Legal Aid of Marin, or LAM as we affectionately call us, has responded to the legal needs of Marin’s marginalized communities for almost 70 years. Over time, our service areas have shifted in response to patterns of oppression and injustice. After all, injustice is a chameleon. It changes shape, color, and structure to ensure it remains elusive and camouflaged by indifference to human suffering. So, while we now practice housing law, employment law, and poverty alleviation legal services, when certain communities face escalating attacks that threaten their very humanity, LAM will rise to meet the moment. Indeed, this fall, LAM will expand to become an immigration legal services provider.
So how will this work? Because of the generosity of the Marin Community Foundation and support of the California Access to Justice Commission, LAM secured funding to hire a pro bono manager, an immigration staff attorney, and an immigration legal assistant. Our approach to this effort will be twofold.

First, we are hiring an immigration staff attorney and a legal assistant who will embed themselves in the communities we serve and provide place-based legal services that are responsive to their immediate needs arising from their immigration status. In many instances–and often dictated by the way grants are structured–legal aid organizations decide which services they will provide when seeking funding and then communities opt in based on eligibility and aligned need once they’re available. But this program will be distinct from the traditional legal aid service structure. LAM’s immigration staff attorney will practice community-centered immigration law, maintaining a caseload informed by the emergent needs voiced by clients. The attorney will work on site at LAM’s office and spend one day per week working at North Marin Community Services, a critical partner aligned in service to Marin’s immigrant communities. It is a privilege to have the trust of funders and partners whose belief in this community-centered approach to legal aid makes this strategy possible.

LAM is also hiring a pro bono manager. This attorney will have substantial immigration law experience and work with large law firms to secure pro bono representation in removal defense matters. Additionally, this lawyer will identify potential impact litigation and co-counsel with firms dedicated to improving lives for immigrants at a systemic level. This approach is critically important as immigration enforcement activity is escalating day-by-day in the communities we serve. Our partnerships with local, regional, national, and global law firms will make this work possible as we join forces to seed impact.

Legal aid is scarce in Marin. With a 17-member staff serving the entire County, this expansion will not be easy for LAM. But this is what we know we must do to ensure that our mission has the greatest chance of breathing its full potential. We cannot look back on this time in history and say we didn’t stand up and grow to meet this moment alongside our neighbors.
What can you do to help? So much. First, please share these position descriptions with your networks. If you’re an immigration attorney or interested in becoming a legal assistant, consider applying. Volunteer to meet the moment with us. In addition to immigration legal services, we have opportunities in housing law, employment law, and poverty alleviation services. Donate to support our work. Every. Dollar. Counts.

In our line of work, each day brings significant challenges. Whether it’s a neighbor detained, a tenant evicted, or a worker denied their earned wages, the level of injustice we see feels consuming. But when you have a sphere of influence–in our case, a Marin-shaped sphere of influence–it is a true gift to be able to reflect, recalibrate, and meet this moment by expanding into an area of law with the greatest amount of need. Times like these are the reason LAM exists in the first place. We do this because we must. We must because justice means all of us.