Senior Staff Attorney – Texas

The Immigrant Legal Resource Center is Hiring!

Senior Staff Attorney – Texas

The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) is seeking a full-time Senior Staff Attorney based in Texas, with a preference for Houston, San Antonio, or Austin. This is an exempt position that reports to our Legal Director. The ILRC currently has a hybrid work model that requires two in-office days per week.

The ILRC is a national nonprofit legal support center headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Austin, TX; Houston, TX; Laredo, TX, San Antonio, TX; the San Joaquin Valley of California, and Washington, DC. Our mission is to work with, educate, and enhance the capacity of immigrants, community organizations, and the legal sector, in order to build a democratic society that values diversity, dignity, and the rights of all people. Founded in 1979, the ILRC is regarded as one of the foremost experts on engaging immigrants and developing their leadership, providing expertise on complex issues of immigration law, procedure, and policy, and engaging in advocacy and educational initiatives on policies that affect immigrants. We are a team-based organization that makes decisions in a collaborative fashion that allows for significant staff input.

The Senior Staff Attorney will serve as an expert-level authority with in-depth knowledge on several key areas of immigration law, leading the ILRC’s legal expertise in specific areas and consulting other attorneys on staff.

Job Responsibilities: The Senior Staff Attorney will be responsible for contributing to several concurrent programs including:

• Building the capacity of the ILRC’s legal staff and program partners in Texas.
• Providing advice, consultation, coaching, and mentoring to attorneys in the organization.
• Serving as an authority who can provide input and help to resolve complex legal scenarios as raised by other attorneys.
• Assisting other attorneys in developing innovative and creative legal strategies.
• Reviewing and ensuring the quality of the legal resources developed by the ILRC.
• Responding to legal technical requests from public defenders, private practice attorneys, nonprofit agency staff, and pro bono attorneys who work with low-income immigrants on issues relating to removal and deportation defense, family-based immigration, asylum, naturalization and citizenship, and other immigration law issues.
• Writing manuals, practitioner advisories, and outreach and educational materials for attorneys, paralegals, community organizers, members of the immigrant community, and others.
• Preparing and leading webinars and in-person seminars on a variety of topics in immigration law.
• Working with networks of other immigrant rights organizations and/or organizing with and presenting to groups on immigration law, policy, and immigrant rights issues.
• Engaging in policy and advocacy work on immigration law issues as needed.
• Writing grant proposals and reports to foundations and corporations and representing the ILRC in meetings with funders and supporters.
• Traveling for trainings, funder visits, and other events throughout the United States.
• Helping immigrants lead and participate in civic engagement projects.
• Working with the ILRC Texas Team lead to ensure collaboration between ILRC work to build legal capacity in Texas and our work to advance immigrant justice policies in Texas.
• Educate attorneys and others in the legal field about ILRC Texas policy and community engagement projects.

Qualifications: The successful applicant is required to have:

• A minimum of 10 years of experience representing clients in the practice of general immigration law to include representation in immigration court and appeals or representing clients in complex humanitarian and family-based claims.
• Recognition as an expert-level authority with in-depth knowledge on one or more key areas of immigration law.
• Broad knowledge of removal defense law, including the grounds of inadmissibility and deportability and eligibility for relief.
• Familiarity with the immigration consequences of criminal offenses.
• Excellent writing, editing, legal analysis, and oral presentation skills.
• Exceptional time management skills and the ability to meet deadlines.
• A strong work ethic, including the following qualities: organized, flexible, reliable, and dependable, with the ability to be an independent worker, and able to handle several projects simultaneously while thriving in a team-based collaborative decision-making environment.
• The vision necessary to identify future problems and opportunities, the leadership skills to persuade others to try new approaches, dependability to follow through on assignments, and flexibility to be able to keep up with changing needs and approaches.
• A willingness to travel throughout the United States.
• A current Bar membership in good standing for any state in the United States or the District of Columbia.

It is a plus if the applicant has additional experience including:

• More than 10 years of experience representing low-income clients in the practice of general immigration law, especially experience representing clients before the BIA and the EOIR.
• Writing and securing grants from foundations and corporations.
• Technical writing whether for immigration or other purposes.
• Training, teaching, or other public speaking experience.
• Working in, leading, or forming coalitions.
• Collaborating with immigrant communities.
• Coordinating civic engagement projects or working as a community organizer.
• Second language proficiency-preferably Spanish, Mandarin, French/French Creole, Arabic, or Cantonese-within the range of conversational to fluent.

Salary/Benefits:

Pay is extremely competitive for the field and commensurate with experience according to the ILRC salary scale for attorneys. The starting pay for this position is $129,255.18 (for those with 10 years out of law school). An attorney hired for this position who has been out of law school for more than 10 years will have a higher salary based on their law school graduation year. The ILRC offers excellent benefits, medical/dental/vision insurance, a flexible spending account for medical and dependent care, vacation, and sick leave. The ILRC sponsors a retirement plan option upon fulfillment of eligibility. We also offer an annual professional development stipend of $2,500.

Applications: We will be accepting applications until Tuesday, October 31st. To ensure consideration of your application, please submit a cover letter explaining your qualifications for the position, a resume, a writing sample that demonstrates immigration law knowledge, and the contact information for three professional references.

Online applications are preferred. As an alternative, you can mail your application to:

Senior Staff Attorney Hiring Committee

Immigrant Legal Resource Center

1458 Howard Street

San Francisco, CA 94103

No phone calls please.

As a condition of employment at the ILRC, you will be required to submit proof of vaccination and at least two booster shots against COVID-19.

The ILRC is an equal opportunity employer and does not make hiring or employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion or religious beliefs, ethnic or national origin, nationality, sex, gender, gender-identity, sexual orientation, disability age, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable local, state or federal laws.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and other similar state laws and local ordinances, ILRC will also consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records.