Green Card

The District of Columbia Disciplinary Counsel has issued an informal admonition to an immigration attorney who has five offices in three states for failure to supervise office staff.

The client complaint

Your client filed a complaint with our office after your operations manager refused to send her her green card before she paid her entire remaining balance.

In response to the complaint, you state that you were unaware that your office had received your client’s green card and that it was being withheld; however, your operations manager included you on the March 31st email to the client. After learning of your client’s complaint with this office, you directed your operations manager to send the client her green card, and she finally received it on April 29, 2022.

Failure to supervise

When asked how you manage to supervise all five of your offices, you state that each office has an office manager with whom you speak every day and that you speak with your operations manager every day; however, you were unaware of any payment issues involving your client and that your operations manager refused to provide your client with a green card. We find that your lack of supervision over your non-lawyer employees violates Rule 5.3(a).

Condition

As a condition of this Informal Admonition, you agree to complete a Practice Management Assessment with the Practice Management Advisory Service. You will provide proof of completion of the assessment within one month after completion. In the event you do not complete the assessment within one year, this Informal Admonition will be considered null and void and Disciplinary Counsel may initiate disciplinary proceedings against you.

(Mike Frisch)