Who We Are:

The Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition is the only non-profit organization in the Washington, D.C. area focused exclusively on providing legal assistance to adult and child immigrants detained by the government in the Capital Region.

Role Description:

The managing attorney in the Detained Adult Program’s Legal Orientation Program (LOP) leads a team focused on the provision of direct legal services to immigrant adults held in facilities in Virginia who are unrepresented and cannot afford private counsel. The services the team provides include: (i) delivering Know Your Rights presentations and workshops, (ii) conducting intakes with all unrepresented persons, (iii) triaging and screening cases for pro bono placement with internal teams at CAIR Coalition and external partners, and liaising with these partners, (iv) mentoring external pro bono attorneys, and (v) providing pro se assistance and brief legal advice to individuals CAIR Coalition is unable to match with pro bono counsel. During this work, LOP staff are responsible for identifying trends and emerging issues faced by the people we work with in detention and coordinating responses as well managing stakeholder relationships with the detention facilities to ensure that individuals maintain meaningful access to legal information and assistance. Attorneys in this program also directly represent detained clients in their immigration proceedings in a small number of cases each year. In addition to leading the team’s operations as described above, the managing attorney interfaces with contract managers at the Acacia Center for Justice on reporting and proposals and helps set CAIR Coalition’s overall plans to improve legal access for pro se people in local ICE detention.

General Duties and Responsibilities [1]

Direct Services to Detained Unrepresented People:

Jail Visits

• Plan and lead visits to government detention facilities throughout Virginia (approximately 2-4 full days per month, including 2-day overnight visits), including interfacing with facilities, ensuring security clearances for staff, and developing visit assignments and responsibilities for staff. Oversee and supervise staff and volunteers during visits and assist in preparation and breakdown from visits. Perform Know-Your-Rights presentations and pro se workshops in Spanish, English, and (with available interpretation services) other languages to help detained individuals navigate the immigration court system. Coordinate efforts to ensure every newly arrived person at the detention center has the opportunity to attend presentations. Lead in adapting presentations and workshops to respond to changes in the law and legal needs of the people we work with in detention. Ensure that staff have adequate training and support to conduct presentations.
• Conduct individual intakes with immigrants at the detention facilities to evaluate and provide the necessary information and assistance they need to understand their cases. Work with the team to ensure that every unrepresented person at the detention center has the opportunity to complete an intake. Ensure adequate quality review of intakes conducted by volunteers and one-on-one legal information delivered during jail visits. Support the team in developing intake interviewing skills and related legal knowledge.

Follow Up Services After Intake

• Lead and coordinate coverage for team sessions to review new intakes to triage for follow up services. Screen for eligibility for all forms of relief and/or release from detention, including asylum, withholding of removal, protection under the Convention against Torture, cancellation of removal, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, U and T visas, and termination as well as appeals, bond and habeas petitions. Analyze immigration consequences of criminal convictions or allegations. Develop tailored messages providing further legal information that detained individuals need to navigate their cases pro se. Assist staff in developing the skills needed to perform this work.
• Supervise and support staff in conducting further follow up tasks to evaluate eligibility for relief and pro bono placement, including performing legal research, securing criminal/juvenile delinquency records, obtaining additional information from family and community members, and writing case summaries. Review case summaries prior to placement with external partners.
• Supervise and support staff in providing one-on-one pro se education, brief legal advice, and other assistance to certain individuals who remain unrepresented, including family outreach, country conditions research, gathering evidence, and preparing the individual to navigate their hearing pro se. Help staff assess when one-on-one assistance is feasible and develop best practices for approach to work with individuals from a wide array of backgrounds and needs, including people who speak a range of languages (with interpreters available for languages other than Spanish), have varying degrees of literacy, and experience mental disability or illness.
• Identify and track trends and emerging issues faced by the people we work with in detention affecting their immigration cases. Coordinate with others in the organization to help detained people respond to and access better information on issues. Make appropriate referrals and provide necessary insight to in-house and external teams working on responding to the emergent issues identified.

