CASA

Washington DC area (Hyattsville), MD

This is the 2024 fellowship description for this mentor organization. This position has been filled.

The CASA legal program offers unique experiences in the practice of law in combination with community organizing and for participation in the development of creative strategies to combat the many injustices immigrants face in Maryland and in the Washington metro region. CASA legal staff represent individual workers to recover over $100,000 in unpaid wages a year. This work also involves advising groups of clients who take actions against abusive employers and landlords such as pickets and rallies as well as working on legialative efforts to increase worker and tenant protections. CASA legal staff also participate in national campaigns for improving conditions for workers and immigrants in general, which include advocacy, litigation and legislative efforts.

The Hyattsville/Langley Park area is one of the most diverse areas in the country, teeming with immigrant-owned small business.

A Peggy Browning Fellow at CASA will be on the front line in defending immigrant workers against abuse by employers, police and immigration officials. This is an excellent opportunity to help the community, learn legal skills and work with a dynamic group of lawyers, organizers and social service staff in a friendly, fast-paced, bi-lingual office setting. The ideal candidate will have experience in social justice issues and a passion for using legal tools to support the efforts of low-income immigrants to gain power of the matters that affect them.

Duties

Direct legal work: Conduct legal intakes and case work regarding wage theft, substandard housing, immigration detention, human trafficking and other immigrant rights' issues. Provide referrals, legal services, negotiation, and assistance with litigation of individual cases of immigrants who meet established criteria.
Outreach/popular education: Deliver educational "know your rights" presentations, including identifying emerging areas that merit presentations, developing educational presentations and curriculum, and giving presentations to workers and community members.
Support CASA's legislative and policy work. This could involve a mixture of representing CASA in various local, regional and national coalition spaces, as well as working with our community organizing and advocacy departments to develop and implement policies that benefit low-income and immigrant workers.
Administrative work: Record keeping, completion of reports and organizational paperwork, assistance in coordination of activities or events and other duties assigned by supervisor related to position.

Qualifications

Understanding of and commitment to using the law as part of a multi-faceted, community-based approach to social change;
Bilingual (English and Spanish);
Bilingual (English and French) a plus;
Excellent written and oral communication skills;
Ability to work independently and as part of a team;
Highly organized and able to manage multiple ongoing projects.

CASA generally hosts fellows for in-person work at our headquarters in Langley Park, MD, but we accomodated remote work for our 2020 & 2021 fellow due to office closures necessitated by public health conditions. We hope to resume full in-person work for summer 2024, but may adapt a hybrid system of some remote work and some in-person work, depending on public health conditions and programmatic need.

The total ten-week stipend for this fellowship will be $7,000.

Address cover letter to:
Jonathan Riedel, Supervising Attorney
CASA
8151 15th Avenue
Hyattsville, MD 20783