Position Location: Thís position will be in ACT’s offices in New York, Pennsylvania, or DC/MD/VA. 

Reports to: Executive Director

FLSA Status: Salaried-Exempt

Employment Type: Full-time

Hours: Monday-Friday, hybrid position, requires a mix of remote work, work on site, and in-person meetings.

Salary:The base salary for this position is $120,000; additional compensation is negotiable based on experience.

About Us: African Communities Together (ACT) is an organization of African immigrants fighting for civil rights, opportunity, and a better life for our families here in the U.S. and worldwide. ACT empowers African immigrants to integrate socially, get ahead economically, and engage civically. We develop our members as grassroots leaders who take action to make social change. Since its founding, ACT has supported thousands of African immigrants with direct services, trained hundreds of new leaders, and led successful policy campaigns at the federal, state, and local levels that have impacted hundreds of thousands of immigrants. ACT’s African immigrant membership comes from a diverse range of nationalities, cultures, and languages, is religiously diverse, and is predominantly working-class and low-income. We have offices in New York City, Philadelphia, and the Washington, D.C. metro area.

Position Description: ACT is seeking applications and nominations for the position of Director of Immigration Legal Services. ACT’s legal department plays a critical role fighting for justice and dignity for low-income African immigrants, a role that is only growing with changes in federal immigration policy. ACT seeks an experienced Director of Immigration Legal Services who will lead ACT’s immigration legal service provision and our team of immigration legal service professionals.

This position is hybrid, and will not be approved to operate on a fully remote basis. The Director is expected to spend a minimum of three days per week working in-person from ACT offices, including the office where they are employed; to travel regularly to ACT’s offices in other cities for in-person supervision and meetings; and to participate in person at ACT organizational meetings, retreats, etc. 

Currently, the role reports directly to the Executive Director. In the near future, the position is expected to report to the National Legal Director.

Key Responsibilities include:

• Lead and manage the immigration legal services program. Working with the legal team and other ACT senior leadership, the Director will be responsible for developing, implementing, and executing the strategy, plans, and goals of ACT’s immigration legal services program. The Director will be responsible for knowing and managing the program’s government contracts and foundation grants, including their required deliverables, and aligning the program’s activities with ACT’s organizational goals, capacity, structure, policies, and culture.
• Supervise and manage immigration attorneys, paralegals, and legal support staff. Initially, the Director will supervise immigration legal teams in ACT’s New York office and DC/MD/VA office. As the legal program grows and ACT expands to new geographic areas, it is anticipated that the Director will supervise legal staff in ACT’s Philadelphia/PA office, in new chapter locations, or national staff positions. The Director will primarily supervise full-time employees, but on occasion may be required to supervise contract attorneys. This will include, at a minimum:
• Managing assignment and distribution of workload, maintaining familiarity with individual and team dockets, contract timelines, etc., and adjusting as needed. 
• Communicating about and advocating for the department’s priorities and needs with the Executive Director and other ACT senior leadership.
• Holding regular (weekly or biweekly) one-on-one meetings with legal staff and immigration legal team meetings.
• Providing legal supervision and review of legal work performed by legal staff, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance with the law and professional ethics.
• Ensuring accurate, timely, and thorough electronic notekeeping and digital data collection. 
• Providing mentorship and professional development to legal staff that enables them to grow as legal professionals.
• Addressing issues of communication, support, training, etc. as they impact team performance.
• Review and develop legal team work systems, such as intake management, and coordinate information sharing across local offices.
• Monitoring and utilization of electronic data systems used to track intakes, casework, and outcomes and maintain digital case records.  
• Collaborate with other ACT departments and staff to improve efficiency and integration of the legal program. The immigration legal services program both supports the work of ACT and requires support from other teams to be successful. The Director plays an integral role in ensuring that the department is integrated and aligned with the rest of the organization, including working with Chapter Directors to ensure that immigration legal services are integrated with Chapter operations, working with the Deputy ED of Programs to conduct program evaluation and improvement for ACT’s immigration legal service delivery model, and working with the Organizing Team to integrate legal clients into ACT membership and provide legal services to ACT members.
• Supervise, review, and perform reporting and proposal development for immigration legal services. Working with the legal team, Chapter Directors, the Contract and Compliance Manager, and the Finance Director, the Director will develop proposals for provision of immigration legal services to government and private funding agencies, track progress toward achievement of goals and deliverables, and prepare and submit timely and accurate reports–whether monthly, quarterly, annual, etc.-- to funding agencies.
• Manage and maintain Department of Justice recognition for ACT and accreditation for individual representatives.
• Provide direct legal services and representation to clients as required.

Qualifications:While no one candidate will embody all the qualifications enumerated below, the ideal candidate will possess many of the following professional and personal abilities, attributes, and experiences:

• Demonstrated passion and commitment to ACT’s mission and constituency;
• Licensed attorney in good standing and eligible to practice immigration law; court experience preferred but not required;
• At least 6 years of experience with immigration legal practice, preferably with immigrants from African countries;
• Proven people management skills to lead an experienced, diverse, and geographically dispersed team; an inclusive management style that places deep value on diverse perspectives and emphasizes the development and growth of team members and encourages learning and continued improvement;
• A natural orientation towards collaboration and a commitment to personal and professional continuous improvement;
• A leader who is disciplined, focused, and detail-oriented, and who has experience with creating and putting in place systems for organizing and managing legal casework, while also being agile and adaptive;
• Fluency in a widely spoken African language such as Mandingo, Yoruba, Amharic, or Swahili, or in French or Arabic, strongly preferred; and
• The ability to succeed in a startup/growth environment, including accountability to goals, willingness to work across organizational silos and take on multiple roles, and ability to prioritize. 
• Familiarity with electronic case management systems and experience with reporting outcomes.