Supervising Attorney – Criminal Immigration Project

The Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Defense Practice (CDP) and Immigration Law Unit are hiring a Supervising Attorney for the citywide Criminal Immigration Project. The Criminal Immigration Project works alongside our Criminal Defense Practice attorneys to advise non-citizen clients about the immigration consequences of their criminal court proceedings. 

As enshrined in Padilla v. Commonwealth of Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356 (2010), criminal defense attorneys have the constitutional duty to advise non-citizens of the immigration consequences of a guilty plea. At Legal Aid, the Criminal Immigration Project provides this immigration legal expertise to the criminal defense work we do. 

The Criminal Immigration Project also works closely with clients of Legal Aid’s Immigration Law Unit, which represents immigrant New Yorkers before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), before immigration judges in removal proceedings, the Board of Immigration Appeals and in federal court on habeas corpus petitions and petitions for review. 

The Supervising Attorney will be involved in day-to-day operations, supervision and mentoring of the team and will work closely with the leaders from both the CDP and the Immigration Law Unit in Practice-wide management discussions and decision-making.

This position will be primarily located in one of Legal Aid’s CDP borough offices, based on the Supervising Attorney’s preference, but will be hybrid when possible. 

ESSENTIAL DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

• Create and implement best practices and operational systems to ensure that requirements under Padilla v. Kentucky are met and clients are served
• Directly supervise, mentor and professionally develop the Criminal Immigration Project
• Partner with CDP leadership, administrative, and IT teams to ensure case management system accurately identifies clients based on citizenship or immigration status
• Develop dynamic new approaches to representing clients with immigration issues in criminal court and in agency proceedings
• Create reporting systems for caseloads and workloads and, when needed, develop plan to address issues as they arise
• Keep current with emerging trends in criminal-immigration law, policies and best practices
• Provide Criminal Immigration Project staff attorneys with regular updates on new caselaw develop new trainings on a regular basis
• Ensure a high standard of representation and client service
• Foster and encourage teamwork and communication
• Engage with team and other leaders on funding and reporting
• Respond to client, community, and staff concerns
• Other duties as assigned

Required Documents

Please submit these documents as a single combined PDF when you apply via the LAS (Legal Aid Society) Recruitment Portal.

• Cover letter
• Resume

Requirements

• Admission to the New York State Bar or ability to waive into New York State from another jurisdiction
• Minimum of five years’ experience in the intersection of immigration and New York criminal law
• Prior supervisory experience managing teams, projects or other initiatives either as staff or a volunteer is strongly preferred but not required
• Comprehensive knowledge of the intersection of criminal and immigration laws.
• Experience representing non-citizens in removal proceedings
• Experience with affirmative applications before USCIS preferred
• Excellent writing and analytical skills
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and organizational skills
• Demonstrated leadership ability
• Commitment to working in and valuing collaborative team models
• Proficiency in languages other than English is desirable, but not required

SALARY TRANSPARENCY

The posting reflects the range of potential salaries for the role.  The specific salary offers will be dependent on candidate qualifications, including collectively bargained salary steps for unionized roles.

Salary Range/ Salary: $85,290 to $141,730

SALARY AND BENEFITS

The leadership of The Legal Aid Society believes in attracting and retaining exceptional talent committed to serving our clients. We offer a generous benefits package including health insurance, paid vacation, disability, and life insurance, and more. Salaries for our unionized jobs are governed by our Collective Bargaining Agreement. Please visit our Careers page for additional information. Salary and benefits information will be available to applicants, when and if, an offer is made.

OUR COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION

The leadership of The Legal Aid Society is committed to a work culture of zealous advocacy, respect, diversity and inclusion, client-oriented defense, access to justice and excellent representation. We are dedicated to building a strong professional relationship with each of our clients, to understanding their diverse circumstances, and to meeting their needs. Our ability to achieve these goals depends on the efforts of all of us.

HOW TO APPLY

All applications must be completed online. We do not accept paper submissions. Please visit our Careers Page to review all current job postings, and instructions on the application process. For technical difficulties or questions regarding this posting, please email jobpostquestions@legal-aid.org.

As an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Employer, The Legal Aid Society prohibits discriminatory employment actions against and treatment of its employees and applicants for employment based on actual or perceived race or color, size (including bone structure, body size, height, shape, and weight), religion or creed, alienage or citizenship status, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity (one’s internal deeply-held sense of one’s gender which may be the same or different from one’s sex assigned at birth); gender expression (the representation of gender as expressed through, for example, one’s name, choice of pronouns, clothing, haircut, behavior, voice, or body characteristics; gender expression may not conform to traditional gender-based stereotypes assigned to specific gender identities), disability, marital status, relationship and family structure (including domestic partnerships, polyamorous families and individuals, chosen family, platonic co-parents, and multigenerational families), genetic information or predisposing genetic characteristics, military status, domestic violence victim status, arrest or pre-employment conviction record, credit history, unemployment status, caregiver status, salary history, or any other characteristic protected by law.