LEGAL TEAM MANAGER

Job Description

Job Description

Salary: $110,000- $120,000

About the Organization

HBA headquartered in San Diego is seeking a seasoned and mission-driven Immigrants' Rights Legal Manager to lead our immigration legal services. This senior-level position is ideal for someone with deep expertise in immigration law and a strong commitment to community-centered advocacy. The role offers the opportunity to supervise a growing legal team, support high-impact cases, and shape the strategic direction of our immigrants' rights work.

About the Role

As the Immigrants' Rights Legal Manager, you will oversee day-to-day operations of the immigration legal team, including attorneys, legal assistants, hotline workers and volunteers, ensuring high-quality service delivery and efficient case management. You'll maintain your own caseload of short- and long-term matters while also serving as a legal and strategic advisor on organizational priorities, including rapid response efforts, litigation, and coalition work.

Schedule Type: Full-time (Exempt).

Location: In-office position with limited remote work available. Based in HBA's San Diego office. Some of HBA's staff are currently working both in CA and remote.

Requirements: Authorization to work in the United States.

Reporting Relationships: Reports to the Chief of Staff. Supervises immigration staff, including attorneys, legal assistants and hotline
intake workers.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership and Supervision

• Provide leadership and supervision to the Immigrants' Rights legal team
• Oversee the day-to-day operations of the Immigrants' Rights team including management of intakes, civil rights staff, clerks, and monthly, quarterly, and annual reporting
• Supervise case assignments, case tracking processes, casework of attorneys, coordinators, caseworkers, paralegals, and volunteers, provide legal oversight and expertise to ensure proper legal practice of the team, monitor and balance caseloads for individual attorneys, oversee and adjust the Hotline/Intake teams messaging and initial triage of cases for possible acceptance, review and determine which cases are appropriate for HBA to accept, develop professional correspondence to notify individuals when/if cases are accepted or rejected and ensure that all aspects of the Legal Team are operating to a high standard of excellence.
• Oversee retained case load to ensure all intakes and retained cases are properly documented and advanced
• Participate in HBA's Management Team, including regular meetings, advice to executives, and facilitation of organizational goals

Legal Representation

• Conduct client intake, determine a protocol for accepting or rejecting specific types of cases, engage in triage of cases to determine case acceptance, oversee and/or prepare applications, and petitions for submission to the appropriate agencies
• Represent clients before various government agencies and in litigation

• Manage a reasonable personal and high-impact caseload, balancing short-term direct services and longer-term full scope retainers
• Review cases for acceptance by the Legal Team as part of a triage process.
• Determine systems for tracking accepted or rejected cases with accuracy.
• Assign cases to Legal Team members
• Monitor and manage to the available and realistic capacity of the team when accepting and/or assigning new cases
• Provide legal mentoring and support to legal team when needed
• Ensure that the systems in use by the Legal Team alert team members to upcoming hearings or other due-dates.
• Hold regular supervision check-ins with team members (at least bi-weekly)
• Support a high-functioning legal team that allows for both individual and collateral support among team members as-needed
• Require all Legal Team members to be client-centered in their work
• Provide regular training of Legal Team members or others to ensure high quality legal work in all regards.
• Hold team members accountable to the standards, policies and expectations of HBA through supervision.
• Develop and adhere to an appropriate team structure and team-based boundaries.

Community Engagement

• Respond to intake requests from organizational leaders for key community stakeholders and members to ensure they are properly addressed
• Participate in community outreach and educational activities, including planning and conducting Know Your Rights events and Immigration Legal clinics
• Work in, lead, or form coalitions with other organizations and collaborate with civil rights partners
• Co-lead HBA's efforts on rapid response issues, alongside HBA's Management Team
• Remain informed and abreast of changes in the immigration landscape

Legal Research and Documentation

• Research and analyze law sources such as statutes, legal articles, and legal codes
• Prepare legal writing including, but not limited to, drafting complaints, discovery, briefs, letters, and memos; and non-legal writing including drafting community advisories, issue briefings, and reports
• Identify, develop, lead, and support litigation efforts including legal writing and review of complaints, demand letters, motions, discovery, and other litigation-related documents; conducting and defending depositions; attending legal hearings
• Be knowledgeable of and support grant requirements and reporting for current and future grants as received

Client Assessment and Referrals

• Assess clients for other legal services and immigrants' rights-related needs, as appropriate
• Grow referral database and utilize it strategically and thoughtfully to provide referrals to potential clients who HBA is unable to assist

Marketing and Reporting

• Partner with the Executive Director, Development, Communications Manager, and colleagues to strategize and implement marketing for HBA's immigrants' rights services and impact
• Assist other staff in the production of internal and external reports, including serving as the final reviewer if needed

• All HBA's staff are required to assist in general duties such as answering phones, weekly outreach, and other office tasks.

Required Qualifications

• At least 5 years of immigration law, or other relevant, experience, including at least one year of training and mentoring other legal workers
• At least 3 years of experience supervising professional staff, preferably in a law firm or non-profit setting.
• A strong commitment to civil rights and HBA's mission
• Law degree from an American Bar Association accredited school
• Member in good standing of a state bar
• Strong time management skills with a demonstrated ability to meet deadlines
• Demonstrated problem-solving skills with outstanding attention to detail
• Comfort working productively in a fast-paced, individual and team-oriented environment
• Excellent oral and written communication skills including public speaking experience
• Experience working with people from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds
• High degree of self-motivation, creativity and emotional intelligence
• Excellent interpersonal and professional boundaries
• Basic computer proficiency including knowledge of legal platforms, MS Office, MS Outlook, Adobe Acrobat, and LexisNexis
• Knowledge of cloud applications such as SharePoint and Office365

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with the American Muslim community and/or in a community, faith-based, and/or non-profit organization
• Knowledge of cloud applications such as SharePoint, Office365, and social media applications
• Conversational proficiency in Haitian Kreyl, French, Spanish

Compensation

• Compensation in the range of $110,000- $120,000/annually, commensurate with experience

Benefits

• Health Insurance
• 401K retirement matching contribution
• Paid holidays, sick days, and vacation days

To Apply please submit:

1. A cover letter discussing your interest in the position
2. Your resume
3. Brief example of your writing
4. Names and contact information of three professional references, at least one of which is or was your supervisor.

Application Deadline

• Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Early applications are strongly encouraged.

HBA is an equal-opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of any protected class. We adhere to all federal, state, and local laws prohibiting employment discrimination. If an applicant requires reasonable accommodation to complete the application process, please contact View email address on ziprecruiter.com