October 8-10, 2010
The National Conference Center
Leesburg, VA (Greater Washington, DC Area)

About the Litigation Institute

Tentative Agenda

Faculty Information

CLE Credit

Reviews from Previous Attendees

Registration Information

Hotel Information

Strengthen Your Litigation Skills in This Hands-On, Educational Format

Now more than ever immigration lawyers need to be equipped to litigate issues on behalf of their clients. This Institute will enable both neophytes and experienced practitioners to acquire new skills, to practice their technique, and to become confident and knowledgeable about litigation in immigration court and in the federal courts.

This is not a "talking-heads" program but a hands-on, practical training institute. As a participant, you will:

• Work with experienced faculty and colleagues in very small groups
• Learn the rules of the road by "doing" not just by hearing
• Participate in four mock hearings
• Be videotaped and critiqued by experienced practitioners and peers
• Build a network of colleagues, friends, and mentors
• Discuss your actual cases and issues for potential litigation

Each participant will be assigned to a small group of no more than six members.

• Enrollment in this institute is limited to the first 60 individuals who receive confirmation that their application has been approved. We strongly urge you not to purchase plane or hotel reservations until you receive written confirmation that your application has been approved.
• Segments include: administrative (IJ) hearings; habeas corpus petitions; mandamus actions; and petitions for review.
• Different faculty will work with each group for different segments, so participants will be working with a variety of faculty throughout the program.
• All attendees will receive their materials approximately 3 weeks before the Institute. Several hours of preparation prior to the weekend will be required for participation at the Institute. Specifically, at the Institute, you will be acting as the lawyer in several mock hearings based on a set of mock materials that we will send you ahead of time. You will be conducting a direct examination of your "client." You also will be presenting several oral arguments. You will be videotaped for viewing on your own time. The faculty will evaluate your presentations.

Note: If you will not be able to prepare ahead of time, please do not apply for the Institute.

Friday
5:15 pm - 6:00 pm Registration; light dinner
6:00 pm - 6:30 pm Introductions: introduction of faculty; explanation of the program; logistical questions
6:30 pm - 7:20 pm Litigation Nuts & Bolts: panel presentation by faculty covering immigration court, habeas corpus, and petitions for review
7:30 pm - 9:00 pm First Small Group Session: Witness Examination Exercise

Saturday
8:00 am - 8:45 am Continental breakfast; networking; Q and A
9:00 am - 12:00 pm Second Small Group Session: Immigration Court, with two 5-10 minute breaks
12:00 pm - 1:20 pm Lunch; litigation strategy discussion
1:30 pm - 3:50 pm Third Small Group Session: Federal Court Habeas, with 10 minute break
4:00 pm - 5:20 pm Mandamus/Natz Delay workshop

Sunday
8:00 am - 8:45 am Continental breakfast; networking; Q and A
9:00 am - 11:20 am Fourth Small Group Session: Court of Appeals, Petition for Review
11:20 am - 12:00 pm Program Concludes: program evaluations; networking; Q and A

Seasoned litigators will lend their expertise to the 2010 Litigation Institute.

Vikram K. Badrinath is a sole practitioner in Tucson, AZ, where he practices all facets of immigration law. He is a certified specialist in immigration and nationality law from the California Board of Legal Specialization, State Bar of California. He is admitted to practice in Arizona, California, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia. He is a participating attorney in the BIA’s Pro Bono Project, and received a pro bono award from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Ilana Etkin Greenstein practices immigration law at Kaplan, O'Sullivan and Friedman in Boston with a focus on removal defense and appellate litigation. She appears regularly in the nation's federal and immigration courts, and before the BIA. She holds a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law, and a B.A. in Spanish and international studies from Macalester College. She has served on the board of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (1996-2002, 2009-2010), and presents frequently at professional seminars and conferences on the practice of immigration law.

Jodi Goodwin is in private practice in Harlingen, Texas on the U.S.-Mexican border. She focuses on removal defense, complicated waiver, family, and naturalization cases, and federal litigation. She has been practicing immigration law since 1995 and has been in private practice since 1996. Ms. Goodwin was the 2007 recipient of the Arthur C. Helton Human Rights Award. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her two daughters, Helen and Carolyn.

Geoffrey Heeren is a clinical teaching fellow with the asylum clinic at Georgetown Law. Before joining Georgetown, he worked for 10 years as a public interest attorney in Chicago. Most recently, he was a Senior Attorney with the Immigration Project of the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago (LAF), where he handled a wide range of cases involving indigent immigrants, from administrative applications for asylum to petitions for review to the Circuit Court of Appeals. He specialized in representing detained immigrants, particularly those held in long-term detention, and he litigated a number of federal cases involving the constitutional rights of detainees. While working at LAF, he also served as chair of the Chicago Chapter Litigation Committee of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, on the Board of Governors of the Chicago Council of Lawyers, and taught as an adjunct professor of asylum law at the University of Chicago Law School. He graduated from New York University School of Law and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago.

Robert Pauw is a partner in the Seattle law firm of Gibbs Houston Pauw and teaches immigration law at Seattle University School of Law. He is one of the founding members of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project in Seattle, and has served on the Board of Trustees of the American Immigration Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. He is author of Litigating Immigration Cases in Federal Court (2009). He specializes in immigration-related litigation and has been counsel for plaintiffs in several significant immigration cases, including Ruiz-Diaz v. United States, Case No. 07-1881-RLS (W.D. Wash. June 11, 2009) (nationwide class action lawsuit challenging CIS policy of refusing to allow religious workers to file concurrent I-360/I-485 applications); Morales-Izquierdo v. Gonzales, 477 F.3d 691 (9th Cir. 2007) (en banc) (challenge to DHS policy of reinstating prior orders of deportation); and Quezada-Bucio v. Ridge, 317 F.Supp.2d 1221 (W.D.Wash. 2004) (challenge to DHS policy of mandatory detention for certain non-citizens).

