Immigrant Justice Fellowship

About the Legal Aid Justice Center:

The Legal Aid Justice Center is a nationally recognized, non-profit organization that partners with low-income clients and communities of color in Virginia to fight for racial, social, and economic justice. We understand that the harms our clients endure are inextricably linked to overarching systems of injustice. Together we are dismantling those systems through a combination of community organizing, litigation, policy advocacy, public relations, and individual legal services.

Founded in 1967, LAJC has offices in Charlottesville, Richmond, Petersburg, and Falls Church and provides services under six key program areas: Civil Rights & Racial Justice (focuses on the criminal legal system), Housing & Consumer Justice, Youth Justice, Health Justice & Public Benefits, Immigrant Justice, and Worker Justice. As examples of LAJC’s recent work, our lawsuit and organizing against the state forced reform of Virginia’s unemployment insurance system, including advocacy that resulted in the distribution of over $1 billion in illegally withheld payments to over 160,000 Virginians. During the pandemic, we demanded and secured a statewide eviction moratorium and emergency pandemic protections that helped hundreds of families avoid eviction. We reduced incarceration across the state, including reducing the population of a local immigration detention center down to historically low levels through a coordinated effort of organizing paired with impact and individual litigation. Our staff are on the front lines of some of the most important anti-poverty fights happening today.

With a staff of over 90, the past few years have been a time of exciting growth and opportunity for the organization. In addition to the growth of programmatic efforts including increased organizing capacity, LAJC has expanded its operations and administrative capacity, created new opportunities for professional growth and leadership among staff, engaged in ongoing race equity work, and explored changes to organizational structure to deepen its efforts to create long-term, sustainable, community-driven change.

LAJC’s latest strategic plan is available at https://www.justice4all.org/lajc-strategic-plan-2022-2026/#area%20d.

For more information about LAJC’s work and programs, visit www.justice4all.org.

About the Fellowship:

LAJC is seeking to host one recent law graduate as a public service fellow with the Immigrant Justice Program in our Charlottesville, Virginia office. Fellowship candidates must be rising third-year law students, third-year law students, or recent law school graduates, with a demonstrated record of public service and a willingness to apply for public interest legal fellowships. This position depends on the candidate obtaining fellowship funding from a private funding entity in partnership with LAJC.

In addition to serving clients with their legal needs, past fellows have had the opportunity to assist with clinical supervision, staff high impact cases with nationwide implications, engage in movement lawyering and community organizing, and participate in legislative and other policy advocacy.

While LAJC hopes to hire fellows into full-time positions after the fellowship and is committed to supporting their long-term growth within the organization, continued employment cannot be guaranteed and will depend on organizational budget and staffing needs at the time the fellowship concludes.

Applicants should view this position as a four-part process:

• First, selected applicants will be offered an interviewed with a small team of LAJC staff. The interview will be roughly 1-hour and will focus primarily on the logistics of the proposal.
• Second, after all applicants are interviewed, selected applicants will work with LAJC to develop their fellowship application materials, usually requiring the applicant to describe the work they aim to undertake at LAJC through the fellowship. This phase of the process is an ongoing conversation between the applicant and members of the LAJC's leadership team wherein the applicant describes the structure and mechanics for their proposed work, receives feedback from LAJC based on its needs and the dynamics of the issue(s) the work aims to address.
• Third, upon reaching consensus as to the project proposal, the applicant with LAJC support, will prepare and submit the required materials to one or more public interest fellowship funding entities for review. LAJC and the applicant will maintain their relationship throughout this second application phase so that LAJC can continue support the applicant's candidacy for this outside funding.
• Finally, if successful, fellows will begin their fellowship at LAJC in September 2027.

About the Immigrant Justice Program and Job Duties:

The fellowship proposal should be focused on helping develop and implement strategies to end mass detention and deportation of immigrants in Virginia, break the ties between immigration enforcement and local and state government and law enforcement, ensure that immigrant communities remain intact and protected in Virginia, fight the separation of immigrant families and the exclusion of immigrant youth from state benefits like in-state tuition, and protect young immigrants across the Commonwealth whether they are in federal custody or in their communities.

Applying the principles of community lawyering and working on an interdisciplinary team, the fellow will work closely to develop a project proposal within the Immigrant Justice Program’s community centered priorities. The fellow will collaborate with organizers, families, community members, local, state and national-level partners, and other LAJC advocates to advance systemic change in immigrants’ rights in Virginia through a combination of individual representation, impact litigation, community outreach, and policy advocacy.

• Through supervision and coordination with the director, help monitor and advance the central Virginia docket of individual cases to ensure community needs are met. This includes handling direct representation cases and community immigration consultations.
• Take a leadership role in various impact campaigns (including federal litigation, state and local advocacy, and grassroots community lawyering) affecting immigrant communities in and around Central Virginia and statewide.

Required Qualifications:

• Rising third-year law student, third-year law student, or recent law graduate.
• Strong commitment to social, economic, and racial justice.
• A strong commitment to immigrant's rights and social justice work.
• A sufficient level of Spanish fluency to interview and counsel clients in Spanish without assistance of an interpreter.
• Willingness and ability work in Charlottesville, VA at least three (3) times per week.
• Mission-aligned experience (work, volunteer, or lived) partnering with and advocating in low-wealth communities and communities of color.
• Outstanding oral advocacy, research, writing, organizational, and leadership skills.
• Ability to work effectively both independent and collaboratively.
• Commitment to taking and passing Virginia Bar Exam and fulfilling all requirements for licensure as an attorney in Virginia
• Dedication to working in and sustaining an environment that enables staff members and clients to feel empowered, valued, respected, and safe.
• Ability and willingness to partner with the Legal Aid Justice Center to apply for public interest legal fellowship opportunities.
• An ability to balance and manage a variety of responsibilities.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience (formal or lived experience) working directly with immigrant community members.
• Supervision experience, whether in a formal or informal capacity.
• Experience working for a public interest law firm, legal services organization, or other nonprofit.

Location: This role will be based in our Charlottesville office.

Start Date: LAJC expects this class of fellowship sponsorship candidate to begin Fall 2027.

A Note to Potential Candidates: Studies have shown that women, trans, non-binary folks, and BIPOC are less likely to apply for jobs unless they believe they meet every single one of the qualifications as described in a job description. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive organization, and strongly encourage you to apply, even if you don't believe you meet every one of the qualifications described.

Benefits: Salary and benefits depend on the terms of the fellowship

The Legal Aid Justice Center is an equal opportunity employer, committed to inclusive hiring and dedicated to diversity in our work and staff. We strongly encourage candidates of all identities, experiences, and communities to apply. The Legal Aid Justice Center is committed to strengthening the voices of our low-income clients, working in collaboration with community partners, and rooting out the inequities that keep people in poverty. We strive to take on the issues that have broad impact on our client communities and to be responsive to client input. Recognizing the particular impact of racism on our clients and staff, we devote special attention to dismantling racial injustice. All applicants must be dedicated to working in and sustaining an environment that enables staff and clients to feel empowered, valued, respected, and safe. In reviewing applications, we look for evidence that applicants have experience and/or thoughtfulness in working with traditionally marginalized populations.

Benefits: Salary and benefits depend on the terms of the fellowship

• A sufficient level of Spanish fluency to interview and counsel clients in Spanish without assistance of an interpreter.