Paralegal; ACLU

For nearly 100 years, the ACLU has been our nation’s guardian of liberty, working in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Whether it’sprotecting the rights of immigrants,ending mass incarceration, achieving full equality for the LGBT community, establishing new privacy protections for our digital age, or preserving the right to vote or the right to have an abortion, the ACLU takes up the toughest civil liberties cases and issues to defend all people from government abuse and overreach.

With more than a million members, activists, and supporters, the ACLU is a nationwide organization that fights tirelessly in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C., for the principle that every individual’s rights must be protected equally under the law, regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, national origin, record of arrest or conviction.

OVERVIEW

The Center for Democracy of the ACLU seeks applicants for a Paralegal position for its Immigrants’ Rights Project. This position is based in the ACLU’s national headquarters in New York City. The position is for a duration of two years.

The Immigrants’ Rights Project is part of the ACLU’s Center for Democracy, which works to ensure that the functions of American democracy comport with the Constitution and the rule of law, and to protect and defend the central role of immigrants in our national community. The Center also includes the ACLU’s national security, human rights, voting rights, and speech/privacy/technology work.

Using targeted impact litigation, advocacy and public outreach, IRP carries on the ACLU’s commitment to protecting the rights and liberties of immigrants. In federal district and appellate courts, including the Supreme Court, the Project conducts the nation’s largest impact litigation program dedicated to defending and expanding the rights of immigrants, enforcing the guarantees of the Constitution, and achieving equal justice under the law.

The Project is currently engaged in litigation and advocacy to challenge, among other things: the President’s Muslim ban; the unconstitutional use of mandatory and prolonged immigration detention; the lack of due process in the deportation system, including the lack of appointed counsel and federal court review of deportation orders; unconstitutional state anti-immigrant laws; abusive immigration detainer practices; federal and state anti-sanctuary measures;

unjustified cross-border shootings by the U.S. Border Patrol; and violations of the rights of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.

IRP has offices in New York City and San Francisco.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Prepare, file, review and organize litigation documents such as briefs, motions, declarations, deposition summaries, discovery requests and responses, and correspondence with co-counsel.
• Maintain case files, attorneys’ correspondence files, and the litigation docket summary.
• Assist with managing and coordinating the intake database.
• Provide litigation support to attorneys.
• Collect, analyze, and organize legal, factual, social science, and other non-legal research for use in litigation documents and policy presentations; conduct searches on internal and external document databases and systems, cull relevant information from a variety of resources such as newspapers, magazines, libraries, case documents and trade associations.
• Prepare informational updates on issues for ACLU National and Affiliate staff.
• Draft and/or revise public education materials.
• Act as liaison among various internal departments as well as with co-counsel and partner organizations.
• Act as liaison between staff attorneys and legal administrative assistant to disseminate work from assigned attorneys and provide routine and/or procedural guidance regarding work assignments.
• Provide administrative support for manager review of applications for legal administrative assistant and intern positions.
• Work jointly with interns and communicate routine and/or procedural guidance on projects…