About

Job Opportunities at AALDEF

Staff Attorney, Economic Justice Program

Description
The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), founded in 1974, is a New York-based national organization that protects and promotes the civil rights of Asian Americans. By combining litigation, advocacy, education, and organizing, AALDEF works with Asian American communities across the country to secure human rights for all.

AALDEF’s Economic Justice Program uses litigation, advocacy, and community education to protect the rights of workers. Despite their pivotal role in the U.S. economy, immigrant workers confront daily challenges in the labor force: language barriers, exploitative working conditions, immigration status vulnerabilities, and restricted access to public services and benefits. Across the country, workers in restaurant, garment, domestic work, home health care, nail salons, and construction industries—many from communities of color—endure sweatshop conditions.

AALDEF has won millions in back wages and overtime pay for low-wage immigrant workers and secured federal rules that have expanded the ability of workers to hold their employers accountable. AALDEF works with community groups to educate low-wage Asian immigrant workers about their legal rights. Through innovative legal strategies, AALDEF facilitates organizing and enables workers to secure their rightful wages and improve conditions across economic sectors.

The Staff Attorney will work with the legal director, other program attorneys, and organizers on the following activities:

1. Identify, document, prevent, and resolve violations of labor laws in industries with low-wage Asian immigrant workers;

2. Provide technical assistance and train community advocates on relevant labor and economic justice laws;

3. Collaborate with other civil rights, labor, and legal groups to develop joint strategies to improve standards and conditions in industries with low-wage workers;

4. Challenge violations of labor laws on behalf of low-wage workers through impact litigation; and

5. Explore legislative and administrative strategies to improve conditions of industries with low-wage workers.

Qualifications
• Three to five years of litigation experience or other public interest law activities;

• Demonstrated commitment to racial justice;

• Familiarity with Asian American communities and issues;

• Admitted to the New York or other state bar;

• Ability to speak an Asian language helpful, but not required.

Salary Range
$75,000 - $100,000

Deadline
The position will be filled as soon as possible.

Email a cover letter, resume, writing sample, and three references to info@aaldef.org, and put “Staff Attorney, Economic Justice Program” in the subject line.

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Staff Attorney, Stop Asian Hate Project

Description:** The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), founded in 1974, is a New York-based national organization that protects and promotes the civil rights of Asian Americans. By combining litigation, advocacy, education, and organizing, AALDEF works with Asian American communities across the country to secure human rights for all.

For decades, AALDEF has fought against hate violence targeting Asian Americans:

Representing Asian Americans in civil rights lawsuits against police brutality;
Demanding justice for Vincent Chin, who was murdered in a racially-motivated assault in Detroit in 1982;
Defending South Asians attacked by the hate group “Dotbusters” in New Jersey;
Testifying before Congress on policies to stop anti-Asian violence;
Fighting against the surveillance and police state created in Muslim communities
after 9/11; and
Counseling victims of anti-Asian violence and harassment linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The staff attorney will use advocacy and litigation to reimagine what safety and justice mean in our community. Asian American and AMEMSA (Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian) communities are perceived as perpetual foreigners and often targeted by law enforcement during times of perceived national crisis. In collaboration with community organizations, the staff attorney will challenge the criminalization of Asian American and AMEMSA communities and address criminal justice issues that disproportionately affect communities of color. Included in these policy areas are hate crimes legislation, bail reform, aggressive police tactics, post-conviction relief, and pardons.

The staff attorney will work with other AALDEF attorneys and organizers on the following activities:

1. Explore advocacy and legislative strategies to address anti-Asian and anti-Muslim violence;

2. Provide legal support to survivors and victims of violence in Asian American and AMEMSA communities;

3. Collaborate with civil rights, religious, and legal groups to develop joint strategies to counter the criminalization of communities of color;

4. Identify legal strategies, including filing pardon applications, on behalf of refugees and immigrants impacted by the prison to deportation pipeline; and

5. Engage in litigation challenging over-criminalization and over-policing of Asian American, AMEMSA, and other communities of color.

Qualifications
• More than five years of litigation experience or policy advocacy;

• Demonstrated commitment to racial justice;

• Familiarity with Asian American and AMEMSA communities and issues;

• Admitted to the New York or other state bar;

• Ability to speak an Asian language helpful, but not required.

Salary Range
$75,000 - $100,000

Deadline
The position will be filled as soon as possible.

Email a cover letter, resume, writing sample, and three references to info@aaldef.org, and put “Staff Attorney, Stop Asian Hate Project” in the subject line.

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**Staff Attorney, Immigrant Rights

AALDEF believes that immigration policy must adhere to basic human rights principles. We have represented Asian immigrants facing deportation, DACA recipients, and undocumented workers challenging employment law violations.

