ACLU-NC Staff Attorney

About the ACLU of North Carolina

The ACLU of North Carolina (ACLU-NC) is an affiliate of the National ACLU. For 60 years, the ACLU-NC has worked in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and laws of the United States. Whether it’s achieving full equality for LGBTQ+ people, working to transform our broken and racist criminal legal system, defending freedom of speech, religion, and the right to protest, or preserving the right to vote or the right to have an abortion, the ACLU takes up the toughest civil liberties cases and issues to defend all people from government abuse and overreach.

Two critical components of our work are uplifting the voices and leadership of impacted people and applying an anti-racist lens to all aspects of our internal and external functions including but not limited to our issue campaigns, recruitment and human resources, strategic planning, donor and volunteer relations, Board and committee processes, and deciding what cases to litigate. We are looking for candidates who share our commitment to our values.

The ACLU-NC brings together litigation, legislative advocacy, communications, and organizing strategies to empower communities and achieve our objectives in major issue areas including criminal law reform, voting rights, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive freedom, and the rights of immigrants. With more than 40,000 members and supporters across the state, the ACLU-NC has a staff of more than 25 people with an office in Durham.

The Opportunity

The ACLU-NC Legal Foundation (ACLU-NCLF) seeks to hire a full-time, term-limited Staff Attorney to join our passionate and dedicated team. The Staff Attorney position will be limited to three (3) years and will focus on the civil rights of detained immigrants, particularly individuals who will be detained by ICE in a soon-to-be-opened facility in Winton, NC. The Staff Attorney will spend significant time in Winton, leading efforts to monitor conditions and establish a legal outreach program at the detention facility. The Staff Attorney will also lead efforts to identify and advocate for individuals who are being unlawfully detained by local law enforcement officials for immigration-related reasons.  In collaboration with ACLU-NC colleagues, the Staff Attorney will work to develop and conduct federal and state court litigation, as well as other legal advocacy to defend and enforce the constitutional rights of detained immigrants. Such work may include litigating habeas petitions and civil rights claims arising from over-detention or illegal detention conditions.

The Staff Attorney will work under the legal director’s supervision and in close collaboration with other attorneys, paralegals, law student interns, and co-counsel, as well as staff from the policy and advocacy, organizing, and communications departments. Staff Attorneys work in a fast-paced environment to address emerging and ongoing civil rights issues through fact-intensive investigation, legal advocacy including complex litigation, and community education. The ideal Staff Attorney will be able to work independently to respond quickly and urgently when necessary to investigate and advocate for detained immigrants, including engaging in extensive solo travel throughout the state and working beyond standard office hours when necessary to address time-sensitive matters. The Staff Attorney will be able to move fluidly from the courtroom to the community and will be able to work with diverse allies and coalitions to achieve our ambitious goals.

Key Responsibilities

You'll help us protect and advance the rights of all North Carolinians by: 

• Developing, leading, and independently executing a workplan focused on ensuring that detained individuals have access to legal information and advocacy, that detainees are not subject to unlawfully prolonged detention, and that detention conditions comply with federal and state law.
• Investigating, developing, and litigating high-impact civil rights cases in federal and state court to protect and expand the civil rights of detained immigrant North Carolinians. This includes conducting effective community outreach to impacted people; investigating possible civil rights violations; drafting and filing correspondence, pleadings, motions, and briefs; conducting written and oral discovery; negotiating and enforcing settlements; and presenting oral argument and evidence in hearings and trials.
• Developing and implementing non-litigation advocacy campaigns in partnership with colleagues and coalition partners who are not lawyers.
• Organizing and leading community education events and trainings to advance our strategic priorities. 
• Providing expert legal analysis of legislation, regulations, and legal research and strategy assistance in support of campaigns.
• Working with non-lawyer staff and coalition partners to implement multi-faceted advocacy campaigns.
• Representing the ACLU of North Carolina in coalition spaces.
• Preparing summaries and reports of legal issues and cases for the public, as well as ACLU membership, staff, and leadership.
• Serving as a spokesperson for the ACLU of North Carolina at public forums, meetings, and in the media.
• Providing administrative support in recruiting and managing interns and legal fellows as needed. Occasional other administrative support is required of all team members on an as-needed basis.
• Engaging in frequent travel within the state and working outside of standard office hours as needed to respond to time-sensitive matters. ( Note that compensatory time off is available for excessively demanding work schedules .)

To Be Successful in this Role, the Candidate Will Have  

The ideal candidate will be ready to hit the ground running to expand the organization's work as a leading advocate for the civil rights of North Carolinians. 
Other requirements include:

