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A “good fit”: Client sorting among nonprofit, private, and pro bono immigration attorneys

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Lilly Yu Open the ORCID record for Lilly Yu [Opens in a new window]
Lilly Yu*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
*
Lilly Yu, Department of Sociology, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland St., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Email: lillyyu@fas.harvard.edu
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Abstract

Existing scholarship finds that having an attorney in immigration legal proceedings increases the chances of a favorable outcome. This work, however, often acknowledges that the representation effect is underexplained: selection may explain outcomes, and variation among attorneys is difficult to assess. Through 103 interviews with attorneys who practice immigration law in three organizational environments (nonprofit legal services, private firms, and corporate law firm pro bono programs) in two East Coast areas, this paper argues that attorneys' sorting of clients between different types of legal organizations helps explain the representation effect. Attorneys define what type of case is a “good fit” for their representation, selecting cases they think they can help increase the probability of a favorable outcome. However, what they define as a “good fit” varies by attorneys' practice environments, and centers not only on the facts or characteristics of a client and their case, but also attorneys' organizational constraints. By documenting the central role of practice environment variation and its organizational constraints on attorneys' case selection, this paper helps explain the representation effect and its implications for increasing vulnerable immigrants' access to legal representation in the United States.

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Articles
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Law & Society Review , Volume 57 , Issue 2 , June 2023 , pp. 141 - 161
Copyright
Copyright © 2023 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

How to cite this article: Yu, Lilly. 2023. “A “Good Fit”: Client Sorting among Nonprofit, Private, and Pro Bono Immigration Attorneys.” Law & Society Review 57(2): 141–161. https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12654

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