Senior or Staff Attorney

New Jersey Consortium for Immigrant Children

The New Jersey Consortium for Immigrant Children (NJCIC) is seeking an Attorney to join our team. The Attorney will primarily work on Legal Representation for Children and Youth Program (LRP). Administered by the New Jersey Office of New Americans in partnership with Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) and modeled after California's trailblazing program, NJ's LRP is the nation's second state-funded legal program to offer free, high-quality, child-centered direct representation to unaccompanied children.

It is the first of its kind to also represent other young immigrants similarly situated to unaccompanied children. NJCIC serves as
1) the central intake and referral hub for this innovative LRP and
2) also provides direct representation as one of eight legal service providers part of this effort.

The New Jersey Consortium for Immigrant Children (NJCIC) works with New Jersey’s young immigrants and their allies to advance their full, fearless participation in our society. NJCIC seeks lawful status for immigrant youth and advocates for system-wide change in the areas of education, access to justice, and health equity. Our goal is a New Jersey where every young immigrant has lawful status and the opportunity to advance, and where families can stay together and thrive.

We want New Jersey to be a welcoming and inclusive state for all children - a place where every young immigrant can feel secure, advance, and achieve success. In addition to the LRP, NJCIC’s legal projects include Florecer, a medical-legal partnership in collaboration with a Zufall Health, a federally qualified health center, Beacon, an educational-legal partnership with Jersey City public schools, and a Rapid Response Initiative providing focused and direct legal representation and advice and counsel to young immigrants at high risk of removal from the U.S. or at high risk of aging out of eligibility for immigration relief.

Under the direction of the Legal Director, the Attorney will:

• Represent unaccompanied children and similarly
• situated youth in removal proceedings before the Executive Office for Immigration Review, affirmative immigration relief applications before USICS, and before New Jersey family courts in immigration matters including Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, asylum, U Visas, T Visas and other forms of humanitarian immigration relief.
• Monitor legal and policy changes that affect immigrant youth and integrate them into case strategy.
• For Senior Attorney:
  Supervise staff attorneys, legal fellows, paralegals, and/or legal interns including onboarding, legal skills training, case technical assistance, conducting regular check-ins and performance evaluations, reviewing work product, case audits, and providing consistent and effective feedback and oversight to ensure high-quality legal work and support in the professional development of junior staff.
• For Staff Attorney:
  Supervise paralegals and/or legal interns including onboarding, legal skills training, conducting regular check-ins and performance evaluations, reviewing work product, and providing consistent and effective feedback and oversight to ensure high-quality legal work and support in the professional development of junior staff.
• In collaboration with the Legal Director and Senior Paralegal, provide support and guidance regarding the management of the Legal Representation for Children and Youth Program intake and referral hub. Oversee case selection and intake for NJCIC’s direct representation docket through the Legal Representation for Children and Youth Program.
• Support with data management and grant reporting systems, ensuring ethical legal representation and data integrity through regular case audits, reporting on cases and other activities through NJCIC’s case management systems, and oversight of data upkeep and accuracy by supervises.
• Contribute to the development of organizational legal policies and processes in a changing legal and policy environment.
• Collaborate with NJCIC’s Policy and Development teams as needed.

• JD degree and membership in the New Jersey State Bar, or…