Immigration Law Staff Attorney/Advocate (Bilingual, Spanish-speaking) - San Francisco, CA
Open Door Legal
- San Francisco, CA
- Permanent
- Full-time
- Directly represent clients, including monolingual Spanish speakers, in every type of affirmative immigration petition as well as the occasional case in removal.
- Provide bilingual (Spanish) services and support to our low-income clients with sensitivity and awareness to various cultural, socio-economic, and disability barriers to service and skillfully navigate difficult or tense situations. Deliver a consistently positive client feedback rating for the Immigration Law Department.
- Own a full caseload, and be responsible for making sure the clients' goals are met.
- Perform immigration law intakes in-person and virtually across multiple physical Open Door Legal locations.
- Appear in court and USCIS representing clients as needed.
- Gain and maintain the skills and knowledge needed to competently represent clients before the relevant government agencies and components, including but not limited to VAWA, asylum, removal defense, U-visas, T-visas, TPS, DACA, Family-based applications, SIJS, and Consular processing.
- Empower immigration law clients to know their rights, navigate the immigration system, protect themselves and their loved ones, and resolve their immigration law issues.
- Embrace and embody our values of teamwork, grit, caring, passion, and dynamism.
- Membership in good standing with the California State Bar. Applicants without active California bar membership will not be considered. However, those without a license are encouraged to apply to volunteer with us at opendoorlegal.org/volunteer.
- Advanced Spanish proficiency (speaking, reading, and writing).
- Must genuinely enjoy and be motivated by working with low-income clients, the vast majority of whom are people of color, and be able to work effectively with clients impacted by trauma (emotional, mental, and physical).
- Familiarity with immigration court procedures and an enthusiasm for professional growth and learning as well as for staying on top of the rapid and often substantive changes in immigration law.
- High level of comfort in learning and using technology and cloud-based case management systems. We use Salesforce, Dropbox, and the Google Suite.
- Must be willing to make a minimum two-year commitment to the organization.
- Experience working in a high-volume legal aid or similar environment.
- Experience living in Central America or working with Central American populations.
- Having lived a significant period of your life in San Francisco proper.
- Additional language ability in Cantonese.
- Loan Repayment Assistance - for staff pursuing 10-year public interest debt forgiveness, we will pay the minimum payment on all qualifying loans so that you don't need to worry about student loan debt (this is a conditional benefit).
- Medical/Dental/Vision Plan offerings at 100% coverage.
- Paid mental health benefit.
- Generous paid time off.
- Flexible work hours.
- Generous paid parental leave.
- 401K/Retirement Account.
- We believe everyone is always learning. We financially invest in individual learning plans for each staff member and provide many internal and external mentorships, coaching, and learning opportunities (conferences, workshops, etc.).
- We are a fun and hard-working office with best-in-class technology solutions for anyone who's passionate about making a meaningful and measurable difference.