California Immigration Lawyer Blog

On Thursday, June 25, 2009, at noon, attorneys licensed in California will be able to earn one free unit of continuing legal education credit in ethics on Second Life® by attending a seminar hosted by the Second Life Bar Association. Second Life is a online virtual world where people create avatars and then interact with others in the virtual world. I am a member of the Second Life Bar Association, a legal organization made up of lawyers, students and scholars from around the world who are interested in law and in interacting in a virtual environment.

The Second Life Bar Association has arranged for Carol Langford, an attorney and professor based in Walnut Creek, California, to give a lecture on ethics. Ms. Langford specializes in giving advice on legal ethics and discipline to attorneys, judges, law firms and corporations, and in representing lawyers and law students before the California State Bar in disciplinary and admissions matters. Ms. Langford has devoted a considerable amount of her time to training lawyers in issues involving law practice management. She has also co-written two books: a nationally adopted textbook entitled Legal Ethics in the Practice of Law, 3rd Edition (Lexis Law Publishing, 2007 )and The Moral Compass of the American Lawyer, Truth, Justice, Power and Greed (Ballantine, 1999).

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Posted In: Attorneys , Continuing Legal Education , Second Life©

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Last weekend I spoke at a conference for Social Security attorneys along with my colleague, David Wright. Our talk was about immigration issues that arise when representing applicants for SSI and/or SSDI. We gave examples from our own cases and discussed issues such as refugees applying for SSI, temporary residents applying for SSDI and the pitfalls that can occur when permanent residents apply for disability. There have been some recent changes to eligibility for SSI by certain groups of immigrants and we highlighted those changes.

You may find a copy of our written materials on my blog here.

Attorneys were interested in our presentation and now know some of the questions they should ask their clients before taking on representation.

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Posted In: Attorneys , Disability , Immigrants , Public benefits , Refugee , SSI , Social Security

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A few days ago I read a blog post in the New York Times City Room blog about a man was was arrested after masquerading as an immigration attorney. He apparently told his clients that he was a member of the California and New York bars. As it turns out, he was a member of neither bar. This is a familiar sounding story. People from other countries may not understand our legal system. They go to someone who speaks their language because they think they can trust that person. They do not take the next step and actually check to see if the person is a licensed attorney.

I am going to give you a few tips on how to find and check out your attorney.

1. If you have already found an attorney, check if the attorney is licensed. If you are in removal proceedings, you may only be represented by an attorney in the Immigration Court. Because immigration law is federal law, the attorney may be licensed in any state of the United States. You should ask your attorney what state he or she is licensed in and ask for his or her bar number. You then may then verify with the state bar whether or not the attorney is licensed. For instance, in California, you may go to the State Bar of California's website and perform a search on the attorney by name.

2. If you are looking for an attorney, most county bar associations have a lawyer referral service. The bar association will screen the lawyer ahead of time by performing a state bar license check and ensuring that the attorney carries a minimum coverage of malpractice insurance. Here is a list of the lawyer referral services in the Bay area.

San Francisco Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service

Solano County Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service

Alameda County Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service

Contra Costa County Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service

Marin County Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service

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Posted by Geri Kahn | Permalink | Email This Post

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