Law Clerk

Job Description

About Company

Mission Action, formerly known as Dolores Community Services, is a multi-issue, multi-strategy organization dedicated to nurturing individual wellness and cultivating collective power among low-income and immigrant communities to create a more just society. The organization works to improve lives on an individual level and affect broader social change through advocacy and community organizing. Their efforts span addressing homelessness, lack of affordable housing, and supporting immigrant rights to meet complex community needs and address root causes of suffering and injustice.

Since 2008, Mission Action’s Deportation Defense & Legal Advocacy Program has been a local leader in providing pro bono legal defense for individuals and families facing deportation. The program employs creative legal and advocacy strategies to challenge prolonged detention, constitutional violations, and other injustices within the immigration legal system. They represent individuals threatened with deportation through challenges to removability charges, as well as applications for various forms of relief, including:
• Asylum
• Withholding of Removal
• Relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT)
• Waivers of Inadmissibility and Deportability
• U-visa, T-Visa, and VAWA relief

The program strives to connect individual casework to broader movements for immigrants’ rights, racial justice, and abolition, guided by the communities they serve. They emphasize being a caring and supportive team that values sustainability and wellness in their challenging work.

Mission Action is an equal-opportunity employer that highly values lived experience and seeks applicants of the greatest diversity possible. They specifically encourage applications from people of color, women, older people, members of the LGBTQ community, and individuals with disabilities (including HIV), as well as community members who grew up in the Mission District. Pursuant to the SF Fair Chance Ordinance, they consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment.

Job Description: Law Clerk (Deportation Defense and Legal Advocacy Program)

Position: Law Clerk
Program: Deportation Defense and Legal Advocacy Program
Compensation: No monetary compensation. Mission Action commits to helping sponsor students for third-party scholarship opportunities and/or academic credit.
Schedule: Flexible; full-time strongly preferred.
Commitment: 10-week commitment strongly preferred.
Starting Date: Flexible.
Application Deadline: Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

Summary: Mission Action is seeking a Law Clerk for Summer 2025. Under the supervision of attorneys, the law clerk will engage in a variety of tasks related to cases representing both detained and non-detained clients in their removal proceedings.

Responsibilities (May Include):
• Assisting attorneys in providing full-scope representation to individuals facing removal before various legal bodies, including the Immigration Court, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS), the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Conducting intake with potential clients, which involves screening for potential claims for relief.
• Appearing in immigration court proceedings.
• Participating in agency meetings, community activities, and relevant trainings.
• Working on public campaigns on behalf of individual clients or urgent issues impacting immigrant communities.
• Engaging in outreach and education initiatives in the area of immigrants’ rights.

Qualifications:
• Must be a current law student; 2L applicants are preferred, but exceptionally qualified 1Ls will be considered.
• Demonstrated passion for immigrants’ rights and abolishing immigration detention.
• Relevant experience in immigration law and/or direct services.
• Demonstrated commitment to immigrants’ rights and community empowerment.
• Advanced Spanish language skills are required.
• Ability to work effectively and with sensitivity with clients who are survivors of trauma, suffer from mental illness, and/or have had contact with the criminal justice system.
• Strong organizational, problem-solving, and analytical skills.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to work both as part of a team and independently, managing multiple tasks and prioritizing workflow effectively.
• Commitment to providing culturally humble services.

To Apply: Please visit https://dscs.isolvedhire.com/jobs/ and submit a cover letter, resume, three references, and a writing sample.