Legal Director

New Frontier Immigration Law•Glendale, AZ

1d•Remote

About The Position

Why Apply to New Frontier Immigration Law Join the New Frontier Immigration Law team and help change the lives of 1 million undocumented immigrants in the USA. Our mid-sized law firm is committed to humanitarian-based immigration and finding innovative solutions for seemingly impossible problems. Are you an experienced legal leader ready to define standards, build systems, and ensure legal excellence across a growing immigration practice? Join New Frontier Immigration Law, where we help immigrants LIVE FREE through innovative legal representation and inspirational advocacy. - Learn more about New Frontier Immigration (here) - Learn more about our CEO/Founder, Hillary Walsh (here) - Learn more about our Core Values (here) Role Overview Our 125-person firm seeks an experienced Legal Director to serve as the firm's senior authority on legal quality, supervision, and professional responsibility. This role owns legal standards across the firm, from intake strategy at sign-up through case completion. The Legal Director is also responsible for ensuring that legal work is consistent, defensible, supervised correctly, and aligned with ethical obligations. Success Attributes This is not an individual contributor role and not a role for someone learning how to manage.We are looking for an experienced legal leader who has already run teams inside a law firm environment and can step into ownership immediately. - You're an experienced legal leader who has managed law firm teams for 3+ years - You define what "good legal work" looks like and enforce those standards - You excel at building supervision structures and escalation frameworks - You handle bar complaints, ethics issues, and legal risk decisions with confidence - You maintain accountability across teams without micromanaging - You design systems that address issues early rather than absorbing them personally - You balance legal excellence with operational reality - You demonstrate outstanding judgment under pressure - You embody our firm's values of Inspiration, Legacy, Innovation, being Vested, and Excellence

Requirements

Active U.S. law license in good standing
At least 3 years of experience managing a law firm or entire legal department
Significant hands-on experience across:
Removal Defense
Humanitarian relief (T Visa, VAWA)
Family-based immigration
Consular processing
Comfort handling bar complaints, ethics issues, and legal risk decisions

Nice To Haves

Business immigration exposure is a plus
Spanish/English bilingual preferred, not required

Responsibilities

Define, enforce, and maintain legal quality standards across Removal Defense, Humanitarian cases (T Visa, VAWA), family-based cases, and consular processing
Establish supervision and escalation rules so attorneys and paralegals know when legal judgment is required, when senior review is required, and when work can proceed
Ensure supervision is real, documented, and consistent—not informal or personality-driven
Serve as the firm's legal authority for professional responsibility matters
Handle all bar complaints, ethics concerns, and serious legal risk issues
Supervise the legal integrity of the intake process to ensure cases are signed with correct legal strategy, expectations, and risk assessment
Supervise the intake strategy attorney and strengthen the system around intake decision-making
Define intake standards and required information
Review escalated intake cases
Audit signed cases for strategy or information gaps
Correct patterns that lead to downstream legal or client issues
Define legal performance standards in partnership with Operations
Own enforcement of those standards within the legal team
Set legal performance expectations for attorneys and paralegals
Conduct performance reviews
Manage underperformance
Make promotion, correction, and exit recommendations for legal roles
Ensure the health of the legal team environment
Maintain attorney and paralegal retention through clarity of expectations, professionalism, and escalation safety
Design a legal environment where issues are addressed early and standards are clear
Operate with lead attorneys (e.g., Removal Defense Lead, Humanitarian Lead) who handle first-line supervision
Remain the final authority and conduct formal reviews
Define what can be covered by peers, what requires escalation, and what must pause due to legal risk
Step in when senior legal judgment is required—not for routine case coverage
Establish defined backup structures coordinated with Operations
Support client retention through leadership-level de-escalation calls when legal authority is required
Own the legal decision layer of refunds, including defining eligibility standards, reviewing disputed or high-risk cases, ensuring consistency and documentation
Partner with Operations to ensure the process runs efficiently and professionally
Set the standard for case closure and client communication
Ensure compliance with closure protocols
Correct failures to offboard properly