Description:

Position Description: The Staff Attorney represents clients facing deportation before immigration courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) and provides Legal Orientation Program (LOP) services to detained immigrants.

Job Purpose and Activities:

Represents non-citizen adults facing deportation and detained at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center (MVPC), Clinton County Correctional Facility, or non-detained and residing in Pennsylvania. Cases include a wide scope of removal defense before immigration courts, the BIA, and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Cases selected under both a particular vulnerabilities model and a universal representation model.
Represents unaccompanied minors in south central Pennsylvania, in long-term foster care or released from the Office of Refugee Resettlement's custody.
Conducts legal intakes and screenings of prospective clients for representation.
Provides non-representational legal orientation services under the Legal Orientation Program to detained adults seeking to self-represent.
Works with program coordinators to ensure all client data is properly recorded and entered into appropriate case management programs and databases.
Works with Managing Attorney to maintain and navigate relationships with governmental agencies, nonprofit legal service providers, community-based organizations, and other stakeholders.
Works with the Managing Attorney and Executive Director to ensure compliance with contractual and grant requirements for A Non-Profit Organization's Removal Defense Programs.

Other:

Regional travel required to provide legal orientation services, including overnight.
Performs in accordance with A Non-Profit Organization's Core Values of integrity, adaptability, innovation, empowerment, collaboration and diversity.
Abides by all policies and procedures established by A Non-Profit Organization.
Other tasks as assigned.

Qualifications and Experience:
Required:

Law degree and licensed to practice law or pending application before the bar of any state in the U.S.
Excellent research, writing, and oral advocacy skills.
Effective communication and interpersonal skills. Ability to communicate with people of different racial, ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Ethic of serving clients with compassion.
Sense of personal initiative and ability to work independently with appropriate guidance and supervision.
Ability to balance competing priorities and communicate as priorities shift. Ability to meet deadlines.
Must be flexible and adaptable.
Commitment to A Non-Profit Organization's mission, immigration advocacy, and legal services.
Fluency (reading/writing/speaking) in Spanish and/or other language.

Other:

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the job purpose and activities outlined above.
Must successfully pass NCIC, FBI, and State Criminal and Child Abuse Clearance background checks.

Physical Requirements: The physical requirements described are representative of those that must be met by an employee, with or without accommodation, to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

Employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee is frequently in a sedentary, seated position however this position would require the ability to lift files, open filing cabinets and bend as necessary. Employee uses hands to finger, handle or feel; and reach with hands and arms.
Employee is required to have close visual acuity to perform activities such as preparing/analyzing data, viewing a computer terminal and extensive reading.
Employee is not substantially exposed to adverse environmental conditions.
Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the job purpose and activities outlined above.