Author: becca_segal

My last day at Polanco law was a bittersweet one. Ms. De Peña, the woman who I had been working with, left for a month long trip to the Dominican Republic, so I was mainly on my own. I wrote a few more closing letters and ended some final cases. As my last few minutes drew to a close I finished putting away some last papers and files- I alphabetized for the last time.

My time at Polanco law was far from what I expected. I did much more administrative work, I sorted through boxes of paper, I made scans for hours on end, and in the end I believe that my work helped some people. I’m not sure if what I did is exactly for me, but the experience did reinforce the fact that I  am interested in the law, but perhaps as a lawyer. I feel as though I have gained an increased appreciation of just how difficult it is to operate as a business and a service providing industry. I was repeatedly impressed by how hard everyone at the firm was working, and by how much passion they had for their work.

Leaving Durham for the last time!

My work today was centered around organizing closing cases and getting them ready to be sent to storage. The process felt very conclusive and it was incredibly gratifying to close cases and realize that these clients were finally finished with their legal dealings.

The second thing I did today was another practice asylum interview. I cannot share many of the details of what was said, but I was astounded by the stories the mother and her daughter had. Their was recently a change in asylum policy in that a proven threat of gang violence is not enough to secure asylum status. Potential recipients of asylum have to prove that they are being threatened by one specific group because of one of their core identifies. This process results in many people being returned to the place where they fear persecution because their fear wasn’t deemed significant enough.

The work I did on day six was the most gratifying work I have done in the past two weeks. Previously, I had spent time sifting through piles of denied cases, many of which ended in deportation or family separation. Today, however, I was able to do work which resulted in a bit more of a happily ever after. Using a format provided by the law firm, I wrote closing letters to several clients informing them that their case had been approved and that the firm was closing their file. I then finished scanning all of their documents into the online database, closed and sealed the closing letters, and then finally closed their cases. While their cases had ended, all with approvals, my battle was far from over as I then traversed to the mail box. I had fifteen minutes left in my day, plenty of time to drop off the letters and collect any letters sent to the firm. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I spent perhaps a good 10 minutes struggling with the wrong key to open up the firm’s box. Once it was done and I had overcome my adversary, I was finally, truly able to end six different cases as I dropped their closing letters into the mail.

On my fifth day, I had a conversation regarding the practice of pro-bono work as the firm takes on many cases as either pro or low bono. Many clients seeking asylum or being deported do not have adequate funds to pay for the high price of legal representation. This leads the employees to a moral crossroads as they are, in many cases, the last chance for many people and families, but they are still a business. Lawyers are responsible for bringing in paying clients in order to feed themselves and keep the business going. Ms. de Peña explained to me that while the bar encourages law firms to do pro-bono work, there is no requirement. I was astounded by this- it seems to me that a fixed number of pro-bono hours required by every bar recognized law firms could provide quite a few solutions. It doesn’t feel fair to me that lawyers are asked to make the choice between leaving people unrepresented and sustaining their businesses.

All in all, my work experience certainly hasn’t been what I expected it to be, but I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. I’ve learned a lot about the administrative and economic aspects of a law firm, and as a result I feel I have a better understanding of what it means to be a lawyer. I hope that these last few days continue to be as informative as the previous ones.

For my fourth day at Polanco law I moved away from the cases and more towards the business of running a law firm. I worked under the direction of one of the associate lawyers and made countless copies of the firm’s financial records. I continue to be shocked by the levels of complexity surrounding the firm and today showed me just how complex the intersection of law and business is. The firm is fairly small with just a handful of lawyers and assistants and they just recently became an independent entity after spending many years in collaboration with a company in Raleigh. Since they have made that major change, they have worked to run the firm from an efficient business and legal standpoint. Every member of the staff works in close collaboration and each employee fills multiple roles.

After I finished with the firm’s finances, I worked through the case of one specific client. The firm had amassed years and years of tax information on one individual and the copies I made were quickly returned to that client’s case. In order to create a holistic case the lawyers have to keep meticulous records of every aspect of a client’s life.

