Fellow Attorney (Two-Year Racial Justice Fellowship), Immigration Unit – GBLS
Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS) is an Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity / Accessible Employer and strives to ensure that our staff members reflect the diversity of the communities we serve.
GBLS seeks an attorney with 5 or more years of experience for a Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation (MLAC) Racial Justice Fellowship with the Immigration Unit. The purpose of the Fellowship is to use systemic advocacy and other strategies to address pervasive problems of racial injustice within the legal system.
The Immigration Law Unit (“ILU”) of GBLS has a long history of systematic advocacy at a local and national level to enforce and expand rights available to the immigrants it serves, almost all of whom are people of color. Systemic advocacy is particularly needed to challenge the racist mistreatment in the immigration legal system of undocumented low-income Black immigrants, who must endure the deeply entrenched effects of anti-Black racism in the United States, while simultaneously facing the obstacles that come from poverty and lack of permanent legal status.
The Racial Justice Fellow (“RJ Fellow”) will specifically target anti-Black racist mistreatment within the immigration legal system through 1) pursuit of select appellate litigation in cases involving racial bias; and 2) creation of an advocacy report focused on issues of systemic racism within the immigration system. The RJ Fellow will work in conjunction with community partners to achieve these goals. The project fits within two of the ILU’s major issue areas concerning systemic advocacy: 1) legal reform through appellate litigation and 2) policy advocacy, aimed at expanding the rights of low-income immigrants, particularly people of color.
Qualifications: The ideal candidate for the position should have 5 or more years of experience practicing law, preferably with a background in systemic advocacy work and/or appellate litigation. A passion for working on issues at the intersection of racial justice and immigration law is required. Proficiency in Haitian Creole or French is a plus but not required.
The RJ Fellow will receive an annual salary based on GBLS’s union scale, which is $78,000 for an attorney with 5 years of experience. GBLS offers a generous benefits package, retirement contribution, a student loan repayment assistance plan for eligible attorneys, and generous Paid Time Off leave. The RJ Fellow will work in the GBLS Boston office with a hybrid remote work schedule permitted.
Candidates must be admitted to the Massachusetts Bar or the bar of another state.
Candidates should submit a letter of interest, resume and brief writing sample to the Human Resources Team via email at jobs@gbls.org. Please refer to Job Code: IMM-FELLOW-ATT when applying for this position. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled but applicants are encouraged to submit applications by August 10, 2023.
GBLS encourages applicants from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences.
