E-learning Course: Immigration Practice: Ethics, Skills and Program Management
Presented by: U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), in partnership with Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC)
September 7 - 28, 2016
This three week course will focus on practice issues that are essential to providing competent, professional legal services to immigrant survivors of domestic abuse, sexual assault, and other crimes. Topics covered will include the sources of legal ethics rules and to whom they apply, the most important ethics rules including duty of confidentiality, conflict of interest, and rules on communication and competence. Participants will also learn about the elements of effective case management systems such as intake procedures, case selection, tickler systems for important deadlines and the use of client agreements. Immigration practice skills including legal research, client interviewing and advocacy will also be covered. For a course outline, including the dates and times of the live webinars, see below.
The trainers for this course are CLINIC attorneys Silvana Arista, Ilissa Mira and Kristina Karpinski and CLINIC Field Support Coordinator Nathaly Perez. For questions about the course content, please contact Kristina Karpinski at [email protected].
The course starts on September 7 with access to the e-learning course website and week one assignments. Once you receive your user name and password, you may participate in a variety of activities for self-directed learning, including reading assignments, exercises, sample materials to review and quizzes. The course will be interactive, with opportunities for online and real-time discussion among students, and between students and instructors. The course also includes three webinarsconducted on consecutive Wednesdays at 2:00 p.m. Eastern starting on September 14th. Each webinar lasts approximately 90 minutes, and is recorded and posted on the course website after the webinar is conducted. Although we encourage participants to attend the live webinars each week, you will be able to listen to and view a recording of any webinar you are unable to attend whenever you choose to do so.
Course Completion Requirements: Course participants will receive a course completion certificate if they (a) attend or view recordings of the weekly course webinar and (b) complete each weekly course quiz. You have up to two weeks after the last live webinar in the course to meet these requirements.
Registration: This training is open to Legal Assistance for Victims, Rural Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, Dating Violence and Stalking grantees and partners, as well as recipients of the STOP Violence Against Women Formula Grant Program (STOP) sub grantees. The grantees referenced above will have priority for the training. If OVW Technical Assistance providers and other OVW grantees are interested in participating, they will be admitted if space is available. Registration is limited to 40 participants. The deadline for registration is September 7th or sooner if registration is filled. For registration information contact Silvana Arista at [email protected] or at (301) 565-4827. Please note that we need the full name and a working email address for each individual taking this course. We will communicate with each registrant via email only, so it is very important that we have the correct name and email address for each registrant. On the registration form, please provide us the name and email address of the individual who will be taking the course.
To register for the training, please click on the following link: https://cliniclegal.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=452
SUMMARY COURSE OUTLINE AND SCHEDULE
Week 1, September 7 - 14: Ethical Issues in the Practice of Immigration Law
In the first week you will learn about the sources of legal ethics rules and to whom they apply. You will examine some of the most important ethics rules including confidentiality, conflict of interest among clients, duty of candor to the tribunal and rules surrounding communication and competence.
Webinar: Wednesday, September 14, 2:00-3:30 pm Eastern
Week 2, September 15 -21: Case Management Systems to Promote Effective Delivery of Immigration Services
In the second week of the course you will learn how to develop and implement components of a case management system and gain an understanding of their importance in providing high quality, efficient legal services to immigrants and in building successful, sustainable programs. Elements of a case management system that will be discussed include: intake procedures, case selection, scope of representation, client agreements and tickler systems for tracking deadlines and conflicts of interest.
Webinar: Wednesday, September 21, 2:00-3:30 pm Eastern
Week 3, September 21-28: Developing Essential Immigration Practice Skills
In the final week of the course you will learn about the different rules that govern immigration in the U.S. including the statute, regulations, agency policy and case law, and how they relate to each other. You will also learn methods to conduct legal research using both primary and secondary sources. Client interviewing techniques and how to advocate for clients before DHS will also be covered.
Webinar: Wednesday, September 28, 2:00-3:30 pm Eastern
This project is supported by Grant No. 2014-TA-AX-K028 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this program are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women