Enhanced Enforcement & Desperate Clients: Managing Ethical Risk in Immigration Law

The practice of immigration remains in a state of constant flux. While changes in law and policy have a tremendous effect on legal strategies, they are of equal import to the rules of professional conduct to which we are subject. At a time of enhanced enforcement, with clients desperate for solutions, what considerations must we be aware of when providing counsel? In this program, attorney Matthew Blaisdell will address questions such as:

• What is your role as an officer of the court?

• What do you do when your duties do the court and to your client might conflict? What does it mean to be “zealous” in representation?

• What are the ethical limits on zeal? To what extent can and should you counsel a person who is in the U.S. unlawfully?

• What considerations must you balance when a potential client wants to file an application that they may not be eligible for in order to obtain a benefit?

• What policy changes should you be aware of?

This course will provide a background understanding of the ethical issues at play in these scenarios, and will attempt to provide a framework to assist in managing your risk of discipline.

Learning Objectives:

1. Review the rules and procedures regulating the practice of immigration before the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
2. Identify conflicts within the rules that attorneys must be aware of and work through while providing counsel
3. Recognize the professional and criminal liabilities you might accumulate through the course of your representation and the criminal violations of immigration law
4. Address frivolous asylum filings
5. Provide a framework for managing risk