• J.D. degree required.
• Membership in good standing with the North Carolina Bar or admission to the North Carolina Bar within one year of hire is required. ( Reimbursement for some bar expenses may be available ).
• Valid drivers’ license, safe driving record, consistent access to a reliable car, and familiarity with and confidence in driving long distances solo in rural areas. (A CLU-NC will reimburse mileage and pay for other costs reasonably associated with work-related travel ).
• Substantial experience with immigration law, or in civil rights advocacy focused on immigrants’ rights.
• Demonstrated commitment to the civil liberties mission and social justice principles of the ACLU. “Demonstrated commitment” can include, but is not limited to, prior employment. It can also include significant experience in law school clinics or other volunteer efforts, such as unpaid activism or pro bono work.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and execute –with minimal supervision— a goal-oriented workplan, including delegation to and collaboration with legal outreach workers and other support staff.
• Ability to consistently draft written work products that meet deadlines, reflect thorough legal research, is self-edited, and contains concise, up-to-date analysis of the law.
• Demonstrated ability to make successful arguments to courts based on established law, to develop creative legal theories and strategies, and to write clearly and persuasively.
• Demonstrated ability to meet tight deadlines while managing a docket that includes multiple cases in various stages of active litigation.
• Demonstrated ability to proactively seek and receive remote supervision, communicate as part of a team, ask for support, and delegate as needed to ensure all work is completed on time.
• High levels of commonsense judgment, emotional intelligence, humility, personal accountability, and well-developed listening skills are required in this role to successfully navigate and build relationships with clients, co-counsel, coalition partners, and officials where necessary to vigorously advocate for detained immigrants.
• Demonstrated personal commitment to social justice, equity, and inclusion is required, including a personal approach that values individual lived experience and respects differences of race, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, ability, and socio-economic circumstances.
• Commitment to working collaboratively and respectfully toward resolving obstacles and conflicts.
• Excellent computer skills, including knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite.

Strongly preferred:

• Bilingual in English and Spanish (or another language widely spoken by immigrant North Carolinians).
• Substantial federal court district litigation experience, especially in immigration habeas or other civil rights matters.
• Demonstrated ability to participate in all stages of complex litigation, from initial investigation through trial and appeal, and readiness to take a leading role in cases. Successful applicants will be able to identify both well-established and novel legal theories and build cases to advance state and federal constitutional jurisprudence on behalf of marginalized communities.
• Demonstrated ability to work with community contacts, including detention center and immigration officials, to ensure detainee access to counsel and to secure the release of detained immigrants.
• Experience in developing and executing non-litigation strategies to promote objectives, including building coalitions with ally organizations, engaging in public advocacy, and working under the leadership of non-lawyers and directly impacted people.

To Stand Out from Others, You Will Have

• Experience with one or more of the ACLU of North Carolina's other strategic priority areas: criminal law reform, reproductive freedom, voting rights, or LGBTQ+ equality.
• At least 3 years of experience as a practicing litigator is strongly preferred. Significant complex civil litigation experience - especially experience litigating civil rights cases in federal court - is strongly preferred. 

What Else You Should Know

You are welcome here! The ACLU-NC is committed to an inclusive work environment that reflects the population that we serve. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and are committed to building an organization where all employees and North Carolinians can be proud. We eagerly anticipate applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, parental status, veteran status, or record of arrest or conviction.

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S.

Compensation

The annual salary range for this position is $80,000 – 90,000, depending on experience. Excellent benefits include but are not limited to:  

• 3 weeks paid vacation at time of hire (increasing after the second year of the employment term)
• 10 paid office holidays, 1 floating holiday, summer recess (last full week of August) and winter recess (December 25 – January 1)
• 10 paid sick days
• Hybrid work environment
• Generous medical, dental and vision insurance options for staff members, their dependents and spouse/domestic partners
• Employer-funded health reimbursement account
• Flexible spending and dependent care accounts
• Up to 12 weeks of paid medical leave
• Life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance
• Short-term disability and long-term disability insurance
• 401(k) and Roth IRA defined contribution retirement plan with employer match
• Annual professional development allotment
• Relocation Reimbursement
• Free on-site parking

The staff attorney position is exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The ACLU-NC/LF is a unionized employer, and staff attorneys are part of the union bargaining unit. Salary and benefits are subject to a collective bargaining agreement.

To Apply

Applications should include a cover letter—drafted by you, and not AI or any other third party— that explains your specific interest in litigating complex civil rights cases in North Carolina and your interest and any experience in immigrants’ rights advocacy. The cover letter should also address why, based on your experience, you will be an effective advocate for social justice in this setting. In addition to your cover letter, your application should include your resume; one legal writing sample (no more than 15 pages, with a strong preference that you provide us with an example of something you filed in court); and a list of at least three professional references, including at least one who has directly supervised your legal work. Your writing sample should be something that you primarily researched, authored, and edited, i.e., without significant AI use and without significant drafting or editing by others.
Please submit all materials in a single PDF file via this link ( ACLU-NC Staff Attorney - American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina - Career Page ). We encourage applications by September 4, 2026, though the position will remain open until filled.

The ACLU-NCLF is an equal opportunity employer. We value a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. Recognizing that strict minimum requirements tend to disproportionately discourage women and people of color from applying for jobs for which they would otherwise be competitive, we encourage all qualified individuals to apply—especially people of color; women; people from low-income backgrounds; people with disabilities; people who identify as LGBTQ+; and people who are formerly incarcerated or otherwise directly impacted by the criminal legal system.

 

The ACLU-NC and the ACLU-NCLF is an equal opportunity employer. We value a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. Recognizing that strict minimum requirements tend to disproportionately discourage women and people of color from applying for jobs for which they would otherwise be competitive, we encourage all qualified individuals to apply -- especially people of color; women; people from low-income backgrounds; people with disabilities; people who identify as LGBTQ+; and people who are formerly incarcerated or otherwise directly impacted by the criminal legal system.