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Relieving the Tension: Lay Immigration Lawyering and the Management of Legal Violence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Jamie Longazel
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Abstract

The Recognition and Accreditation Program (R&A Program) authorizes certain non-lawyers, or “Accredited Representatives” (ARs), to practice immigration law out of non-profit or faith-based organizations. Drawing on interviews with practicing ARs, I describe how, at the center of this group's approach to legal practice, is a firm commitment to their clients. ARs report being particularly attuned – thanks to their social position and life experiences – to the hardships many of their clients confront at the hands of a punitive U.S. immigration system. I find this translates, on one hand, into an anti-formalist legal practice: ARs describe performing emotional labor in order to take the edge off of formalism's rigidity for their clients. Yet at other times, cognizant of the high costs associated with a legal error, ARs describe being much more formalistic, prioritizing legal tedium. The picture becomes more complex when considered in the context of devolution and immigration governance, where it seems the emotional and bureaucratic work ARs do to protect their clients may also be providing ancillary benefits to the state. I conclude by reflecting on the implications this research has for scholarship on the legal profession, for research on “access to justice,” and for understandings of immigration governance.

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Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , December 2018 , pp. 902 - 927
Copyright
© 2018 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

This project received funding in the form of a Research Council Seed Grant from the University of Dayton Office for Research. The following colleagues provided valuable editorial assistance and feedback and are owed a debt of gratitude: Miranda Cady Hallett, Benjamin Fleury-Steiner, Simanti Dasgupta, and Jamie Small. The author is also grateful for the research assistance he received from Elizabeth Delamatre and Lauren Reid. A previous version of this paper was presented at the 2015 Law & Society Association Annual Meeting. Fellow panelists from that session – Katherine Abbott, Sébastien Chauvin, Jaeeun Kim, and Sarah Morando Lakhani – also deserve acknowledgement.

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