Lead Staff Attorney

Position: Lead Staff Attorney Program/Location: Santa Cruz County Immigration Project/Watsonville Office: 406 Main Street, Watsonville, CA 95076 (also includes satellite sites in Santa Cruz and elsewhere Status: Full-Time EXEMPT Hours per week: 40 hours per week, may include occasional evenings or weekends Salary Range: $41.
00-$45.
00 per hour Benefits: Medical (employee share of cost depending on plan selected), vision, life, dental (employee pays half of dental) insurance, Retirement plan (401K plan after three months), 24 days annual leave to start, 13 paid holidays per year, and Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
Reports to: Santa Cruz County Immigration Project Directing Attorney *To Apply: Submit resume and cover letter to HR@cabinc.
org or apply on-line at Indeed.
com ASAP; Open until filled.
* *Overview: *The Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County, Inc.
(CAB) has been the County’s designated Community Action Agency since 1965, with the mission to eliminate poverty and create social change through advocacy and essential services.
CAB does so through the 4 program pillars of community building, employment, immigration and homelessness prevention and intervention services that serve over 10,000 people per year, with a staff of over 50 employees.
CAB’s immigration services program, SCCIP, is one of the component programs of the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County, Inc.
SCCIP’s mission is to promote the wellbeing of the immigrant community in Santa Cruz County and the Pajaro Valley.
We accomplish this by helping immigrants acquire legal status, reuniting immigrant families, and making U.
S.
citizenship more accessible to eligible immigrants.
We provide competent and professional legal services, advocacy, and community education and information.
*General Duties:* Under the supervision of the Santa Cruz County Immigration Project Directing Attorney and Program Director, the Lead Staff Attorney provides a variety of direct immigration legal services to clients while also supervising a team of experienced immigration legal caseworkers.
Duties and Responsibilities: · Provide legal consultations and screen clients for immigration legal relief.
Perform all necessary legal research to determine eligibility for immigration benefits.
· Provide accurate and culturally competent legal advice.
· Maintain confidentiality of client information as required by California law · Represent clients in applications and petitions for immigration benefits, including but not limited to: Naturalization, DACA renewal, family-based immigrant visa petitions, immigrant visa consular processing, applications for adjustment of status, removal of conditions on residency, advance parole, TPS, U-Visa, T-Visa, VAWA, SIJS, and inadmissibility waivers.
· Supervise an assigned team of experienced immigration legal caseworkers—which may include other attorneys and/or Department of Justice Accredited Representatives— including by holding regular 1:1 and team meetings, working with Directing Attorney to create and implement a training plan, answering legal questions, and reviewing casework.
· Learn assigned caseloads and grant scopes of work for all assigned team members and monitor their progress on deliverables.
· Participate in performance reviews for assigned team members.
· Contribute to regular Immigration Project Leadership Team meetings.
· Collaborate with the Program Director and Directing Attorney to review and adjust office procedures and structures, implement best practices, ensure compliance with legal ethics, and maintain and improve the quality, efficiency, and client/staff satisfaction with legal service delivery.
· Support Directing Attorney in providing in-house training to legal team members and participate in case-file review for fellow legal caseworkers.
· As needed, work independently to provide off-site legal services at locations such as CAB satellite offices, college campuses, K-12 schools, and community partner sites.
· Prepare and lead presentations and workshops on immigration legal issues to the community, colleagues, other human services providers, non-profit organizations and other advocacy groups, both remotely and in-person.
· Maintain detailed and organized paper and electronic legal records and files and assist in preparing reports to funders.
· Participate in and occasionally facilitate weekly staff and legal case rounds meetings.
· Assist in supervising interns and volunteers.
· Represent the agency in external networks and collaboratives, as needed.
· Translate written documents from Spanish to English and from English to Spanish.
· Participate in program and agency wide meetings and trainings, as appropriate.
· Carry out other duties as assigned.
Minimum Qualifications: · *Bilingual/Bi-literate required*, excellent English & Spanish written and verbal communication skills.
· J.
D.
Degree and admission to the bar of the highest court of any state.
· A minimum of 1 year of experience providing immigration legal services · Ability to work in a with tight deadlines and produce professional, detailed products, projects, and communications in a timely manner.
· Ability to quickly create and maintain organizational systems, analyze situations, prioritize, and create action plans to accomplish multiple time sensitive and at times confidential tasks in a timely manner.
· Ability to work well with a variety of people.
· Experience supervising or mentoring others.
· Comfort with giving and receiving feedback to support staff growth and performance.
· Familiarity with the unique nature of major cultural groups within Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Benito Counties, and knowledge of the principles of and practices of cultural sensitivity.
· Strong professional writing and oral communication skills.
Demonstrated competency in public speaking, and strong interpersonal communication skills.
· Excellent computer knowledge including: all aspects of Microsoft Office (Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher), Office 365, and Adobe Acrobat Pro, preferred.
· Ability to type at least 45 words per minute, work on a computer for long periods of time, bend, reach and safely lift 25 pounds+ on a consistent basis.
· Committed to the mission of the agency.
· Valid California driver license, driving record and an insured vehicle.
· Fully vaccinated against COVID-19 upon hire is preferred.
_*CAB embraces the values of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
*_ _The hired candidate will adhere to CAB’s standard of upholding the agency’s mission, values and code of ethics through a commitment to confidentiality and communication.
_ This position is categorically funded by grants.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, medical condition (cancer related), marital status, sex, sexual orientation, age (over 18), veteran status, gender, gender expression, pregnancy, or any other non-merit factor unrelated to job duties.
AA/EOE Job Type: Full-time Pay: $41.
00 - $45.
00 per hour Expected hours: 40 per week Benefits: * 401(k) * 401(k) matching * Dental insurance * Employee assistance program * Health insurance * Life insurance * Paid time off * Vision insurance Schedule: * 8 hour shift * Monday to Friday Experience: * Supervising: 1 year (Preferred) * Immigration law: 1 year (Required) Language: * Spanish (Required) License/Certification: * Bar (Required) Ability to Relocate: * Watsonville, CA: Relocate before starting work (Required) Work Location: In person