Senior Immigration Attorney

Senior Immigration Law Attorney (Bilingual, Spanish-speaking) - San Francisco, CA

Full-Time, Exempt

Hybrid - 2-3 days in-office

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” - Nelson Mandela

We believe that even the biggest problems can be broken down into small, achievable steps. We believe poverty and access to justice are part of the same problem. And to solve this, we just need to discover what the steps are. At Open Door Legal, we’re pioneering the country’s first system of universal access to civil legal representation to dramatically reduce poverty and prove that the law really can belong to all of us.

We’ve grown 100x since our founding, and in the next 3 years, we hope to finish scaling across San Francisco and eventually become a model across the country. To achieve this ambitious goal, we’ve created an award-winning and best-in-class legal aid organization full of creative, results‑oriented people. We believe that injustice is the heart of poverty, and we're looking for someone to help us make a systemic impact on how we, as a society, ensure justice for all.

Immigrants are the lifeblood of our city. With almost 40% of San Francisco’s residents being foreign‑born, San Francisco would literally not function without immigrants. Since studies have found that immigrants are more than 5x more likely to obtain legal status when represented, we believe that the only way to create the best‑case scenario for our immigrant neighbors is to ensure that everyone who qualifies for immigration relief is able to obtain legal representation.

Even more than that, obtaining legal status for everyone who qualifies will help reduce poverty in our city by dramatically improving each immigrant’s earning potential.

We are hiring a Senior Immigration Attorney to help ensure that everyone who lives in Open Door Legal’s service area who needs immigration legal assistance can access timely, competent representation. You will be responsible for supervising paralegals, junior attorneys, and volunteers, and for ensuring we meet our organization’s and team’s goals. Currently, we handle only affirmative, family‑based, and humanitarian petitions in‑house, with the flexibility to take on representation of existing clients in removal proceedings in limited cases.

Cases your team will handle include family petitions, naturalization, adjustment of status, affirmative asylum, U‑visas, T‑visas, VAWA, SIJS, and more, consistent with our universal access model, which enables us to accept any viable case, even if it doesn’t fit neatly into any pre‑existing category. Because we are a full‑service legal aid organization representing clients in nearly every area of civil law, we can and do frequently collaborate across teams to provide comprehensive legal assistance to clients in every area of need, including Family Law, Housing Law, and Employment Law.

In addition to casework, you will implement and manage the organization’s DOJ Accreditation Program, including working with stakeholders to draft the accreditation application. You will work with stakeholders to obtain partial DOJ accreditation, understand the requirements, ensure compliance, and hire and supervise DOJ‑accredited representatives.

Overall, this position is intended to be a challenging and rewarding experience. Cultural humility is not just conceptual to you; you embody it and commit to growth. Success in this role requires grit, dynamism, teamwork, care, and passion (our team’s five values). You will report directly to our Managing Immigration Attorney.

• Directly represent clients in every type of affirmative immigration petition, as well as the occasional case in removal.
• Supervise paralegals, junior attorneys, and volunteers, ensuring your direct reports handle a full caseload and deliver high‑quality work while owning your own cases as needed, ensuring we meet our organization’s and team’s goals.
  • Perform immigration law intakes in‑person and virtually across multiple physical Open Door Legal locations.
  • Appear in court and USCIS, representing clients as needed.
  • Gain and maintain the skills and knowledge needed to…