Scott D. Pollock has practiced immigration law since 1985 and has been an AILA member since 1987. He is a frequent speaker and author on immigration topics. He has contributed articles to AILA’s Immigration & Nationality Handbooks on the F-1 and H-1B visa categories, FOIA and criminal records, and employment options for students and exchange visitors. He served as AILA’s Chicago chapter chair, national chair of the Consumer Protection/Authorized Representation task force, and a member of the Nebraska Service Center liaison committee, the consumer protection committee, the Business Immigration Litigation Committee, the Amicus Committee, and numerous Chicago chapter committees, including chair of the asylum office liaison committee and chair of the Chicago immigration judge liaison committee. He has also served as a faculty member for the American Immigration Council’s Litigation Institute. His litigation cases include Bace v. Ashcroft, 352 F.3d 1133 (7th Cir. 2003) (finding past persecution); Hafeez v. Dorochoff, et al., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 89009 (N.D. IL Nov. 30, 2007) (denying government motion to dismiss on challenge to I-130 denial); Kamal v. Gonzales, 547 F. Supp. 2d 869 (N.D. IL 2008) (denying government motion to dismiss mandamus action on delayed adjustment of status application); Kholyasvsky v. Schlecht et al., 479 F. Supp. 2d 897 (E.D. WI 2007) (granting EAJA fees, holding “catalyst theory” still applies to immigration habeas actions); Kuhai v.INS, 199 F.3d 209 (7th Cir. 1999) (reversing denial of asylum, remanding to BIA); and Morales-Morales v. Ashcroft, 384 F.3d 418 (7th Cir. 2004) (reversing denial of cancellation of removal, upholding jurisdiction, finding continuous residence under the statute, and remanding to BIA).

Thomas K. Ragland is a Partner in the Immigration Practice Group at Duane Morris LLP. Thomas Ragland practices in the area of immigration law, focusing on litigation before the federal courts and immigration courts and representation of clients before the Department of Homeland Security. With more than 15 years of experience, Mr. Ragland is a seasoned litigator known for handling the most complex matters for both individual and corporate clients. He has specific expertise in defense against removal, immigration consequences of criminal convictions, asylum, waivers of inadmissibility, citizenship, worksite enforcement issues, and defense against terrorism- and security-related bars to admission. He has been recognized by The Washington Post as one of “Washington, DC’s Best Lawyers” and was named by Washingtonian Magazine as one of “Washington’s Top Lawyers.” Mr. Ragland is Chair of the Litigation Committee, D.C. Chapter, American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), and is Co-Chair of the D.C. Bar International Law Section, Immigration and Human Rights Committee. He is a frequent speaker on immigration issues. Mr. Ragland is a 1994 cum laude graduate of Boston College Law School, where he was Editor in Chief of the Boston College Third World Law Journal, and is a graduate, with honors, of the University of Virginia.

Rekha Sharma-Crawford is a passionate advocate for immigrants’ rights and the fair application of the law. With broad experiences as an assistant district attorney and practicing attorney, she is a frequent speaker and lecturer on matters of immigration law. Ms. Sharma-Crawford is also a frequent instructor at the American Immigration Council’s Litigation Institute. She received her J.D. from Michigan State University College of Law in 1993, is licensed to practice Kansas, Texas, Michigan, and Missouri, and is a partner in her own firm.

Claudia Slovinsky heads an immigration and nationality law firm in New York City, the Law Offices of Claudia Slovinsky. She has been an immigration and nationality attorney for 25 years. Her office handles business related immigration cases as well as deportation, asylum, naturalization cases, appeals and federal litigation. Ms. Slovinsky is past chair of the Committee on Immigration and Nationality Law of the New York City Bar Association and serves on the advisory committee of the American Immigration Council’s Legal Action Center, the program board of the American Friends Service Committee Immigrant Rights Program, and is a member of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She teaches Refugee and Asylum Law at New York Law School.

Erich C. Straub is an attorney concentrating in family-based immigration and deportation defense. He is listed in the 2006-2010 editions of Best Lawyers in America and the 2009-2010 editions of Super Lawyers in the area of immigration law. From 2007-2009, he was chairperson of the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). He presently serves on AILA’s National Liaison Committee to the Executive Office of Immigration Review.

This institute has been filed for MCLE and specialized credit in appropriate jurisdictions. Participants must designate the state(s) for notification on the registration form and sign the official record of attendance for the state(s) on site. Number of credit hours awarded for each state will be available at the conference. Eligible participants can receive up to 14.2 CLE credit hours.

Here are just a few of the comments we have received from Litigation Institute participants since the program was launched in 2003.

• "This was the best AILA related workshop I have attended. I have been a member since '96 and this was the best."
• "The Institute exceeded my expectations. I learned so much and am leaving feeling like I CAN do this."
• "This program is a lifetime experience. It gives courage and confidence to lawyers to take challenging cases to a higher level."
• "Superb faculty! Great work on the materials, relevant cases, questions for preparation! This was a very big production and you pulled it off flawlessly."
• "It was challenging and I got a lot of bang for the buck. I learned so much in just a short weekend. You did a great job!"
• "I have overcome my unease at the thought of doing a federal court case and also taking criminal immigration cases. This really takes the fear out of it."
• "I wish I could have had a week of this training."

Registration for the 2010 Litigation Institute is now open! Please download the registration form today.

Hotel information will be available when registration opens.