Managing Attorney, Workers' Rights

The Opportunity

Asian Law Caucus (ALC) seeks a Managing Attorney at a crucial time for immigrant worker protections. As we anticipate rollbacks of federal workplace rights and increased vulnerabilities for immigrant workers, we are expanding our legal team to strengthen worker power and defend labor protections for Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

Join our dynamic team in advocating for economic justice through a combination of community-centered legal advocacy, strategic litigation, and support for worker organizing. Our attorneys work closely with worker centers and community partners to build lasting power for low-income immigrant workers.

Core responsibilities include:

• Expanding and strengthening the program’s legal support for worker-center partners to promote and support workplace organizing and worker-led campaigns;
• Overseeing the program’s monthly legal counseling clinics
• Supervising the program’s direct services caseload
• Developing and pursuing impact litigation and policy advocacy that is informed by our direct-service and community work; and
• Supervising the paralegal, community advocate, and any fellows or law clerks hired within the program

The position reflects our commitment to integrating legal advocacy with movement building to create systemic change. You’ll work within a supportive environment that values innovation, collaboration, and community partnership, under the guidance of our Workers’ Rights Program Director.

The Organization

Founded in 1972, the Asian Law Caucus is the nation’s first legal and civil rights organization serving low-income Asian and Pacific Islander communities. We bring together legal services, community empowerment, and policy advocacy to fight for immigrant justice, economic security, and a stronger, multiracial democracy. We are committed to serving the vast diversity of communities of Asian descent, including Arab, Middle Eastern, and Muslim communities. Our fights for justice and equity are deeply informed by and in solidarity with fights for liberation by and for Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities.

Our growing staff works collaboratively across six issue areas. Our work is rooted in the San Francisco Bay Area and California and expands to states across the country, including places where immigrant, Asian, Arab, Middle Eastern, and Pacific Islander communities are rapidly growing.

Responsibilities

Day-to-day activities include the following:

• Building Worker Power
  • Provide legal support for worker-led and/or worker-center-supported campaigns.
  • Grow, strengthen, and maintain strategic community partnerships with grassroots organizations to collaboratively address challenges faced by immigrant workers.
  • Collaborate with Communications staff to develop stories with ALC clients and their communities and execute narrative-shifting strategies.
• Direct Legal Services
  • Supervise the Worker Rights Program’s provision of direct services to individual workers, including through two monthly clinics
  • Provide high-quality legal representation to individual low-wage workers, in a variety of federal, state, and/or local administrative proceedings (including before the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement, the California Labor Commissioner’s Office, the California Department of Civil Rights, Cal/OSHA, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or the National Labor Relations Board), and direct negotiation with employers
• Systems Change
  • Develop and litigate impact cases, including class actions, in state and federal court on issues identified through direct-services work and community partnerships
  • Identify and advocate for policy solutions that advance a pro-worker agenda at the local, state, and/or federal levels, informed by direct-services work and community partnerships
• Management
  • Supervise paralegals, community advocates, law students, and law fellows.
  • Perform administrative and operations duties, such as performance reviews, fund reporting, grant management, and planning team retreats
  • Engage in strategic planning with the Workers Rights Program Director.

Desired Qualifications

• B.A./B.S. and J.D. degrees. California bar membership is required
• Demonstrated commitment to building worker power, including through organizing and legal representation
• Demonstrated commitment to low-income, immigrant, and/or API/AMEMSA communities
• Substantive legal experience in labor and employment law
• At least four years of experience providing legal services and/or conducting state/federal court litigation
• Excellent skills in legal research, analysis, and written and oral advocacy
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple cases and projects in a timely manner
• Highly motivated self-starter
• Demonstrated leadership and ability to work independently and in collaboration with other attorneys, advocates, and community-based organizations
• Experience supervising others on specific projects required; long-term supervisory experience is preferred
• Language proficiency in an Asian or Middle Eastern language is a plus