Direct Representation Focused Activities (~15% of work):

• Manage a caseload of pro bono mentorship cases to ensure competent, zealous representation and timely completion and submission of all filings by external partners. Provide expert mentoring to outside attorneys representing detained immigrants on a pro bono basis by orienting teams to cases, providing necessary client access information and assisting in troubleshooting accessibility concerns, providing feedback on filings, answering complex legal questions, and assisting with mooting and trial preparation. Supervise and train attorneys on staff learning to mentor pro bono teams.
• Represent and/or supervise other staff in a small number of in-house direct representation cases for detained clients that can include merits (trial) representation, bond, negative fear interview reviews, appeals and/or habeas petitions.
• Prepare and guide pro bono teams through putting together post release and social service plans, in coordination with social services staff.
• Research, engage, and prepare experts on health, behavioral health, and country conditions and pro bono teams working with these experts.

Supervision:

• Act as primary supervisor for senior staff in the program. Conduct regular check ins and provide support to senior staff in major stakeholder communications, cross-program interfacing, team management, and troubleshooting emergencies, including developing plans to respond new trends in enforcement, strategizing accessibility concerns, implementing program-wide protocols, and providing guidance and support with senior staff members’ supervision responsibilities.
• Participate and provide leadership in team meetings focused on program updates, pro se case workshopping, program management, training and planning to respond to changes.
• Provide supervision on legal matters and other support to legal assistants and attorneys in the program.
• Assist other program staff in completion of their workload during high-work/low-bandwidth periods.

Cross-Program Work:

• Lead in implementing and adapting referral processes for in-house programs for legal representation. Coordinate with all internal CAIR Coalition programs to ensure programs are kept abreast of developments, such as detention trends and access issues.
• Work with program directors and other managers to address Detained Adult Program management needs. Act as a leading voice for pro se legal access concerns.
• Actively engage in CAIR Coalition’s training and advocacy efforts.
• Engage with internal CAIR Coalition committees and working groups to lend a voice to the growth and strategy of the organization.
• Ensure the inputting and accuracy of data and case information into shared databases in a timely fashion by staff on team.
• Undertake own administrative functions, including for case work (e.g., preparation of all aspects of filings). CAIR Coalition attorneys often do not have dedicated paralegals for assistance on cases and non-attorney LOP staff time is dedicated to client-facing tasks (e.g., jail visits, pro se assistance).

Work with External Parties:

• Carry out day to day communications and contract reporting with the Acacia Center for Justice, the primary funder (contracting with EOIR) supporting CAIR Coalition’s LOP team. Prepare LOP budgets and other contract materials in consultation with program directors. Strategize on other sources of funding to support program operations.
• Liaise with external partners at law schools, non-profit organizations, and firms in coordination with pro bono managing attorney and LOP staff for the purpose of securing and furthering access to legal services for detained individuals.
• Interface with the community of support for clients and unrepresented people.
• Take part in stakeholder relationship activities, including in-person and telephonic meetings with community groups, governmental bodies and representatives (including ICE, jail and court officials), and other legal service providers.

[1] This list is illustrative and not intended to be a complete classification of all job functions or tasks.

Our Work Environment

CAIR Coalition’s Detained Adult Program is a highly collaborative work environment. Each team lead works directly with a focused team, but all colleagues are interconnected through, for example, case workshopping or staff-run committees such as Equity and Inclusion Committee.

DAP staff has been a source of expertise in the highly complex and ever-changing immigration system. They have persisted through administration changes, policy shifts, and attacks on the rights and freedoms of immigrants through project-focused cohorts that arise to address challenges or to brainstorm and implement affirmative strategies.

We center impacted people in our advocacy and media. We embrace the movement in our work while also staying focused on the practicalities we trained for, as well as where we are most useful in this movement. We grow our reach and skill set when resources permit and there is passion. We do not limit our push or dreams for this world based on the limits we know but try to imagine how to navigate around them.

