Immigration Staff Attorney

Job Description

Job Description

Description:

Job Title: Immigration Staff Attorney

Department: Legal Advocacy & Immigration Legal Services

Reports To: Managing Attorney 

Position Status: Full-time (32 hour workweek); Exempt

Location: Cambridge, MA & Waltham, MA (hybrid: minimum two days in office)

Work Schedule: 32 hours per week

Salary range: $80 – $83K

Application deadline: Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled. 

BARCC Overview

Founded in 1973, the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC) is the oldest and largest rape crisis center in New England, serving as the only comprehensive center for survivors of sexual violence in the Greater Boston Area. BARCC’s mission is to end sexual violence through healing, empowerment, and social change. BARCC empowers survivors of sexual violence to help find healing and seek justice in ways that are meaningful to them and works to provide education and advocacy needed to create social change and prevent sexual violence. We rely on our dedicated staff to do this important work, and our legal team is growing!

Position Overview

Our Legal Advocacy & Immigration Legal Services Program is looking for a Staff Attorney to join a small, collaborative legal team providing high quality representation to survivors of sexual violence, human trafficking, and other serious crimes. The attorney will carry an independent caseload of humanitarian immigration matters from intake through final adjudication, working under supervision of the Managing Immigration Attorney, and in close partnership with advocates, case managers, counselors and community based partners. 

Your work will directly further BARCC’s mission of ending sexual violence through healing and social change. This is a survivor centered practice. Our clients have experienced significant trauma, and much of the work involves eliciting difficult personal history, building declarations, and navigating long adjudication timelines with complex clients. This position does not include removal defense representation, but a working familiarity and prior experience with the immigration court system is required (see below).

Work Environment

BARCC's staff, operations, hours, and location vary by function, type of work, and work style. This is a 32-hour per week full-time position. For this position you can expect work to be limited to weekdays (Monday through Friday) in a hybrid schedule with a minimum of two days on-site. 

Key Responsibilities

Direct Representation 

• Carry an independent caseload of humanitarian immigration matters including but not limited to U and T visas for victims of crime and human trafficking, VAWA, Battered Spouse Waivers, special immigrant juvenile, TPS, DACA, AOS. 
• Provide intake, eligibility screening, and legal consultations to immigrant survivors of sexual violence and their family members, in accordance with BARCC's survivor-centered and trauma-informed approach. Identify and preserve alternative or additional forms of relief. 
• Conduct all consultations to the highest standards of professional ethics: candid assessment of eligibility and risk, informed client decision-making, a clearly defined scope of representation, rigorous conflict screening where multiple family members are involved, and scrupulous confidentiality.
• Draft client declarations, legal briefs, and supporting evidence packages. Respond to Requests for Evidence, Notices of Intent to Deny and related agency correspondence. Attend USCIS interviews as needed. 
• Maintain accurate, timely case files and case management data, track all filing deadlines and priority dates. Other administrative tasks as needed. 
• Work effectively with interpreters and with clients of limited English proficiency.

Program Support and Collaboration 

• Coordinate with internal legal advocates, case managers and counselors and with external partners, including law enforcement, prosecutors, family and probate court practitioners, and removal defense counsel.
• Develop referral networks and refer clients as needed to other legal service providers, in collaboration with the legal advocacy team.
• Collaborate with Managing Immigration Attorney in outreach and legal education efforts for partner organizations and the immigrant communities that we serve. 
• Seek out and attend relevant professional development training and professional collaboration both within BARCC and the community. 
• Contribute to grant reporting, including data collection and narrative reporting for funders.
• Track developments in humanitarian immigration law and policy and advise the team on their practical impact.

Physical Requirements

• The role may involve remaining in a stationary position for periods of time during client calls, meetings, court proceedings and general role accountabilities.
• This role generally requires the ability to communicate with clients and colleagues, use a computer, phone and other office equipment.
• The ability to move around an office or court environment.
• Ability to travel to off site locations including but not limited to our Cambridge and Waltham offices as well as local courts.

Required Qualifications:

• JD and admission to the MA bar, in good standing 
• 1-3 years of immigration law experience, including direct responsibility for humanitarian filings. We will consider equivalent hands-on experience gained through a law school clinic, post graduate fellowship, work as a DOJ accredited rep or a sustained pro bono practice. 
• Working familiarity with the immigration court and EOIR system sufficient to identify how prior or pending proceedings affect eligibility and strategy (including in absentia and prior removal orders, motions to reopen, administrative closure and termination). 
• Demonstrated commitment to trauma informed, survivor centered, and culturally responsive practice. 
• Strong legal writing and declaration drafting skills, ability to manage a high volume docket independently. 
• Sound professional judgment and comfort making independent decisions on a small team without administrative support. 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bilingual fluency (oral, written, reading) in Spanish
• Familiarity with Massachusetts Family, probate, juvenile or criminal court practice as it intersects with immigration relief. 
• Prior experience working in a non profit legal services setting. Including grant funded work. 
• Lived experience or deep community ties with the communities we serve.

Benefits and incentives:

At BARCC, we understand the hard work and dedication necessary to support our mission-driven organization, which is why we are committed to ensuring our employees are healthy, happy, and secure. We offer the following benefits:

• 32-hour work week designed to promote healthy work-life balance
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans offered at 85% employer paid
• Generous Paid Time Off (PTO): 12 vacation days, 15 paid sick days, minimum 14 paid holidays, two personal days, and two religious holidays per year
• Parental Leave and Massachusetts Paid Family Medical Leave Act (PFMLA) benefits
• Health and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
• 403(b) retirement plan
• Commuter benefits
• Professional Development Allowance and other perks
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness eligible employer 
• The opportunity to make meaningful change and improve the lives of others through mission-driven work, at all levels of the organization.

Hiring process and timeline

Please submit a resume, a cover letter describing your interest in survivor-centered immigration work, and a legal writing sample via our online application system. No phone calls, please. The full hiring process will include a phone-screen interview, first-round virtual interview and a final team interview with skills assessment . Reasonable accommodation is provided upon request.

Employment is contingent upon satisfactory completion of any background checks required by applicable law, regulation, contract, or funding requirement. Information obtained through a background check will be considered in accordance with applicable law and BARCC policy, including an individualized assessment where required. 

We are committed to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law. We strongly encourage applications from members of communities historically underrepresented in the legal profession.

Requirements: