Coping With Uncertainty: Immigration Firms And Technology
Immigration law is moving fast, but technology is keeping up.
Immigration has been front and center since the installation of U.S. President Donald Trump. The legal community has jumped in to help. Three examples: Retired Judge Shira Scheindlin and four prominent lawyers launched The American Representation Project (AIRP). The American Bar Association’s Law Practice Division dropped a scheduled meeting agenda — and in one day created the ImmigrationJustice.US website for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Stanford Law School’s Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties published a special issue, “A Lawyer’s Guide to Activism, Resistance, and Change Under Trump.”
But how are Trump’s agendas affecting immigration lawyers and their technology? Above the Law turned to Julie Pearl, CEO of the Pearl Law Group, based in San Francisco.
Pearl earned her B.A. at Stanford University, then a Master of Public Administration at Harvard University, and her J.D. at the University of California, Hastings Law School. A former Deputy Attorney General in California, she founded her law firm in 1995, along with the late Alan Nelson, the former head of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.
Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
In 2001, Pearl launched Tracker Corp., which created ImmigrationTracker, an immigration management system that is widely used. In 2014 she launched Pearl Travel Tech, an online service that helps global travelers with visa and tax issues.
Above The Law was curious as to how mature legal technology (and law firms) are affected by Trump’s agenda, so we turned to Pearl.
ATL. Your law firm and technology companies are mature — and serve a wide arena of clients. How have President Trump’s actions re: immigration affected your practice and tech?
Pearl: We’ve upped our communications substantially by issuing alerts within just a few hours, if not immediately, when actions are taken by the administration and when imminent actions have been leaked.
Sponsored
Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
Besides our usual email distribution, we’ve more fully embraced social media for communications. We’ve created a special section on our public website for monitoring developments and accessing important resources.
Our primary audience in the past has been Human Resources and Global Mobility professionals at our client companies. We now need to reach a much broader community, including foreign national employees not necessarily being sponsored for immigration benefits, as well as their extended family members.
In addition to increased communications, we’ve amped our pro bono activities, including volunteering at the airport for free legal services, taking additional pro bono cases and designing a free Artificial Intelligence-based tool (www.visabot.co) to help “Dreamers” file applications under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) order. Finally, we’ve been helping companies consider and implement new policies to help protect data on company-issued devices (smartphones, laptops, etc.) and advising individuals on how to best prepare for increased scrutiny during immigration inspections.
ATL: How can mature firms and companies deal with sudden change?
Pearl: It’s important for C-suite executives to pay attention to developments and understand the impact on their employees and their business. They should be relying on in-house professionals and outside counsel to spot the issues and support internal communications. The policies we have been recommending in response to recent actions are good practice in general. An example of our device security policy is available here.
Sponsored
Is The Future Of Law Distributed? Lessons From The Tech Adoption Curve
Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance
ATL: Have there been any unexpected positives?
Pearl: We’ve definitely found some silver lining in these actions. Many companies have rushed to proclaim their commitment to diversity and support their international talent. (More than 120 people signed an amicus brief opposing the travel ban.)
Important discussions arise out of this controversy. Another positive: while many feared that DACA would be killed, it looks like the Trump administration is keeping it alive. We’re encouraging “Dreamers” to get their applications filed, now they can do so and avoid legal fees via Visabot on Facebook!
ATL: Any ways to prepare for the unexpected?
Pearl: Pay attention not just to the reporting of news, but the advice of professionals on proactive measures that can be taken to adapt to new policies. Because of the urgency of these issues, tweets and email alerts are essential. We’re also working on text messaging tools targeted to people specifically affected by actual or potential actions. For example, nationals subject to the travel ban or spouses of H-1B workers who may lose their employment authorization if President Obama’s order is revoked. Our firm’s special website section is continually updated with alerts and helpful resources.
ATL: What lessons should startups take from disruptions?
Pearl: Startups often have an advantage in changing times by being nimble! Consider building virtual teams in neighboring countries. We have staff in Canada, Mexico, Singapore and the U.K. — we see no travel bans there (as of now)!
As far as adopting procedures, companies that are not yet large enough to have a dedicated immigration staff need to leverage timely self-serve resources, like those on the Immigration USA 2017 sub-site.
Free resources to help U.S. employers adapt are being pushed out rapidly, such as recent guidance on how we can all cope with the new enforcement procedures that put the onus on each of us to prove our legal status in the U.S.
This doesn’t mean we all need to carry our passports with us at all times (but green card holders must keep those on them, per arcane law). All of us should take a snapshot of our I.D. with our phones, and save these photos to a password-protected folder that we can readily access when we need to show our passport photo page, visa, etc.
Monica Bay is a Fellow at CodeX: The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics and a freelance writer for Above The Lawand other media. She co-hosts Law Technology Now (Legal Talk Network) and is a member of the California Bar. Monica can frequently be found at Yankee Stadium. Email: monicabay1@gmail.com. Twitter: @MonicaBay.