We value our brain trust and are constantly finding ways to ensure that we maintain and grow, in ways that acknowledge those with expertise but also sets up new advocates for success.

What Else You Should Know:

Position Type

Full time, exempt

Supervisory Responsibility

Responsible for directly supervising a limited number of staff on the LOP team (senior staff and/or staff carrying out key program functions, may be attorneys, legal assistants or administrative staff) and providing overall team leadership and back up support to other supervisors on the team

Reports To

Deputy Program Director for Detained Adult Program

Timeline

Application deadline: 02/17/2023

Start date: Spring 2023

Salary

$79,500-$97,500

Salary is commensurate with experience per CAIR Coalition’s salary scale.

Location

This position will be based from the Washington, D.C. Office. Due to business related travel expectations, it is recommended candidates live within 30-miles of their assigned primary office.

Telework

All CAIR Coalition staff, interns, and volunteers whose positions are not fully remote are working a hybrid-work model in compliance with CAIR Coalition’s COVID-19 policies. Due to the duties and responsibilities of the LOP Managing Attorney role, this position will follow a hybrid-work model and may be required to live within 30 miles of their assigned primary office.

COVID-19 Vaccination:

All employees are required to be fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19. To be fully vaccinated means having completed the full dosages required for the type of vaccine obtained as designated by the CDC. If boosters are subsequently recommended by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) then employees will be required to receive the booster within thirty (30) days of their eligibility to access the boosters.

Benefits

• CAIR coalition’s benefits package includes:
• Free gym access located in Washington, D.C.;
• Pre-tax commuter benefits for those living in the DMV;
• Subsidized subsidized health, dental insurance, and vision insurance (CAIR Coalition pays a very high rate of the insurance package, for which we can provide additional information);
• An annual data reimbursement of $240
• life insurance valued at $50,000, as well as long and short term disability;
• the option to set up a Flexible Spending Account; and
• the option to set up a 403(b) account (the equivalent of a 401(k) account for non-profits) which the organization has the option, for all employees on an annual basis, to match at a certain percentage after one year of continuous employment.

Paid time off includes:

• 23 personal days per calendar year
• Up to 20 days of sick time per calendar year
• 7 hours of volunteer time
• Federal holidays
• Winter break closure
• 12 weeks of parental leave

How to Apply:

Submit your resume with your Paylocity application, which includes responses to screener questions regarding your interest in and qualifications for the position.

EEO Statement

Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition is an equal opportunity employer. In accordance with anti-discrimination law, it is the purpose of this policy to effectuate these principles and mandates. CAIR Coalition prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type and affords equal employment opportunities to employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. CAIR Coalition conforms to the spirit as well as to the letter of all applicable laws and regulations.

Anti-Racism Statement:

https://www.caircoalition.org/cair-coalitions-statement-becoming-anti-racist-organization

Competencies Required:

Legal Proficiency

The employee demonstrates a mastery of the law and legal procedure and can deploy innovative and thoughtful approaches to assisting clients. The employee stays abreast of developments in the law and ensures that their supervisees are trained in new developments.

Client and Programmatic Proficiency

The employee proficiently helps to manage all of the program’s in-jail, client, and in-office programmatic obligations. The employee proficiently manages their caseloads and the caseloads of the staff they supervise. The employee skillfully supervises their staff and ensures that staff are in a position to grow professionally.

Administrative

The employee ensures that all administrative aspects of their position (and their staffs’ positions), attendant to the provision of services to clients, are carried out without managerial intervention, (including timekeeping, file upkeep, database upkeep, etc.).

Qualifications Required:

• JD and active license to practice law
• Substantial relevant experience in immigration law or comparable field
• Experience in supervision, mentorship and project management
• Experience in delivering pro se education, intake and assistance programs (like LOP) strongly preferred
• Written and oral Spanish working proficiency required, fluency preferred
• Driver’s license