Feds to Fragomen Firm: Oops, Never Mind About That Audit
Officials at the U.S. Department of Labor reportedly have called off their audit of a prominent immigration law firm they suspected earlier of improperly advising clients about labor certification applications.
The applications are used to get “green cards” allowing foreign workers to become American residents, when a “minimally qualified” U.S. worker can’t be found for the job. However, under administrative rules, law firms aren’t allowed to advise client companies about whether American applicants are “minimally qualified,” explains the Wall Street Journal Law Blog.
The DOL had been auditing Fragomen Del Rey Bernsen & Loewy, a 250-attorney New York-based boutique, suspecting that the law firm had violated this regulation. But now, in what the WSJ blog describes as “somewhat of a mea culpa,” the DOL says it isn’t going to pursue the audit because its prior rulings on the subject were confusing.
The law firm has said it did nothing wrong, and relied on earlier rulings by the DOL’s Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals. They held that a law firm could advise a client company on the “minimally qualified” issue, as long as it wasn’t also representing the foreign worker seeking a green card, the newspaper explains. However, the DOL has now clarified that, in the future, the regulation also will apply to law firms that represent only an employer.
Additional coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Major N.Y. Immigration Law Firm Investigated by Dept. of Labor”
National Law Journal: “Department of Labor Files Response to Immigration Firm’s Lawsuit”
AmLaw Daily: “In Abrupt Shift, the Department of Labor Clears Fragomen”
New York Law Journal: “Labor Department Drops Green Card Audit of Nation’s Largest Immigration Law Firm”
Updated at 4:40 p.m. to include link to subsequent AmLaw Daily post and at 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 19, 2008 to include link to subsequent New York Law Journal article.
