Program Associate, Practice, Innovation & Professionalism

Founded in 1946, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit bar association of more than 18,000 attorneys and law professors who practice and teach immigration law. AILA's mission is to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, advance the quality of immigration and nationality law and practice, and support the professional development of its members.

Headquartered in Washington, DC, AILA provides continuing legal education, policy resources, and advocacy leadership through its national network of chapters and committees.

The Practice Innovation and Professionalism Center supports AILA members in building ethical, effective, sustainable, and future-ready immigration practices. The Center develops practical resources and educational programs, provides guidance on ethics and practice management, supports volunteer leaders and committees, and advances innovation, professionalism, and member success.

The Program Associate develops and manages member-facing programs, resources, and services for the Practice Innovation and Professionalism Center. The position serves as the primary staff lead for member-support and volunteer engagement programs and initiatives; develops operational practice management resources; supports volunteer experts and assigned committees; identifies emerging member needs; and translates those needs into practical services, educational programs, and content. The Program Specialist Associate also supports AILA Affiliated Paralegals (AAP) programming in coordination with the Professional Development and Membership teams and resources and serves as a first-line resource for inquiries related to practice management, technology, professionalism, and available Center services.

Immigration law firm experience, particularly as an immigration paralegal or legal operations professional, is strongly preferred.

• Lead the development, evaluation, administration, and continuous improvement of the Center's member-support and volunteer programs (currently the Mentor Directory, Military Assistance Program, and Pro Bono Committee) and serve as staff liaison to the Pro Bono Committee.
• Recruit, onboard, support, and retain volunteers.
• Manage member intake, referrals or matching, communications, follow-up, and quality assurance, and set recordkeeping standards.
• Monitor member needs and program outcomes, identify service gaps, and recommend improvements to the member and volunteer experience.
• Use recurring questions and service patterns to develop supporting resources and tools and propose educational programming topics to the Senior Counsel.

• Serve as a first-line resource for inquiries related to practice management, technology, workflows, professionalism, and available AILA resources; refer legal, ethics, policy, or other substantive matters as appropriate.
• Develop, maintain, and update practice management checklists, templates, articles, toolkits, guides, and other practical resources for members and AAPs with substantive review by the Senior Counsel
• Identify recurring member challenges by monitoring communities and recommend responsive resources, programs, services, or process improvements.
• Contribute practical immigration-firm, workflow, and implementation perspectives to Center initiatives and projects.

• Draft, edit, and maintain website content, templates, samples, articles, toolkits, educational materials, practice guides, and resource collections.
• Manage assigned content workflows from concept through…