I have another anniversary post. I just finished teaching the spring semester at Brooklyn Law School. This was my tenth year of teaching at Brooklyn Law School as an adjunct professor. I created a course called, “Immigration Workshop: Deportation Defense.” It’s a different kind of law school class. It’s a “case simulation” course. I don’t just teach immigration law – I teach my students how to practice immigration law. I’ve created a legal problem about a lawful permanent resident who is facing removal because he was convicted of a crime. I teach my students about immigration law as we discuss how we would represent this imaginary client. We talk about the intake process, how to evaluate the issues in a case, what to do in immigration court, how to do an appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals, and how to litigate a petition for review in the Court of Appeals. Instead of an exam, the final paper is to write a legal brief about why the “client” shouldn’t be deported.
I love teaching. I’m very concerned about the quality of the immigration bar. I regularly do consultations with people where I am shocked by what their previous lawyers have done wrong. There are a lot of people out there with horror stories about having hired bad immigration lawyers. I created my class because I want there to be good immigration attorneys out there that help people.