NEW JERSEY COMMUNITY IMPACT FELLOW

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), founded in 1974, is a New York-based national organization that protects and promotes the civil rights of Asian Americans. By combining litigation, advocacy, education, and organizing, AALDEF works with Asian American communities across the country to secure human rights for all.

The New Jersey Community Impact Fellow is funded in partnership with Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders of New Jersey (AAPI New Jersey), with the objective of deepening our collaboration with diverse Asian communities throughout New Jersey to create a model of national impact for AAPI communities from the ground up. The position is for two years.

AALDEF has a long history of representing AAPI New Jersey communities, including immigrants, low wage workers, and voters, to counter hate violence, fight for fair wages, ensure access to mosques, advocate for fair voting representation, and resist deportations. For more information about AALDEF, visit the website at http://www.aaldef.org.

AAPI New Jersey activates the power of the state’s 1.1 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to advance social justice through its varied, ambitious programming and advocacy. Led by community members who came together to respond to anti-Asian hate, AAPI NJ has become a national model of the power of locally rooted Asian American organizing to plant and nurture the seeds of generational change. Through its efforts, AAPI New Jersey hopes to encourage structural change, build solidarity among communities, and fight for equity for all oppressed groups, while celebrating AAPI cultures. For more information about AAPI NJ, visit the website at https://aapinewjersey.org/.

DESCRIPTION:

The New Jersey Community Impact Fellow will deepen our collaboration with AAPI communities throughout New Jersey and beyond, using AALDEF’s community lawyering model. The Fellow will address civil rights issues affecting Asian American communities in New Jersey, while using that work as a foundation to identify and develop litigation and policy strategies that can be employed across the country. The scope of fellow’s work will align with AALDEF's focus on immigrants, low wage workers, and voters, but also have flexibility to address emerging and evolving threats to Asian American communities posed by new federal policies and enforcement actions. The fellow will engage in a mixed advocacy and litigation approach and pursue both New Jersey–specific work and efforts outside the state, particularly with parallels or opportunities to build upon advocacy, organizing, and litigation undertaken in New Jersey.

Responsibilities include:

• Representing AAPI people in New Jersey on civil rights issues;
• Litigating cases that defend and advance the rights of AAPI communities;
• Engaging in community outreach;
• Collaborating with AAPI community organizations to provide legal support in response to community needs; and
• Advancing policy advocacy.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Demonstrated commitment to racial justice and public interest activities;
• Familiarity with New Jersey communities, Asian American communities, and civil rights issues;
• Commitment to movement / community lawyering;
• Outstanding writing, communication, organizational, and interpersonal skills;
• Highly organized, solution-oriented, and can work independently and in collaboration with others;
• Admitted to the New Jersey or other state bar, or willing to take the bar exam in 2026;
• Ability to speak an Asian language commonly spoken in New Jersey helpful, but not required.

SALARY RANGE

$83,500 - $106,500 [Salary is commensurate with candidate’s law school graduation year on our union salary scale.]