I finished up the day by having a wonderful conversation with Ms. De Peña, my point person for the internship as well as the main administrator, and a law student who is currently at North Carolina Central University. They spoke about what led them down the path of law, and gave me some great professional advice.

As 12 came around this morning I, at last,  finished sorting the papers into two groups- removal cases and internal ones. The removal cases are those of individuals who are in the middle of being deported, and the internal cases are those which deal with everything ranging from citizenship, divorce, and green card situations. As I finished the sorting and alphabetization I was thrilled, and then I quickly realized that my work had truly just begun.

The next step was to take each individual sheet of paper or packet and find the larger case that it belonged to. Some of the files (pictured below) were inches thick with documents from the late 90’s onward. Entire lives have been carefully kept in order to craft the case for citizenship and the shelves are overflowing with stories.

The firm deals with anywhere from ten to hundreds of cases at once and everything seems to exist in a perfect, careful balance. At all times the firm is buzzing with activity as new cases are taken on. Each member of the firm is working with every part of their being to try and create the best possible outcome, while also remaining realistic. As continue I do my work at the firm, I am continuously reminded of the fact that the cases of many of these immigrants will not end with citizenship.  I brought this up with Ms. de Peña as I wanted to understand how she and the rest of the firm continue to work in the face of inevitable “failure.” She didn’t dub it as failure, saying instead that they do it because they just have to do it. That has been a constant theme throughout the first few days, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of my time will include.

 

I returned to find the mountain of papers greatly replenished, but after a good night of sleep I was well prepared to reach the peak. On my second day I spent a bit more time talking with other people around the office. The building, suite number 140, houses the businesses of all three Polanco sisters. There is an accounting business, a tax law firm, and an immigration law firm (where I work). Every staff member speaks fluent Spanish and there are always a million things going on at once! Today I sat and sifted through a few more cases, took a lunch break, and then had one of the coolest experiences of my life.

The firm offers an incredible opportunity to all of its clients-practice interviews. Prospective immigrants have to navigate a labyrinth of paperwork, translations, and general chaos in order to attain citizenship and attending a practice asylum interview showed me just how much they have to deal with. I sat in as a couple from Venezuela ran through an entire mock interview, answering questions that ranged from the addresses of all of their past residences from the last five years to the social security numbers of their children. The entire process lasted an hour and a half, a time I was told was uncharacteristically short, and by the end the couple and everyone in the room was drained.

The process of obtaining asylum status requires individuals to prove that they would be facing a viable threat upon return to their home countries, that the threat comes from an organized group, that they as individuals are being specifically targeted, and that the government is in some form allowing for the harassment to occur.  After listening to the parents tell their story I was incredibly frustrated. It was so obvious to me that their family had suffered an inexcusable injustice, yet they still don’t have an official date for their interview despite the fact that their case was filed nearly five years ago. After leaving the practice interview, I continued my alphabetization with a renewed vigor- trying to do everything in my ability to expedite the process.

(Photography is a challenge due to client lawyer relationships)

 

In my fantasy of what it means to be a lawyer I failed to account for one incredibly important thing… Paper. Upon my arrival at Polanco Law, P.C. I was confronted with a stack, no rather a mountain, of papers and files. At first, I’ll admit, I was disappointed. I was ready to meet with clients, discuss current events surrounding immigration, and eventually head to court! The papers in front of me seemed far less glamorous than what I had imagined and I braced myself for two weeks of boring, bland, paperwork. As I worked my way through the mountain I found myself dragging my feet less and less as I became engrossed in the stories and cases I was reading. the majority of which must remain between the firm and its clients. As I became acclimated to the language of each case, new frustrations began to rise. These frustrations, however, were not directed at the masses of papers waiting to be alphabetized, but rather the intricacies of the situations clients were in, intricacies that seemed to hurl prospective immigrants towards failure. I eventually made it through a good 27% of the paper mountain, but I also gained a fairly strong understanding of the task I have set out to undertake. It looks a lot less like the glamorous one I had imagined in the days leading up the Work Experience, but I can already tell it will be an incredible, and probably frustrating, two weeks.