Legal Fellowship Opportunity for 2026, Immigration Enforcement Rapid Response

Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) seeks rising third year law students, judicial law clerks, and recent law school graduates to sponsor for a post-graduate public interest law fellowship. The fellow will be situated in the Immigration Practice and work closely with the Civil Rights & Law Reform Unit. The fellow will work collaboratively with BDS to design a project focused on rapidly responding to immigration enforcement changes that impact BDS clients across the organization. BDS plans to submit this fellowship project only to Justice Catalyst and school-based fellowships.

BDS is a public defense office representing low-income New Yorkers in criminal, family, immigration, and civil legal matters. For nearly 30 years, BDS has worked, in and out of court, to protect and uphold the rights of individuals and to change laws and systems that perpetuate injustice and inequality. Our legal expertise work with clients is focused on the intersections of these legal systems that disproportionately impact Black and Brown communities living in poverty.

BDS represents thousands of people each year who have diverse, complex, and multi-faceted legal needs. In addition to a zealous legal defense, our interdisciplinary teams of attorneys, social workers and advocates provide a wide range of legal and advocacy services, including for housing, public benefits, education, and employment. BDS staff work collaboratively and across disciplines to deliver high-quality legal services that serve the people we represent, their families and communities.

BDS’s Immigration Practice is a collaborative team that represents people in detained and non-detained removal proceedings, as well as affirmative applications before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and appeals before the Board of Immigration Appeals and federal circuit courts.

The Civil Rights and Law Reform unit (“Law Reform”) works across BDS’s practice areas to identify, target, and reform barriers that impede access to justice for the people BDS represents. Through strategic federal and state litigation on behalf of both classes and individual people, Law Reform challenges government action that systematically harms the people BDS serves.

Fellowship Project

Increasingly, BDS clients are at heightened risk of immigration arrest and detention.

We are seeking to partner with a candidate interested in developing a rapid response project to identify, track, and assist at-risk non-citizen clients from all BDS practices.

Qualifications

• • Rising third year law student, judicial law clerk, and/or recent law school graduate.
  • Willing and able to commit time to write – and meet interim and final deadlines for – one or more fellowship applications, with input, guidance, and supervision from BDS staff.
  • Demonstrated commitment to social justice, immigrant rights, and/or civil rights.
  • Ability to understand and analyze complex legal issues.
  • Excellent written and oral advocacy skills, including the ability to draft clear and persuasive legal documents.
  • Excellent organizational skills, and comfortable working in a fast-paced environment and able to adapt to urgent situations.
  • Ability to work independently, as well as collaboratively and collegially as part of a team.
  • Ability to effectively and respectfully communicate and connect with people with varied backgrounds, identities, and experiences.
  • Spoken and written fluency in Spanish highly preferred.

Position Information 

This is an exempt, salaried position in the collective bargaining unit. The normal schedule is Monday to Friday 9am-5pm. The position is based at BDS’s offices located in Downtown Brooklyn.

BDS determines salary on a pay scale based on education and experience. For this position there is a salary of $90,000 for a 2025 law graduate to $92,000 for a 2023 law graduate depending on the applicant’s education and experience.

BDS offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance and a 403(b) retirement plan. In order to support work/life balance and family-friendly policies, BDS has generous vacation, sick, holiday, family, and medical leave policies.

Application Instructions

Click “Apply Now” to submit a cover letter and resume on our online application portal. Please submit your application by July 25, 2025. If you have questions about some of the potential elements of the project, please contact Lucas Marquez at Lmarquez@bds.org.

Brooklyn Defender Services is a proud equal opportunity employer committed to celebrating diversity and maintaining an equitable and inclusive work environment. We strongly encourage candidates of all identities, expressions, orientations, disabilities, and experiences to apply. If you require an accommodation due to a disability or another reason, please contact the Managing Director, H.R., Christina Wallace, at cwallace @ bds.org.