SKILLS PRACTICE: Evaluating Paralegal Ethics: Issue-spotting and Analyzing Rules 1.6 & 5.3

Instructions: Pick one of the hypotheticals and answer the accompanying questions.

SCENARIO 1:

Part A: Juan is an immigration paralegal who has been working on a family-based permanent residency case for Emily, a citizen of Ireland who came to the U.S. on a tourist visa, overstayed for 5 years, and then later married a U.S. citizen. The case is in process, but Emily has not yet received her employment authorization document. She is not able to work in the U.S. lawfully. Juan and Emily are around the same age and have developed a friendly relationship while working on her case.

One night Juan is eating dinner at his best friend's new restaurant with a small group of close friends. Emily turns out to be his server and Juan recognizes her immediately. Juan says, "Hi Emily" and introduces her to all his friends, saving: "This is Emily, my favorite client." Juan's friends know he works for an immigration law firm.

After dinner, Juan texts his best friend, the restaurant owner. Because he works for a small immigration firm that handles a wide-variety of cases, Juan has helped his supervising attorney with Form I-9 compliance work, and he knows that businesses can get in big trouble if they are found to have knowingly hired or continue to employ people without lawful authorization to work. In Juan's text, he tells his friend that he should be careful because one of his servers is not authorized to work in the U.S. The restaurant owner puts 2 & 2 together and immediately fires Emily.

QUESTIONS TO ANSWER:

1. Identify the potential ethical issues in this scenario. Has Juan violated any ethical rules? What rule(s) and explain your reasoning.

• If you are familiar in your paralegal studies so far with the IRAC method, practice it here!

1. What is the Issue?
2. What is the rule (you can summarize in your own words or cite to theMN Rules of Professional Conduct)?
3. Apply the rule to our case facts.
4. Conclude.
5. If you believe he has breached ethical rule(s), what would you suggest Juan have done differently?Would you recommend the law firm put into place any "best practices" policies or procedures to prevent these issues? What could those be?

SCENARIO 2:

Janet is an immigration paralegal. She has been working on an employment-based nonimmigrant visa case and the Foreign National is scheduled for his visa interview at the U.S. Consulate overseas at 10 am Friday. That Friday, at 9:30 am, the Foreign National calls the office to speak with the attorney. Unfortunately, the attorney is in immigration court for a master calendar hearing, so Janet takes the call. The Foreign National informs her that he just received an email that morning that the U.S. job offer (the basis for his employment visa application) was on pause. The company lost its funding for the new position that the Foreign National was coming to fill. The Foreign National asks Janet what he should say at the interview.Janet tells him to not mention it because the offer is just "on pause."

QUESTIONS TO ANSWER:

1. Identify the potential ethical issue in this scenario. Has Janet violated any ethical rules? What rule(s) and explain your reasoning.

• If you are familiar in paralegal studies so far with the IRAC method, practice it here!

1. What is the Issue?
2. What is the Rule (you can summarize in your own words or cite to theMN Rules of Professional Conduct)?
3. Apply the rule to our case facts.
4. Conclude.

2. If you believe she has breached an ethical rule, what would you suggest Janet have done differently? Would you recommend the law firm put into place any "best practices" policies or procedures to prevent these issues? What could those be?