Senior Staff Attorney, Removal

Organization General Description

The Resurrection Project (TRP) builds trusting relationships to educate and propel individuals, immigrants, and families to achieve their social and economic aspirations, stable homes, and equitable participation in their community. TRP is a leading provider of affordable housing, financial education, and immigration services on Chicago’s Southwest side.

During the past three decades TRP has worked to improve the lives of individuals and families by creating wealth, building assets, and engaging residents to be catalysts for change. Rooted in the Pilsen community, TRP’s impact now extends across the City of Chicago and through the State of Illinois; we are making steady progress towards leveraging and preserving more than $1 billion in community wealth by 2025.

The goal of TRP’s Immigrant Justice Department is to provide opportunities for authentic local immigrant leadership, to offer holistic community-based immigration legal services, and to work in coalitions to expand access to legal representation. The Immigrant Justice Legal Clinic offers direct legal services while engaging clients in advocacy and education and provides resources for the community to prepare for changes in immigration policy.

TRP seeks a passionate, collaborative, and innovative attorney to work on removal cases, both detained and non-detained, in TRP’s Immigrant Justice Legal Clinic. The senior staff attorney will maintain their own caseload, supervise casework of legal representatives (Full DOJs and staff attorneys) and removal defense paralegals as well as collaborate with the managing attorney on cases received via the Immigrant Justice Legal Clinic and the Midwest Immigration Defenders Alliance (MIDA), which is a collaborative with other organizations as part of a universal representation program to represent detained Illinois residents.

The senior staff attorney is an integral part of supervision and development for team members who are new to detained removal defense practice.

• Provide expert consultation and representation to clients and potential clients including case preparation and follow‑up.
• Handle a caseload that includes removal defense for detained and non-detained clients including, but not limited to, bond hearings, representation in immigration court (EOIR) and before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).
• Keep current on changes in immigration law and procedures through research and trainings.
• Make appropriate referrals as necessary for immigration legal services beyond the scope of the program.

• Maintain comprehensive up‑to‑date notes of client contact, indicating date, subject matter, and resolution in the client file, and all applicable reporting or case management systems, per TRP’s Immigrant Justice Legal Clinic procedures, and notify client of all activity regarding their case in a timely manner.
• Actively participate in case review and other meetings needed to effectively provide excellent quality service to all clients.

• Directly supervise a small team of staff, including staff attorney(s) or DOJ accredited representative(s) and paralegal(s).
• Provide supervision, training, and guidance to legal representatives and paralegals working on removal defense cases.
• Identify, recruit, train, support, develop, and evaluate a talented, high‑performing team of staff to implement effective and responsive programming.
• Ensure that the responsibilities, authority, and accountability of all direct team members are defined and understood; and
• Intentionally check‑in with staff on any development opportunities & performance feedback.

• Maintain required job skills and core professional competencies.
• Maintain open and ongoing communication.
• Attend and participate in required educational programs and staff meetings.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

• Juris Doctorate degree and three or more years practicing immigration law required. Experience handling bond, asylum, removal defense, and…