Board Member-at-Large - Director of Asylum & Immigration Legal Programs
Universal Removal Defense Project
High-Impact Leadership Opportunity
The Board Member-at-Large — Director of Asylum & Immigration Legal Programs is a senior volunteer leadership position on the Board of Directors of Universal Removal Defense Project (URDP).
This is not intended to be a traditional volunteer-attorney assignment. It is an opportunity for an accomplished immigration-law professional to help shape, build, and influence the development of an emerging national nonprofit removal defense organization from its formative stage.
URDP is developing a 21st-century model for delivering multilingual, culturally responsive and technology-enabled removal defense services remotely across EOIR venues throughout the United States.
The Director will have an opportunity to help establish the legal-program architecture, professional standards, strategic partnerships, and institutional safeguards upon which that model is built.
The position is particularly appropriate for an experienced immigration attorney, former Immigration Judge, retired immigration attorney, former government immigration attorney, nonprofit legal-services leader, or other highly qualified immigration professional seeking to make a significant contribution to access to justice while serving in a senior nonprofit leadership capacity.
Strategic Leadership & Institutional Influence
As one of URDP's senior Board leaders in immigration legal-program development, the Director will have the opportunity to influence the organization's long-term approach to asylum and removal defense.
The Director will:
- Serve as a senior strategic advisor to the Board of Directors and Executive Director on immigration legal-program development.
- Help shape URDP's national vision for accessible removal defense and asylum representation.
- Provide professional leadership as URDP develops its DOJ Recognition and Accreditation infrastructure.
- Help establish institutional standards for quality, competency, ethics, supervision, and professional responsibility.
- Advise leadership on the responsible expansion of URDP's legal-services capacity.
- Help develop a scalable framework capable of serving immigrants across geographic, linguistic, and cultural boundaries.
- Participate in major strategic discussions concerning the future direction of URDP's immigration legal programs.
- Help identify legal, ethical, operational, and professional risks as the organization grows.
- Serve as an ambassador for URDP within the immigration-law, nonprofit, academic, and access-to-justice communities.
- Help cultivate relationships with immigration attorneys, Recognized Organizations, law schools, bar associations, legal-aid organizations, policy institutions, and other strategic partners.
Opportunity to Build a Legal Program From the Ground Up
Unlike joining an established legal-services organization with longstanding institutional structures already in place, the Director will have an opportunity to participate in building the foundation itself.
Working with URDP leadership, the Director may help develop:
- Legal-services program structure;
- Asylum and removal-defense program priorities;
- Case acceptance and capacity frameworks;
- Legal quality-control standards;
- Case-review and consultation procedures;
- Professional supervision structures;
- Training and professional-development systems;
- Ethical and conflict-of-interest safeguards;
- Attorney and accredited-representative collaboration models;
- Nationwide technical-assistance relationships;
- Law-school and clinical partnerships;
- Practitioner referral networks;
- Language-access and culturally responsive legal-service standards; and
- Responsible frameworks for incorporating technology into nonprofit immigration practice.
The Director will therefore have an opportunity to leave a lasting institutional imprint on an organization designed around the principle that meaningful access to immigration defense should not depend upon language, culture, geography, or financial resources.
Immigration Legal Program Leadership
The Director will provide high-level professional guidance concerning URDP programs involving:
- Removal defense before the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR);
- Affirmative and defensive asylum;
- Withholding of removal;
- Protection under the Convention Against Torture;
- Bond and immigration custody matters;
- Motions to reopen and reconsider;
- Appeals before the Board of Immigration Appeals;
- Humanitarian forms of immigration relief; and
- Other matters falling within URDP's authorized scope of immigration services.
The Director may advise on legal-program policies, case-review structures, training standards, professional-development priorities, quality assurance, and organizational procedures affecting the delivery of immigration legal services.
DOJ Recognition & Accreditation Leadership
A significant initial leadership priority will be supporting URDP's development toward Department of Justice Recognition and Accreditation.
The Director may assist organizational leadership with:
- Reviewing URDP's legal-services framework;
- Reviewing supervision and case-review structures;
- Advising on policies relevant to DOJ Recognition and Accreditation;
- Supporting preparation for Forms EOIR-31 and EOIR-31A and related documentation;
- Helping identify appropriate training and practical-experience opportunities for prospective accredited representatives;
- Advising on development of professional legal resources available to the organization;
- Helping establish relationships with qualified immigration attorneys and Recognized Organizations; and
- Assisting URDP in developing a sustainable professional-support structure for its future accredited representatives.
Technical Legal Support & Consultation
Where the Director must be a licensed attorney with a substantial amount of experience in Immigration law qualified to provide such assistance, URDP and the Director may enter into a separate written Technical Legal Support and Consultation Agreement establishing the scope of professional immigration-law support available to the organization.
Under such an agreement, the Director may serve as one of URDP's qualified sources of immigration-law consultation and technical support.
Depending upon the mutually agreed scope, this may include:
- Immigration-law and procedural consultation;
- Technical assistance concerning asylum and removal defense;
- Guidance regarding complex or developing immigration-law issues;
- Consultation concerning EOIR and BIA practice;
- Case-review or case-strategy consultation where appropriately authorized;
- Guidance concerning filings, motions, appeals, and procedural issues;
- Mentorship of prospective or approved DOJ-accredited representatives;
- Professional-development guidance for legal staff and volunteers;
- Training concerning substantive immigration law and procedure;
- Consultation concerning ethics, confidentiality, conflicts, professional responsibility, and unauthorized-practice-of-law safeguards;
- Development of legal research and practitioner resources;
- Guidance concerning URDP's Recognition and Accreditation program; and
- Connection to additional qualified practitioners when specialized expertise is necessary.
