Scott Pollock

Since beginning in the practice of immigration law more than 30 years ago, the most important thing I have learned is to not predict or anticipate a negative outcome to a case.  I will not accept a legal matter that I think is frivolous or not supported by law, but there are many cases in which hard work, study of the law and creative advocacy can influence the interpretation of a difficult issue, or gain favorable exercise of discretion of an  immigration official or judge. As a colleague taught me a long time ago, if something is not prohibited, it is permitted.  Immigration lawyers occupy a peculiar space where, often, government practices are not policies, policies are not rules, rules are not law, and both rules and law seem to be dispensed with, with hardly a second thought.  We are persuasive advocates when we bring whatever authority we can muster to bear on a given situation.  The adjudicator or IJ will say, “what? there is a rule or a law to apply?”  And that can make all the difference in a given case.