Case Manager

Part-time (20 hrs/week) · Fully remote (US, Eastern/Central) · Reports to the Director

About Communitology

Justice works best when social science is in the courtroom.

Communitology is a country-of-origin expert consultancy. We connect law firms representing people in asylum and human rights cases with the country specialists whose evidence those cases depend on — country reports and affidavits, expert testimony, document authentication, and nationality, linguistic, and ethnicity assessments. Our experts educate the court and counsel with rigour and clarity; we do not engage in advocacy — that is the role of counsel.

We hold ourselves and our expert network to a clear set of commitments: the preservation of life and a commitment to human rights; justice through evidence and a duty to the court; expert integrity, independence, and impartiality; confidentiality, rigour, and care in handling sensitive information; sustainability before speed and fair compensation for expert work; and collaboration conducted with accountability, safety, and dignity.

About the role

An asylum seeker’s case can turn on evidence only an in-country expert can provide — a researcher who can explain what return to a particular place would really mean for a particular person. This role connects the attorneys and the people they represent with the country-of-origin experts whose knowledge their cases depend on. Doing that well and quickly is part of how people get a fair hearing — and it is the heart of this role.

The administration of that work is already carried by our systems. Intake, routing, case records, reminders, aging alerts, and first drafts of briefs and correspondence are handled by the stack and its AI-assisted workflows. Your twenty hours go where the systems can’t reach: staging the best-fit selection process so instructing firms can choose the right expert; training, supporting, and running interference for those experts; linking them with the organisational resources they need; holding both experts and instructing attorneys steady; and discerning when a case needs to be escalated. This is a role for someone who wants to do the human and substantive part of the work — not be buried in admin.

You would be the point of contact between our instructing law firms — in the US, Canada, the UK, across Europe, Australia, and parts of Asia — and a global network of around 200 country-of-origin experts. We take on 50–80 cases a month.

What you’d do

Be the first point of contact for instructing firms, responding to new inquiries promptly and professionally.
Understand each case well enough to stage the right options, support the expert on it, and judge when it needs escalating.
Run the staging process for best-fit expert selection — assembling and presenting suitable experts so the instructing firm can choose.
Train, support, and run interference for experts through the life of a case — keeping them on track to deadline and connecting them with the organisational resources they need.
Relay between the attorney and the expert, protecting confidentiality on both sides.
Keep every case’s status current and legible in our systems — so the work is visible to the whole team, not held in your head.
Maintain accurate, complete case records that follow our data protocols, and hand off cleanly on delivery so firms are invoiced and experts are paid.
Escalate to the Director when a case needs her directly.
Take part in regular case supervision, ongoing development in how we work, and annual planning and review.

You’d also work closely with colleagues in expert development (flagging experts who need onboarding or peer review) and in finance and operations (passing completed cases on promptly and accurately).

Who we’re looking for

This role is open to someone early in their career. We are hiring for sharp judgment, fast learning, and genuine fluency with tools — and we will invest in growing your grounding in the work and in how we do it. Direct experience in asylum or country-of-origin evidence is welcome but not required. What is not optional is comfort with the systems the role runs on, and we say more about that below.

Essential

A fast, rigorous learner. You pick up new tools, systems, and unfamiliar subject matter quickly, and you get to accurate at speed. This is the core of the role.
Fluency with digital and AI tools, and the drive to extend them. You work confidently in systems like Airtable and Google Workspace, and you review and correct AI-drafted work rather than avoid it. Beyond using the tools well, you look for new uses and applications within our systems — not to move faster, but to strengthen the quality of the work and help make our use of local research and social-science evidence best-in-class.
Care for data integrity. When you find a gap or inconsistency in the records, you close it — filling in the missing field, correcting the wrong code, following our data protocols — rather than leaving a blank or entering a best guess. Records stay accurate and complete: names, dates, references, and scope correct the first time.
Judgment. Reading between the lines of an instruction to see what a case really requires, recognising what support an expert needs, and — equally important — knowing when a situation is beyond your remit and should be escalated.
A warm, credible communicator who can hold a time-pressured attorney and a busy academic expert at once, and who de-escalates rather than adds friction.
Case-handling discipline. Comfortable managing files, deadlines, and documents with care; organised and reliable across many cases at once.
Real interest in global issues — international affairs, country conditions, human rights, and migration — and the drive to deepen it into genuine expertise.
Readiness to build competency in how Communitology works, and to take part in supervision, planning, and review.
Education. A bachelor’s degree is required; a master’s degree is preferred, ideally in a relevant field — international relations, human rights, migration or refugee studies, area studies, political science, or law.

Desirable

Additional languages and regional knowledge — actively sought. The role spans the whole network, and candidates who bring one or more additional languages and genuine familiarity with particular regions are especially welcome.
Direct experience in country-of-origin evidence, asylum or human rights casework, refugee support, or the expert-witness process. Welcome, but not required — we will help you build it.
Prior experience in a coordinating, case-management, or paralegal-type role.

Hours and how the role works

Hours: 20 hours per week, set hours each weekday, leaning toward the morning (Eastern time) to overlap with our UK and European firms — a structured schedule, not ad hoc. Some of that time is ring-fenced for supervision and development, so not every hour is case-facing.
The pace is workable by design. Most cases need well under an hour of your attention because the systems carry the paperwork; a minority that are more contested take longer. Twenty hours is enough precisely because you’re steering the work, not doing all of it by hand.
Location: fully remote within the United States, open to candidates in the Eastern or Central time zones. You must be authorized to work in the US; we are unable to sponsor visas.
Employment: part-time, non-exempt W-2 employee; working hours are tracked. Reports to the Director.
Compensation: $24–28 per hour, depending on experience.

What we offer

Fully remote work with a predictable, set part-time schedule.
Company-provided equipment and tools.
40 hours (about two weeks) of paid vacation a year, plus paid recognized holidays and paid sick time.
A retirement plan (SIMPLE IRA) with a company match of up to 3% of your pay.
A $1,000 annual professional-development budget.
A $50/month home internet and phone stipend.
Close mentorship from the Director, with structured onboarding and professional development.
Meaningful work with a direct impact on people’s access to a fair hearing.

How to apply

We’re recruiting now, with the role expected to start in September or October 2026, and we review applications on a rolling basis until the role is filled.

Apply now →

It takes about fifteen minutes — a few details, your CV, and three short questions.

Communitology is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds and do not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or any other protected characteristic.