The best moments as a law professor are, in my opinion, unscripted.  They happen when a law student finally feels comfortable enough with the litigation process, the law and the witness to deviate from the carefully planned questions and litigation strategy to do what needs to be done to win a case.  One such moment happened last week in Immigration Court.  Over the past seven weeks, the student had rehearsed the direct examin...

Maybe a good way to get a glimpse into the life of UDM students enrolled in the Immigration Law Clinic is to look back at the week just past and present a “week in the life” sort of rundown of our work. Some of the highlights from the past week include: Prepped client from Senegal for two hours for her trial next week.  She has not seen her daughters for nearly two years and broke down several times during the mock trial.  We had to ha...

Whew!  The fall semester has just come to a close and the students and I had a chance to reflect back on what we accomplished.  Here are the stats: we conducted 11 trials before the U.S. Immigration Court, 4 interviews before the Asylum Office in Chicago, 14 interviews at Homeland Security in Detroit, prepared 42 petitions for relief, met with 128 potential clients, and wrote six appellate briefs.  That is a lot of work for eight s...

The summer semester recently ended and the students and I can breathe a (brief) sigh of relief.  The summer semester compresses a 14-week semester into seven weeks and it is, to say the least, intense.  The students this summer were an amazing collection of rising 3Ls and one student in her final semester of law school.  Some of them had taken Immigration Law from me and thought they knew what to expect going into the summer term a...

Sometimes we gain more from our clients than they gain from us.  As each semester closes, I encourage my students to think back about the lives they have touched these past few months – and how their lives have been touched by their clients.  The relationship between my students and our clients is professional and all facets of the attorney-client ethical rules govern that relationship.  But, as in all human interactions, some peop...

One of the great things about UDM Law School is the array of events going on every day at the school.  The flyers and posters nearly covering the doors and hallways are evidence of an engaged student body on any number of issues. OK, so MY issue is Immigration Law and this week the Immigration Law Student Association hosted Tahani Afaneh, the general counsel at U.S. Customs and Border Protection for an informal lunch gathering with their mem...

The best way to learn all there is to know about a particular topic is to teach and to live it.  This week, students in the Immigration Law Clinic prepared for and conducted a training session at the Chaldean Federation of America to help the staff at the CFA understand immigration law and procedures.  The students explained the nuances of filing an Alien Relative Petition, an Application for Adjustment of Status and an Application for ...

Every area of law practice probably has it's one moment of shining glory.  The transaction is closed, the bridge is built, the defendant is found guilty or innocent.  For Immigration Law, the best moment is when an immigrant for whom you have worked for many years becomes a U.S. Citizen.Just yesterday, a longstanding client of the Immigration Law Clinic became a U.S. Citizen at a ceremony at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Detroit. S...

One of the best things about being a law school professor is having the opportunity to coach a Moot Court team.  This coming weekend, UDM will field a team at the Asylum Law Competition at UC-Davis in Sacramento.  The team (Joanne Golden, Scott Foess, and Kyle Butler) has been hard at work since early-December writing a professional-quality brief, crafting their legal arguments, and practicing for endless hours in front of panels of jud...

Just like when you play Monopoly, going to jail is no fun.  It is, however, instructive to me and my students.  Most immigrants detained by the Department of Homeland Security in Michigan are housed at the Calhoun County Jail in Battle Creek.  Needless to say, this is not the most convenient location for either detainees’ families or their attorneys, given the nearly two hours drive from Detroit.  This past Saturday morning, ...