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Does anyone know what kind of job oppurtunities are available in immigration law, private practice. Also, how competitive are jobs in this practice area (is it relatively easy or hard to get a job?)

unmotivatedjunkie wrote:Does anyone know what kind of job oppurtunities are available in immigration law, private practice. Also, how competitive are jobs in this practice area (is it relatively easy or hard to get a job?)

Most of the immigration attorneys I know got their jobs through connections. If you speak a second language fluently or you're connected with immigrant communities (e.g., Hispanic, Asian, etc.), it should be fairly easy to land a job in an immigration firm, for good grades or good schools are not required for these positions.

No offense, but all the immigration attorneys I am friends with went to lower T1 or T2 schools with below-median grades. Most of them found their jobs after passing the bar and through connections. Some are LLMs with foreign law degrees.

You can also go solo and start your own firm by handling H1B petitions and some easy PR cases first.

But, the prerequisite is that you speak at least one immigrant's language fluently.

Thanks for the reply.

How much do these lawyers make, and how much can they expect to make if going solo?

Did you see this thread:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 1&t=175738

It looks like the one big immigration firm is Fragomen, which hires mostly from schools like Brooklyn and Fordham, and claims to pay $125,00 for first-year NYC associates, according to the NALP directory.

Beyond that, it's small firms. They don't pay well.

Someone else can tell you the problems with trying to go solo out of law school.