The written agreement will identify the nature and scope of the technical support and consultation, the participating professional's qualifications and experience, and the boundaries of the relationship.
URDP may maintain the agreement, together with documentation describing the participating attorney's or organization's qualifications, experience, and breadth of immigration knowledge, and, where applicable, the attorney's professional résumé, for purposes including its DOJ Recognition and Accreditation documentation.
Coalition Building & External Leadership
The Director may also help URDP build the professional relationships necessary for a sustainable national immigration legal-services organization.
This may include:
- Developing relationships with nonprofit immigration organizations and DOJ Recognized Organizations;
- Engaging experienced immigration practitioners and former government professionals;
- Building relationships with law schools and immigration clinics;
- Encouraging practitioner participation in URDP training and technical-assistance initiatives;
- Identifying potential pro bono and technical-support partnerships;
- Participating in selected professional, educational, coalition, or stakeholder meetings on behalf of URDP;
- Helping strengthen URDP's credibility within the broader immigration-law community; and
- Supporting responsible coalition building around access to counsel, immigration legal competency, and removal defense.
Mentorship & Development of the Next Generation
An important component of the position is helping develop future nonprofit immigration advocates.
Depending upon availability and professional qualifications, the Director may mentor prospective DOJ-accredited representatives, legal volunteers, graduate students, law students, paralegals, and emerging nonprofit leaders working within URDP's programs.
The Director will have an opportunity not merely to advise individual matters, but to help develop an institutional culture emphasizing competency, ethical practice, professional independence, careful legal analysis, cultural responsiveness, and meaningful access to justice.
Board Governance
As a voting member of the Board of Directors, the Director will participate in the governance and strategic oversight of URDP.
Responsibilities include:
- Participating in Board meetings and major organizational decisions;
- Reviewing organizational strategy and program development;
- Exercising appropriate nonprofit fiduciary oversight;
- Contributing professional expertise to Board deliberations;
- Participating in relevant Board committees or working groups;
- Supporting organizational sustainability and institutional development;
- Assisting with strategic partnerships and professional relationships; and
- Serving as an advocate for URDP's mission and long-term success.
The Board provides strategic and fiduciary governance rather than direct legal services. Any separate attorney supervision, technical assistance, representation, or professional legal responsibility will be appropriately defined and documented.
Legal Independence & Defined Professional Responsibility
URDP recognizes that attorneys and former judicial or government professionals bring professional obligations and reputational considerations to nonprofit leadership.
Board membership alone does not make the Director responsible for every legal matter handled by URDP or automatically establish an attorney-client or supervisory relationship.
Any direct legal supervision, case-specific responsibility, attorney-client representation, entry of appearance, or other professional responsibility must arise from an appropriately established relationship defining the Director's authority, scope, responsibilities, limitations, and professional obligations.
Nothing in the Director's Board position is intended to interfere with independent professional judgment.
Ideal Candidate
URDP is particularly interested in candidates with substantial professional experience, including:
- Experienced immigration attorneys;
- Former Immigration Judges;
- Retired immigration attorneys;
- Former government immigration attorneys;
- Former or current nonprofit immigration legal-services leaders;
- Attorneys with significant EOIR or BIA experience;
- Asylum and humanitarian immigration practitioners;
- Attorneys experienced in supervising accredited representatives, attorneys, paralegals, law students, or legal volunteers;
The strongest candidate will combine immigration-law knowledge with an interest in institution building, mentorship, innovation, nonprofit leadership, and expanding access to justice.
Professional Visibility & Legacy
The Director will be recognized as a member of URDP's Board of Directors and senior legal-program leadership.
Subject to the Director's preference and organizational policies, URDP may feature the Director's professional biography and photograph on its website and appropriate organizational materials and identify the Director in relevant professional, partnership, fundraising, and program-development communications.
For an experienced practitioner or retired professional, this position offers an opportunity to apply decades of knowledge toward something larger than an individual caseload: helping build an institution capable of expanding access to immigration defense for people across the United States.
Commitment
This is a volunteer Board of Directors leadership position designed to accommodate the professional responsibilities of a practicing attorney or the availability of a retired immigration professional.
URDP seeks meaningful leadership rather than unnecessary administrative burden. Board participation and any additional technical legal support will therefore be structured through clearly defined expectations.
Professional consultation, technical assistance, legal supervision, or other services extending beyond ordinary Board governance responsibilities will be separately documented so that the scope of the relationship is transparent and manageable.
About Universal Removal Defense Project
Universal Removal Defense Project is a nonprofit human rights organization developing a nationwide model for multilingual, culturally responsive, and remote removal defense.
URDP's mission is to ensure that individuals are not denied meaningful access to immigration defense because of language, culture, geography, or financial circumstances.
Through human-centered legal advocacy, advanced translation techniques, remote-service infrastructure, and collaboration with immigration professionals across the country, URDP seeks to expand meaningful access to justice for immigrants and asylum seekers facing some of the most consequential legal proceedings in the United States.
All Cultures. All Languages.
Pay: $25.00 - $40.00 per hour
Work Location: Hybrid remote in New York, NY 10040
