Senior Immigration Law Attorney (Bilingual Spanish-speaking) - San Francisco CA

Full-Time Exempt

Hybrid - 2-3 days in-office

About Us:

It always seems impossible until its done. - Nelson Mandela

We believe that even the biggest problems can be broken down into small achievable steps. We believe poverty and access to justice are part of the same problem. And to solve this we just need to discover what the steps are. At Open Door Legal were pioneering the countrys first system of universal access to civil legal representation to dramatically reduce poverty and prove that the law really can belong to all of us. Weve grown 100x since our founding and in the next 3 years we hope to finish scaling across San Francisco and eventually become a model across the country. To achieve this ambitious goal weve created an award-winning and best-in-class legal aid organization full of creative results-oriented people. We believe that injustice is the heart of poverty and were looking for someone to help us make a systemic impact on how we as a society ensure justice for all.

Overview of Position:

Immigrants are the lifeblood of our city. With almost 40% of San Franciscos residents being foreign-born San Francisco would literally not function without immigrants. Since studies have found that immigrants are more than 5x more likely to obtain legal status when represented we believe that the only way to create the best-case scenario for our immigrant neighbors is to ensure that everyone who qualifies for immigration relief is able to obtain legal representation. Even more than that obtaining legal status for everyone who qualifies will help reduce poverty in our city by dramatically improving each immigrants earning potential.

We are hiring a Senior Immigration Attorney to help ensure that everyone who lives in Open Door Legals service area who needs immigration legal assistance can access timely competent representation. You will be responsible for supervising paralegals junior attorneys and volunteers and for ensuring we meet our organizations and teams goals. Currently we handle only affirmative family-based and humanitarian petitions in-house with the flexibility to take on representation of existing clients in removal proceedings in limited cases. Cases your team will handle include family petitions naturalization adjustment of status affirmative asylum U-visas T-visas VAWA SIJS and more consistent with our universal access model which enables us to accept any viable case even if it doesnt fit neatly into any pre-existing category. Because we are a full-service legal aid organization representing clients in nearly every area of civil law we can and do frequently collaborate across teams to provide comprehensive legal assistance to clients in every area of need including Family Law Housing Law and Employment addition to casework you will implement and manage the organizations DOJ Accreditation Program including working with stakeholders to draft the accreditation application. You will work with stakeholders to obtain partial DOJ accreditation understand the requirements ensure compliance and hire and supervise DOJ-accredited representatives.

Overall this position is intended to be a challenging and rewarding experience. Cultural humility is not just conceptual to you; you embody it and commit to growth. Success in this role requires grit dynamism teamwork care and passion (our teams five values). You will report directly to our Managing Immigration Attorney.

Responsibilities:

• Directly represent clients in every type of affirmative immigration petition as well as the occasional case in removal.
• Supervise paralegals junior attorneys and volunteers ensuring your direct reports handle a full caseload and deliver high-quality work while owning your own cases as needed ensuring we meet our organizations and teams goals.
  • Perform immigration law intakes in-person and virtually across multiple physical Open Door Legal locations.
  • Appear in court and USCIS representing clients as needed.
  • Gain and maintain the skills and knowledge needed to competently represent clients before the relevant government agencies and components including but not limited to VAWA asylum removal defense U-visas T-visas TPS DACA Family-based applications SIJS and Consular processing.
  • Empower immigration law clients to know their rights navigate the immigration system protect themselves and their loved ones and resolve their immigration law issues.
  • Provide services and support to our low-income clients with sensitivity and awareness to various cultural socio-economic and disability barriers to service and skillfully navigate difficult or tense situations. Deliver a consistently positive client feedback rating for the Immigration Law Department.
• Implement and manage the organizations Immigration Volunteer Program including working with stakeholders to implement and manage the organizations Immigration Volunteer Program; understanding the requirements of implementation ensuring compliance with legal and ethical rules and agency-specific requirements; and hiring training and supervising volunteers.
• Embrace and embody our values of teamwork grit caring passion and dynamism.

Requirements:

• A minimum of five (5) years of experience in affirmative forms of immigration relief including family-based applications U-nonimmigrant T-nonimmigrant SIJS naturalization and VAWA.
• Membership in good standing with the California State Bar. Applicants without active California bar membership will not be considered. However those without a license are encouraged to apply to volunteer with us at
• Advanced Spanish proficiency (speaking reading and writing).
• Must genuinely enjoy and be motivated by working with low-income clients the vast majority of whom are people of color and be able to work effectively with clients impacted by trauma (emotional mental and physical).
• Familiarity with immigration court procedures and an enthusiasm for professional growth and learning as well as for staying on top of the rapid and often substantive changes in immigration law.
• High level of comfort in learning and using technology and cloud-based case management systems. We use Salesforce Dropbox and the Google Suite.
• Must be willing to make a minimum two-year commitment to the organization.

Bonus Points:

• Comfort translating and interpreting legal information from English to Spanish without assistance.
• Experience working with low-income and vulnerable populations.
• Experience working in a high-volume legal aid or similar environment.
• Experience in onboarding and managing volunteers.
• Experience living in Central America or working with Central American populations.
• Knowledge of other local non-profit organizations and tools for assisting low-income underserved communities.
• Having lived a significant period of your life in San Francisco proper.

Starting compensation is $89500 - $105500 per year based on experience.

Benefits:

• Loan Repayment Assistance - for staff pursuing 10-year public interest debt forgiveness we will pay the minimum payment on all qualifying loans so that you dont need to worry about student loan debt (this is a conditional benefit).
• Medical/Dental/Vision Plan offerings at 100% coverage
• Generous paid time off (four weeks vacation and two weeks sick/care)
• Flexible work hours
• Generous paid parental leave
• 401K/Retirement Account
• We believe everyone is always learning. We financially invest in individual professional development for each staff member and provide many internal and external mentorships coaching and learning opportunities (conferences workshops etc.).
• We are a fun and hard-working office with best-in-class technology solutions for anyone whos passionate about making a meaningful and measurable difference.

Ideal starting date: February 2026

Applications received before January 16 2026 will receive priority consideration.

Open Door Legal is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race religion color national origin sex (including pregnancy childbirth or related medical conditions) sexual orientation gender gender identity gender expression transgender status sexual stereotypes age status as a protected veteran status as an individual with a disability or any other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with applicable federal state and local law including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability please let us know at .