FAYETTEVILLE : Clinic to serve public, students
Posted on Monday, August 4, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/233328/
The University of Arkansas School of Law is starting a legal clinic to train students in immigration, an area of expertise that is in demand. The clinic will open next spring and will serve both UA students and the community. “It’s a big deal to us,” said Michael Mullane, the Ben J. Altheimer Professor of Legal Advocacy and director of the law school’s legal clinic. “We’ll be able to meet the increasing social need that’s presenting itself in the community, as well as expand the number of students we teach,” he said. Elizabeth L. Young will direct the immigration clinic. She directed a similar one at George Washington University’s law school during the 2007-08 academic year.
At UA’s immigration clinic, second-year law students will work under the supervision of law profes- sors as they interview clients, research law and handle the many applications and forms that are inherent to immigration work.
The overall legal clinic’s services are free to government agencies, charitable organizations and individuals who need a lawyer but can’t afford one.
“The clinic movement is popular because it gives students real-life practice,” Young said. “They’ll get the first-hand experience that they’ll encounter as an attorney, but with the benefit of supervision.”
The clinic will likely focus on cases involving adjustmentof-status applications, administrative removal actions, familybased immigration actions and asylum matters, Young said.
Adjustment-of-status cases are fairly common. They involve someone seeking legal permanent residency, or “green card” status.
The nature of the cases handled at the clinic could change as the program develops, Young said.
“Legal clinics reflect the needs of the particular community,” she said. “My hope is that students will have a broad range of interests so we’ll be able to take on a variety of cases.”
Immigration attorneys are needed in Northwest Arkansas, said Andy Albertson, spokesman for the law school.
“Given the large and growing immigrant population, there are relatively too few attorneys who are qualified to practice this type of law,” Albertson said. “This clinic will help meet the need.”
Charles Kuck, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the shortage extends nationwide, especially in rural areas.
In Arkansas, 32 attorneys belong to his Washington, D. C.-based association, including 12 in Washington, Benton and Carroll counties, Kuck said.
“There are only 11, 000 immigration attorneys nationwide,” Kuck said. “And with 20-40 million immigrants in the country, that doesn’t present easily accessible legal options for immigrants.”
Kuck said immigrants often turn to a “notarios publico” for legal help. In Latin America, a notario is a specially trained lawyer with special power to negotiate with the government, but in the United States a notario is typically a notary public.
“There’s a big problem with notarios saying they’re licensed attorneys and committing fraud,” Kuck said. “Having more immigration lawyers is key to stopping some of that.”
Catholic Charities Immigration Services of Springdale is the only agency in the area that provides legal help to low-income immigrants.
Frank Head, who directs the agency, said it is inundated with cases. Many are the kind that the law immigration clinic will have an opportunity to handle, he said.
Catholic Charities records 13, 000 “encounters” a year in Northwest Arkansas, and many involve legal help, Head said. His staff is accredited by the U. S. Department of Justice’s Board of Immigration Appeals, he said.
The board is the highest administrative body for interpreting and applying immigration laws in the country, according to its Web page.
Much of Catholic Charities ’ work involves family reunification, where legal residents are applying for green cards on behalf of spouses, children and parents in other countries, Head said.
“The [UA ] clinic will find that this legal work is in vast demand here,” he said. “We have a long waiting list. We turn people away.” IMMIGRATION
CLINIC The new immigration clinic is one of eight specialized programs at the University of Arkansas School of Law’s legal clinic. The others are: civil, federal, transactional, criminal prosecution, criminal defense, mediation and innocence project clinics.