Foreign-trained attorney (passed UBE!) struggling to get interviews — any advice?

Hi everyone,

My wife (27F) and I (30M) moved to the U.S. a couple of years ago, currently living in Philly. She’s a licensed attorney in Mexico and completed her LL.M. at OSU. She just passed the UBE this July 🎉 and is now actively looking for a job.

Her goal isn’t Big Law or maximizing salary — she really wants to work in a nonprofit or advocacy-focused role where she can make an impact, especially with underserved communities (children, migrants, women, etc.). That’s always been her passion and she has experience in the area.

She’s been applying consistently, but getting interviews has been tough. We’re starting to feel like everything in the U.S. runs heavily on networking, and that’s been hard to build. I work from home, and she was fully focused on studying for the bar for the past year, so our professional circles here are still pretty limited.

She’s been doing Rover on the side (which she actually enjoys!), but she’s really eager to get back into her legal career and contribute meaningfully.

For those of you who’ve:

Transitioned as a foreign-trained attorney

Worked in public interest/nonprofit law

Or broken into advocacy roles without a strong local network

What would you recommend? Specific strategies? Organizations we should be looking at? Better ways to network when you’re starting from scratch?

We’d really appreciate any advice. Thank you 🙏