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As we move into the new year, we want to close by sharing a bit about how we are thinking about scaling our team and impact right now—in ways VAAP and VT can sustain.
VAAP is seeing extraordinary need at a time when the law is increasingly volatile and systems increasingly strained. At the same time, internally our own team is in a period of transition, including bittersweet bar study leave and exciting new staff onboarding.
🪴Four new attorneys incoming
Regarding incoming staff, we are preparing to onboard two new community-based immigration lawyers serving Central and Southern Vermont through the VAAP-VLA Community Lawyering Initiative (announcement forthcoming). We are also finalizing recruitment for two more Practice Development Fellows who will begin providing immigration legal services with VAAP part-time (announcement forthcoming). Recruitment and onboarding takes time to get right, and we are so excited to make this increased attorney capacity a felt resource in your communities in the coming weeks!
🪴Two attorneys on bar leave
Regarding departing staff, we are preparing to wish Catalina and Cami, our two Immigrant Justice Corps Fellows/Law Graduates well as they begin their rite of passge into attorney licensure by going on leave to study for the Bar Exam full time through March 2.
All of this is good news for long-term capacity—but it also means short-term staffing flux. In moments like this, it can be tempting to do more and more, faster and faster. Instead, we are choosing a different path: being deliberate about what we take on, how we take it on, and what we can responsibly sustain.
🪴Rightsizing attorney workload
Over the past few weeks, our staff has been doing careful, collective planning around workload, pro bono supervision, and new intakes. We have been grounding those conversations in a simple but demanding question: What do we actually have the capacity to support right now, week to week, without risking harm?
To answer that, we are looking closely at how our advocates’ time is already allocated—across direct client representation, supervision of pro bono attorneys, coordination with community partners, compliance and administrative requirements, and the less visible but essential work of training, planning, and quality control. In particular, we are accounting for the fact that staff attorneys’ time is not only spent on active cases, but also on managing transitions, responding to complex operational demands, and ensuring continuity for existing clients and pending referrals from community-based organizations.
🪴Rightsizing mentorship workload
We are also being explicit about what responsible pro bono mobilization and partner mentorship requires. Each new pro bono attorney or team draws on a finite amount of VAAP staff attorney judgment and oversight, especially at the outset. That reality shapes how many volunteers we can onboard at once, and how many new cases we can accept, even when there is strong interest and goodwill.
What has emerged from this planning is a clear, values-driven approach. This month, we are redistributing existing asylum cases to ensure continuity of representation. We are also mobilizing a limited number of additional pro bono attorneys/teams, with defined scope and strong supervision. And we are reviewing our capacity weekly—comparing what we project with what actually happens—so that we can adjust responsibly rather than making promises we cannot keep.
🪴Staged reopening of intake
This also means that VAAP is planning a staged reopening of intake, paired with a structured approach to onboarding new staff and pro bono teams as capacity comes online. When we do accept new cases for full representation, we are guided by several factors together: whether a legal claim is viable and safe to pursue, the urgency of the situation, the barriers a client faces in accessing counsel, the likelihood that legal intervention will meaningfully change the outcome, and our current ability to provide sustained, ethical representation.
For the upcoming months, this will continue to mean that full representation is offered more selectively, while we continue to provide referrals, information, and limited support wherever possible. These decisions are not about the importance of any one person’s case. They are about our responsibility to do this work well, not just urgently.
🪴Choosing sustainability, together
Sustainability is not a retreat from our mission. It is how we stay in it for the long haul. By pacing ourselves, supporting our staff and volunteers, and being transparent about limits, we protect clients, preserve trust, and build the capacity to grow responsibly.
We are deeply grateful to our board, our pro bono partners, our funders, our community, and all of you for engaging in this work with honesty and care. We're also excited for the conversations ahead, including reports from our upcoming staff retreat, where we’ll continue to imagine what durable, just legal support can look like for Vermont.
Thank you for being part of this community, and for standing with us as we choose sustainability together.
🪴Thank you for your support!
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