The staff attorney will use litigation, legal counseling, and policy advocacy to protect the rights of Asian immigrants and refugees. The attorney, who will be based in Boston or New York City, will be focused on immigration and other civil rights issues in Massachusetts and the Northeast. Lowell, Massachusetts has the second largest Cambodian community in the United States and Southeast Asians live in many areas, including Rhode Island and Maine. The attorney will work with Southeast Asian community groups to stop deportations, challenge unjust laws, and help reunify families. Additionally, the staff attorney will represent and support undocumented immigrants on immigration and civil rights cases. The staff attorney will also collaborate with community organizing groups on civil rights issues that impact Asian American communities.

The staff attorney will work with other program attorneys and organizers on the following activities:

1. Represent Southeast Asian immigrants and refugees fighting removal orders;

2. Represent Asian American immigrants in cases before Immigration Court, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and USCIS;

3. Provide legal support for undocumented Asian American youth organizing;

4. Collaborate with community organizations in Massachusetts and throughout the Northeast to respond to civil rights issues, including immigration and housing displacement;

5. Engage in litigation challenging anti-immigrant initiatives;

6. Represent AALDEF in national coalitions and dialogues on policies that affect Asian American immigrants.

**Qualifications
**• More than three years of litigation experience or other public interest law activities;

• Demonstrated commitment to racial justice;

• Familiarity with Asian American communities and issues

• Admitted to the Massachusetts, New York, or other state bar;

• Ability to speak an Asian language helpful, but not required.

• Familiarity with Asian American issues in New England

Salary Range
$75,000 - $100,000

Deadline
The position will be filled as soon as possible.

Email a cover letter, resume, writing sample, and three references to info@aaldef.org, and put “Staff Attorney, Immigrant Rights” in the subject line.

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**Voting Rights Organizer

Description**: The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), founded in 1974, is a New York-based national organization that protects and promotes the civil rights of Asian Americans. By combining litigation, advocacy, education, and organizing, AALDEF works with Asian American communities across the country to secure human rights for all.

AALDEF’s Asian American Democracy Program promotes fairness in the electoral process and invigorates the civic participation of Asian Americans, especially new citizens and persons not yet fluent in English. By expanding access to the electoral process for Asian Americans, AALDEF improves the quality of democracy for all Americans.

The Voting Rights Organizer will be responsible for mobilizing Asian American community groups for a non-partisan exit poll of Asian American voters and overseeing volunteers for Election Day poll monitoring in several states for the 2022 midterm elections and the 2024 presidential and congressional elections. The job includes recruiting, training, and supervising volunteers; working with community leaders; supervising the development, translation, and printing of materials; and giving educational presentations. The Organizer will also oversee post-election follow-up and assist in writing a report about Asian American voter participation in the 2022 midterm elections and expand outreach for the 2024 elections.

**Qualifications
**•Highly organized, detail oriented, and able to supervise volunteers and work with a wide variety of community leaders and organizations.

•Experience with community organizing and database systems.

•Bilingual ability in an Asian language is desirable.

•Strong communication skills.

•Ability to travel and work on occasional weekends.

Salary Range: $50,000 - $65,000

**To Apply:
**Email a cover letter, resume, and three references to info@aaldef.org (put “voting rights organizer search” in the subject line).

Deadline: Applicants will be considered on a rolling basis until filled.

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Development Director

The Organization:

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), founded in 1974, is a New York-based national organization that protects and promotes the civil rights of Asian Americans through litigation, advocacy, and community education. AALDEF is supported by foundation and corporate grants, For more information about AALDEF and its activities, visit our website at http://www.aaldef.org.

Job Description:

The Development Director is responsible for organizing and implementing all fundraising activities to ensure the sustainability and future expansion of the organization. The Development Director reports to the Executive Director and Assistant Director.

Specific responsibilities include:

• Work with the executive director to design and implement an annual fundraising plan, in coordination with the board of directors

• Manage foundation relationships and grant submissions; maintain a calendar of grant proposal and report deadlines; prepare letters of intent and proposals with requisite documents; maintain ongoing correspondence with funders.

• Create and implement mail and online solicitations and plan year-end giving strategy; analyze current donor base and identify new individual prospects.

• Create and implement a cultivation program targeting law firms, corporations and businesses.

• Identify and implement strategies for new major gift prospects; provide background materials for board member solicitations; and write regular reports for the executive director and board of directors

• Supervise development assistant to maintain donor database, process gifts, acknowledge donors, and generate regular reports.

• Performs other tasks as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Excellent writing and communications skills.

• Minimum five years’ experience in fundraising and projects management.

• Prior CRM database management experience preferred.

• Strong organizational skills, attention to details, and ability to work independently.

• Proven track record of working in a collaborative environment with demonstrated success in raising funds from individual donors, foundations, corporations, and law firms.

• Creative, strategic, and entrepreneurial.

• Familiar with Asian American communities and legal/civil rights issues.

**Compensation:
**Commensurate with experience; excellent health and vacation benefits package.

**Starting date:
**As soon as possible.

Please send a cover letter (including any salary requirements), resume, names of three references, and two unedited writing samples to:

Jennifer Weng
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
99 Hudson Street-12/F
New York, NY 10013-2815
jweng@aaldef.org

(for email, insert “Development Director” in subject line)

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AALDEF is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

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