Paralegal

Seton Hall University, New Jersey•Newark, NJ

27d•$31,217•Onsite

About The Position

The Immigrants' Rights/International Human Rights Clinic (IRC) operates with the Center for Social Justice--a public interest law firm within Seton Hall Law School. The Detention and Deportation Defense Initiative (DDDI) is part of the IRC, and is funded through New Jersey's Office of New Americans. DDDI provides legal services to detained immigrants in New Jersey. This grant-funded paralegal will join one other grant-funded paralegal to support the work of attorneys and students on this large grant. The DDDI paralegal will support attorneys and students with their filing of a wide variety of immigration forms, as well as conducting intake interviews, drafting and preparing motions, affidavits, and other legal documents in immigration cases. This will often include initial completion of forms and court documents, to be reviewed by an attorney before filing.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree or equivalent training.
Spanish Speaker.
General clerical/legal assistant skills.
Knowledge of legal office procedures to maintain effective work environment.
Must be able to communicate effectively in a professional and legal manner with clients, attorneys, judges, USCIS administrators, and detention and office staff and the general public.

Responsibilities

Oversees incoming mail, to include sorting, date stamping, scanning documents, uploading documents into Clio or other software systems.
For outgoing mail, key responsibilities include arranging for mail pickup (including mail drop off at post office), service process, FedEx or other overnight mail delivery, and verifying delivery of legal documents by process server, certified mail receipts, or others delivery options, as well as handling invoicing for FedEx mailings.
Performs critical and sensitive client intake in order to assist attorneys and students in gathering evidence, and conducts conflict-checking that is required before each client is accepted by the clinic.
Translate/interpret documents from Spanish to English and from English to Spanish when needed in our office and at external sites including the visits to the Detention Centers, assist in translating through phone contact with clients.
Open cases, update client matters, maintain and organize paper case files, and electronic case files, and close cases as needed by making sure that paper case files match electronic files and are uploaded in Clio accordingly, and confirming the client is notified when files are closed.
The paralegal will also assist in calling clients, family members, and witnesses and referring clients to other organizations/agencies, scheduling client appointments, and reserving space for appointments/meetings.
The paralegal may also be asked to perform related tasks temporarily as needed.