Background:

Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project, a program of Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, Inc., is a non-profit law firm which provides community education and legal representation to Southern California’s most vulnerable immigrant communities. Esperanza provides legal representation to immigrants who are in detention and/or removal proceedings, and focuses on particularly complex immigration cases which may involve unaccompanied minors, mental health issues, and cases with past criminal or gang history. Esperanza also provides community education programming to adults in the custody of ICE, children in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and to local sponsors who are considering becoming custodians for unaccompanied children in removal proceedings. Esperanza has provided legal services to immigrants and their families in Los Angeles for over 10 years. More information can be found about Esperanza at www.esperanza-la.org

Responsibilities:Esperanza is seeking to hire a staff attorney for its work with unaccompanied children and detained adults.

Esperanza seeks a full-time Staff Attorney to work in our Representation Program. The Staff Attorney will work under the supervisor of a Managing Attorney or a Directing Attorney to provide legal representation to unaccompanied alien children, focusing particularly on cases involving abused, abandoned and /or neglected children who are eligible to pursue Special Immigrant Juvenile Status visas and children pursuing asylum. The Staff Attorney may also be tasked with representing detained adult clients with mental health issues in removal proceedings. The Staff Attorney will be expected to carry a varied caseload consisting of a variety of affirmative and defensive immigration cases for both adults and children.

Qualifications:

Juris Doctorate degree;

Active, California State Bar License, or license from another jurisdiction AND commitment to sitting for next available CA Bar Exam

Experience (including internships) in the practice of law, preferably in immigration and/or public interest law;

Strong case management, legal research, and legal writing skills required;

Experience working with vulnerable client populations, particularly with children, is a huge plus;

Demonstrated ability and willingness to zealously pursue novel and “outside-the-box” legal theories;

Spanish language proficiency required and will be tested at time of interview;

Demonstrated ability to take initiative and work under pressure required;

Passion for social justice for immigrants required.

Location:

Our office is located at 1530 James M. Wood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90015. This position will require frequent regional travel, up to several times per week, to state courts in San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange Counties, shelters for immigrant youth (30 miles from Los Angeles), and to the Adelanto Detention Facility (90 miles from Los Angeles).

Employment Type: Full Time, Exempt.

Salary:

$48,000 – 57,000 annually D.O.E. + generous benefits package, including health, dental, vision, sick and vacation time, and 10 paid holidays/year. All new hires are subject to a 6 month probationary period.

How to apply:

Simultaneously email cover letter, resume, at least 2 references, and brief writing sample (5 pages or less) to: (1) Catholic Charities of Los Angeles Human Resources Department; P.O. Box 15095, Los Angeles, CA 90015, fax to (213) 251-3402, hrjobs@ccharities.org EEO; and (2) Miguel Mexicano, Directing Attorney, Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project, emailed to mmexicano@ccharities.org, 1530 James M. Wood Blvd., LA, CA 90015. Only those applicants selected for interviews will be contacted. No phone calls please.