Originally published in Student Lawyer magazine, September 2003 (Vol. 32, No. 1)

Hot Practice

Immigration law has applications in business and public interest

by Lisa Stansky

As far as the law goes, immigrating to the Americas was simple for those thought to have arrived by way of the wild Bering Strait thousands of years ago: no paperwork.

Today, the law dictates who may stay in the United States, and the rules are changing constantly. The steady stream of those who seek to come to these shores will increase demand for lawyers who want to work in this evolving legal landscape. That's good news if you're looking for a challenging and rewarding career.

Many immigration lawyers love what they do for several reasons. There's the satisfaction gleaned from helping others stave off deportation, reunite family members, or migrate to pursue an education or a career. The work has intellectual and emotional challenges. And they can make a living at it.

The word "immigration" conjures up visions of the Statue of Liberty or boatloads of refugees, but the practice has a corporate side. As businesses become increasingly global in scale, so do their labor needs.

Students shouldn't overlook the value of immigration practice to the business world, says Newark, N.J., lawyer Neil Dornbaum, the American Immigration Lawyers Association's liaison to the ABA Commission on Immigration Policy, Practice, and Pro Bono. He's also past chair of the immigration law committee of the ABA General Practice, Solo, and Small Firm Section.

"We do a lot of corporate transfers," Dornbaum says, adding that he processes mountains of paperwork required to bring foreign scientific researchers or corporate executives to work for U.S. companies. Roughly 85 percent of his practice concerns such business issues. The balance consists of family-related immigration work involving marriages or reuniting family members abroad with those in the United States.

Some large firms are adding immigration lawyers to their ranks in order to serve corporate clients with a global presence or a need for foreign nationals to flesh out their ranks. Atlanta lawyer Karen Koenig, co-chair of the immigration law committee of the ABA Labor and Employment Law Section, says her firm's contingent of about 10 immigration lawyers is larger than usual, but business demand for immigration lawyers is on the rise.

Koenig's assignments have a dash of glamour, like the work she's doing to secure foreign soap opera actors, directors, and producers for a Spanish-language television station in the United States. Her practice offers personal rewards, too.

"There is an individual behind every piece of paper," Koenig says. She's gratified by the knowledge that she's helping an individual as well as her corporate client every time she arranges for a worker to come stateside.

In addition to practicing immigration law on behalf of businesses, many lawyers represent individuals with personal immigration issues. Because individuals often can't handle high fees, some practitioners say that many of these lawyers are solos with high-volume caseloads. Managing such a practice takes business savvy as well as legal knowledge.

Then there's the public interest arena, where the market for jobs is highly competitive. Those who land such positions can practice all immigration law all the time. That's what Miko Tokuhama-Olsen does. She's a senior attorney with the Legal Aid Society of San Diego Inc. and a member of the Commission on Immigration Policy, Practice, and Pro Bono.

"I can go home, and I can sleep very well at night," Tokuhama-Olsen says. Still, immigration practice isn't for everyone. "The only way to know immigration work is to work with somebody who does it," she says, advising students to test the waters by taking an internship.
Donald Kerwin, co-chair of the immigration and nationality committee of the ABA Section of International Law and Practice, has a credo about his public interest work: "Win an asylum case, save a life." Kerwin is executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. in Washington, D.C.

"It's an extraordinarily important time because the civil rights crisis in this country is taking place in the immigration field," Kerwin says.

If you want to know how the immigration system works from the inside, consider government work.

"You get a lot of experience quickly, you learn the law, and you learn how the system works," says Georgetown University law professor T. Alexander Aleinikoff, former general counsel to the Immigration and Naturalization Service and now co-chair of an immigration committee of the ABA Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities.

The changing legal environment has taken Aleinikoff's former employer in its sweep. Earlier this year the federal government dismantled the INS and divided most duties between the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. Aleinikoff says that students seeking government experience might consider a staff attorney position with the Department of Homeland Security or Board of Immigration Appeals, or a law clerk position with an individual immigration law judge.

Anna Shavers, who teaches immigration law at the University of Nebraska, says communication skills rank near the top of a good immigration lawyer's qualities because clients may not speak English. Shavers has rounded out her interest in the field by serving as chair of the immigration and naturalization committee of the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice.

Whatever path you choose, you'll face challenges, including heavy-duty amounts of paperwork and a bureaucracy that can be lumbering and even hostile. Patience is key.

Kerwin gave up private practice to work in the public interest realm, and he doesn't regret it. Immigration law, he says, is just the ticket for those who want "a rewarding, stressful, valuable job that they're going to love."

Lisa Stansky (ljstansky@cs.com), a graduate of Yale Law School, is a lawyer and freelance writer in New Orleans.

Are you interested in other fields of law? Read previous Hot Practice columns online at www.abanet.org/lsd/stulawyer.

ABA Resources on Immigration Law

Look at the ABA Commission on Immigration Policy, Practice, and Pro Bono (www.abanet.org/immigration), which offers internships for law students. The positions are unpaid yet may qualify for academic credit. See the commission's web site for details.

Consider joining the Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice (www.abanet.org/adminlaw), which has an immigration and naturalization committee. Membership for ABA law student members is free and provides subscriptions to Administrative Law Review, Administrative and Regulatory Law News, and Developments in Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. The web site has a special page with information for law students.

There's also the General Practice, Solo, and Small Firm Section (www.abanet.org/genpractice), which has an immigration law committee. Membership is free for law students. You'll receive eight issues of GP Solo, the section's magazine.

Students interested in public interest work should know about the Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities (www.abanet.org/irr), which sponsors a legal internship program and has a rights of immigrants committee. Student membership is $15 and provides a subscription to Human Rights magazine and IRR News Report.

The Section of International Law and Practice (www.abanet.org/intlaw) has an immigration and nationality committee. Membership is $15 and includes a subscription to the section's quarterly law journal and newsletter.

The Section of Labor and Employment Law (www.abanet.org/labor) has an immigration law committee. A $3 student membership provides a subscription to Labor and Employment Law Newsletter and The Labor Lawyer, a quarterly law review.

Law students can receive all the informational, educational, and networking benefits of ABA section membership-often free of charge or at reduced rates. To join a section, call 800-285-2221.