery locations as needed. This position requires commuting when necessary to hold in-person meetings with clients (when clients are not able to meet via telephone or video call or there is another client-centered reason to meet in person), such as court or administrative agency hearings. It will also require commuting for periodic team or all staff gatherings (frequency approximately once or twice per month).
CLSEPA is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer that provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified employees/applicants in all of our employment practices without regard to race, religion, color, sex or gender (including gender identity, pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, pregnancy-and childbirth- related medical conditions), sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age, uniform-service member/veteran status, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental disability, taking/requesting statutorily protected leave, or any other basis protected by law.
Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, CLSEPA will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
Application Process
The success of our mission is dependent on building and maintaining an organization that includes people from different backgrounds and experiences who can challenge each other’s assumptions with new perspectives. To that end, we look for a diverse pool of applicants including those from historically marginalized groups – women, people with disabilities, people of color, formerly incarcerated people, people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or gender nonconforming, first- and second-generation immigrants, veterans, and people from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
Applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible by submitting a resume, cover letter, writing sample and 3 professional references using this link or email jobs@clsepa.org. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled.
Why a cover letter? We want to learn more about why CLSEPA – CLSEPA’s clientele is extremely diverse, and the majority of our clients are low-income persons of color. It is critical that our staff work effectively in all cross-cultural situations, with clients, with our coworkers, and with the community, and that we create an inclusive and respectful workplace in which differences are acknowledged and valued.
Cover Letter Prompt
Feel free to think broadly about your response to the following question (applying various aspects of your life and personal experiences):
How do you think your personal background or experiences, professional or otherwise, have prepared you to contribute to our commitment to cultural humility and diversity amongst our staff?