PI immigration job offer, but some worries
Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2015 11:42 am
Hey all, just hoping to get perspective from people with a little practice experience in immigration law (public interest). I've got a job offer to work in a somewhat remote rural area with unaccompanied minors as well as doing some deportation defense and asylum applications for adults. It's a permanent position, not one of the DOJ-funded deals.
I'm total PI all the way, am fine with the low pay, have lived before in the rural area in question and liked it -- no worries on any of that stuff. My only concern is I've never done immigration before. Normally I don't think twice about doing something new but I've got two worries about my total lack of experience:
1) I'd be the only lawyer in this office. There'd be training, but it'd be provided remotely -- phone check-ins with lawyers at the central office, that kind of thing. But it'd be a bit like starting a solo practice, and again I know nothing about immigration law. (And obviously I won't have funding to hire a legal secretary -- I'll be doing the paperwork on my own.) This seems potentially overwhelming for me/disastrous for my clients.
2) I have heard immigration is a really frustrating area of law to practice -- combination of inept/overworked immigration judges and fundamentally unjust/nonsensical laws. This seems likely to increase my risk of burnout.
Anybody with a little or a lot of immigration experience have thoughts on these two concerns?
Thanks for all the thoughtful comments.
I'm total PI all the way, am fine with the low pay, have lived before in the rural area in question and liked it -- no worries on any of that stuff. My only concern is I've never done immigration before. Normally I don't think twice about doing something new but I've got two worries about my total lack of experience:
1) I'd be the only lawyer in this office. There'd be training, but it'd be provided remotely -- phone check-ins with lawyers at the central office, that kind of thing. But it'd be a bit like starting a solo practice, and again I know nothing about immigration law. (And obviously I won't have funding to hire a legal secretary -- I'll be doing the paperwork on my own.) This seems potentially overwhelming for me/disastrous for my clients.
2) I have heard immigration is a really frustrating area of law to practice -- combination of inept/overworked immigration judges and fundamentally unjust/nonsensical laws. This seems likely to increase my risk of burnout.
Anybody with a little or a lot of immigration experience have thoughts on these two concerns?
Thanks for all the thoughtful comments.