Bart Gordon Fellowship

The Children’s Law Center of Massachusetts (CLCM) seeks candidates for a one (1), and possibly two (2), year attorney fellowship position that will provide immigration legal aid to children in Lawrence MA and surrounding communities in Essex County. The CLCM is a not-for-profit legal services program that provides legal advocacy to protect and advance the rights of indigent children and youth, students with disabilities, and children committed to the state’s human service systems. Substantive areas of practice include immigration, education, child welfare, mental health, and juvenile justice; the agency also represents child victims of crime. The purpose of the Bart Gordon Fellowship is to encourage careers in legal services, and to provide civil legal aid to low-income communities that have difficulty accessing the justice system due to linguistic, racial, cultural or disability barriers. This particular fellowship’s focus on immigrant children in Lawrence, an underserved and under resourced community in Massachusetts, helps advance that purpose. 

Work Functions:

• Provide advice and individual legal representation to immigrant children in a range of cases including asylum, special immigrant juvenile, VAWA, U Visa, and DACA before Massachusetts state courts, the US Immigration Court, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
• Provide individual representation to immigrant youth in collateral matters such as education, mental health, insurance, and related matters.
• Conduct trainings for youth, families, sponsors, and providers about the rights of immigrant youth.
• Engage in systemic advocacy in collaboration with Lawrence-based providers and/or sister legal aid programs to further the interests of the child immigrant community. 

Qualifications:

• Admission to the Massachusetts bar or its equivalent.
• Fluency in both spoken and written Spanish is required.
• Experience providing legal services to immigrant children, including human trafficking victims.
• Demonstrated commitment to serving low-income children is strongly preferred.
• Ability to advocate in a collaborative style with children and families of diverse backgrounds.
• Strong organizational skills, an ability to multi-task, and to work collaboratively.
• Excellent writing, research, and oral advocacy skills.