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So it's no surprise immigration law practices are booming in the city, or that the New York chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association is the largest, boasting over 700 members. New York City, with 90 nationalities across five boroughs, is still immigration central. Yet while the practice of immigration law was once the preserve of older attorneys, today a new crop is moving in. And their motivation in helping steer new arrivals through the legal minefields of political asylum, family reunification, deportation, green card and work permits is really the story of lawyers whose social conscience is inextricable from their personalities. "Nothing is more gratifying than winning a case for someone who has fled terrible persecution in their home country," says Cohen. "As an immigration lawyer, when you win an asylum case, you are giving someone a chance at a new life. It's very satisfying work."
Cohen, who is in her mid-thirties, started her own practice, Merrill R. Cohen and Associates, in 1994. A graduate of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, she found that immigration law piqued her interest after a professor steered her into a job in an immigration practice in her second year. "I have to admit, I didn't know when I took my first job that immigration was this rich. It has everything: politics, family, law, human rights, and strategy," she says now. "But in college, I minored in film studies, and I love story. So I think I was so drawn to immigration because |
it is all about story." "I see my job as clarifying the story line and then explaining to immigration officials-in the most concise and articulate way-what the story is, and why the client deserves to win," she explains. Following graduation, she worked in small immigration firms. She had no intention of going solo until a fellow graduate who started his own practice encouraged it. The first green card case she won was for a lampshade maker deemed an artist of extraordinary ability. Opening her own office three years out of law school was a risk that has paid off for Cohen. In 2000, less than seven years later, she has added three associates and a law student to help with the workload. You can understand why when immigrants find their way to Cohen-usually through word of mouth-they want to work with her. In person she is extremely warm and welcoming, an attentive listener and, as she says, acutely detail oriented. "There is an element of psychology in this work," Cohen observes. "I think it is very important to take time to talk to clients, to give them encouragement and reassurance their case is not hopeless. People working through the immigration system are often very stressed. I am aware it is a scary process for people, and we work very hard to diffuse that."
While her practice is a mixed bag of work permits, green cards and visa filings for artists and scientists—she recently won visas for an actor, a museum curator and a Russian |
ballerina-she finds that it is the deportation hearings and asylum petitions that really bring out the fight in her. "I have handled political asylum cases for clients from China, Africa, Egypt, you name it," she says. "Just recently we proved that one client, a man from Rwanda who saw his whole family murdered, suffered such extreme persecution, he could not return." And Cohen's asylum cases are rarely anything textbook. Two doctors from Albania told Cohen they couldn't return home because as members of a wealthy social group, they were targets for kidnapping and extortion. "It's very unusual to get asylum for people whose social group, as opposed to their political affiliation, means they have credible fear of returning," Cohen says. "But we proved they were targets and they won." Cohen cites her most satisfying case to date as that of a 22-year-old Dominican permanent resident, who lived in the U.S. since he was a baby but never became a citizen. After serving just under five years in prison for a drug crime -he was the go-between on a sting set up by police-deportation proceedings were initiated against him. (in 1996, the law, effective retroactively, ordered deportation of any noncitizens who commit crimes). "We showed immigration officials that he had family ties here, he was completely rehabilitated, and had already returned to his old job. When we won, everyone burst into tears. It was very rewarding to work that case."
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This article is reprinted & excerpted with permission from the November 2000 edition of THE NEW YORK LAWYER. ©
2000 NLP IP Company. #070-12-00-0023
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