Overview
The Center for Family Representation, Inc., (CFR) is an award-winning, innovative law and policy organization that was founded in 2002 to dramatically change the trajectory of indigent families impacted by child welfare and to reduce the number of children entering foster care. CFR introduced a new model of legal services to parents charged with abuse or neglect: we assign every client an attorney and a social work staff member, and teams are additionally supported by Parent Advocates. CFR’s Parent Advocates are parents with direct personal experience of being impacted by the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), such as having been investigated or prosecuted by ACS or lost temporary custody of their children to foster care or otherwise due to the ACS involvement. CFR was the first agency in the country to integrate parents with lived experience into legal teams. Beginning with just a handful of staff, CFR now has more than 120 staff serving more than 2400 parents annually in Manhattan and Queens. CFR has been the primary, county-wide provider of legal services to indigent parents in Manhattan Family Court since 2007 and in Queens Family Court since 2011. In 2015, CFR expanded its practice to provide legal and social work services to parents in immigration, civil legal services and criminal defense matters. In 2019, we launched two new initiatives: a Youth Defense Practice that provides holistic, interdisciplinary defense to youth being prosecuted in the Family Court, and in the Youth Parts in Manhattan and Queens Supreme Courts; and a Community Advocacy Project, to represent parents during a child protective investigation (prior to court involvement) and to assist parents in clearing their names from state maltreatment records. We regularly train over 500 practitioners annually around the country on strategies to promote family preservation and on holistic, interdisciplinary representation and advocate at the city, state and national level for policies that promote parent engagement and justice for families.
Primary responsibilities
Under the supervision and guidance of CFR’s Immigration Litigation Supervisor, the Immigration Staff Attorney’s primary responsibility will be to represent clients in applications for immigration benefits before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service, the immigration courts, and other applicable administrative and judicial bodies. The staff attorney should expect to work with clients from all of the boroughs serviced by CFR.
The candidate will work collaboratively with CFR legal teams, composed of attorneys, social work staff, paralegals and parent advocates from the family defense, criminal defense or civil defense units. Familiarity with our most commonly occurring immigration case types is preferable, e.g. domestic- violence based relief, family-based applications, naturalization, Temporary Protected Status, and asylum. The immigration candidate may also represent CFR in local, state, and national coalitions, trainings, and conferences. Over the years, CFR Immigration has had to respond to unexpected immigration crises and other client needs. The ideal candidate will be open to helping with special projects as needed.
The candidate should expect to:
- Represent clients in affirmative, defensive, and appellate immigration matters;
- Support CFR Immigration’s intake/referral teams as needed;
- Support CFR’s Immigration supervisor with other projects including Policy and Communications advocacy;
- Advise CFR’s criminal and family defense practices about the immigration consequences of each proceeding;
- Stay abreast of rapidly changing immigration rules, laws, pending legislation, and procedures;
- Represent CFR clients with SIJS applications in Queens, Manhattan and Bronx Family Courts;
- Conduct community education, training and outreach, and promote the work of CFR and CFR Immigration;
- Assist with training and mentoring of law students, volunteers, and pro bono attorneys/scholars;
- Promptly maintain data in our case management system and client legal notes; and
- Assist with the continued growth and improvement of CFR’s immigration practice.
Qualifications
Candidates for this position should have a minimum of 3 years of experience that includes directly representing clients in all aspects of USCIS and immigration court proceedings. Familiarity with the intersection of immigration with other legal issues is especially helpful, i.e., criminal, family, and public benefits. This is the ideal position for a professional who enjoys taking initiative and developing best practices in a new program and who enjoys the exhilaration and challenges of a growing endeavor.
Applicants should be able to demonstrate strong interpersonal and communication skills, an ability to work as part of a team and a desire to share in both the exhilaration and challenges of a growing endeavor. Candidates bilingual in Spanish are strongly encouraged to apply.