'Low bono' case offers a change of pace

Shortly after joining Brown & Sheehan LLP in fall 2006, Rommel B. Loria took advantage of the Baltimore firm's pro bono requirement not only to change pace from his usual product liability and employment litigation defense work but also to explore a current events- and family-rooted interest: immigration law.

That winter, Loria, a 28-year-old Baltimore native, enrolled in a four-session minicourse offered by Catholic Charities Immigration Legal Services at the urging of local attorneys who wanted to either expand their existing practices or break into the field.

"I thought it was an interesting opportunity to work with some different clients and gain some knowledge of law that's pretty foreign to me," said Loria, comparing the immigration regulations to the tax code.

In addition, his parents came to the United States from the Philippines in the early 1970s, making the immigrant circumstance "something that I can identify with, an area of law that interests me on a personal level," Loria said.

So Loria and seven other attorneys sat through the biweekly after- work sessions at the charity's Fells Point office from February to May, said Patricia Chiriboga-Roby, the Catholic Charities staff attorney who taught the class.

Bankrolled by each attorney's $550 tuition and a grant from the Maryland Legal Services Corporation, the program profited Catholic Charities, which was able to help more clients as well as attorneys like Loria, Chiriboga-Roby said.

"He's a good guy," she said of Loria, who also represented poor prisoners while at University of Maryland School of Law and has counseled at-risk kids as part of Boys Hope Girls Hope in Evanston, Ill., and Baltimore. "Anyone who did this has an intention to do pro bono. I was really happy with the attorneys who signed up. They were really dedicated to the clients."

Loria's only client to date was a 29-year-old man from Peru who came to the United States more than five years ago and overstayed his visa after marrying a Baltimore woman. The man, a construction worker who Loria would not name for privacy reasons, contacted Catholic Charities and his bid for permanent residency status was referred to Loria.

Chiriboga-Roby said she permitted her lawyer pupils to charge up to $200 for their representation, an allowance that lets attorneys recover some of their costs and serves as an incentive to clients.

"Patricia wanted to set a low-bono sort of rate," explained Loria. "She thought that it would encourage the clients to maintain interest in the program ... so they would have something invested in the process."

Chiriboga-Roby also said she generally farmed out "clean cases" - - those without hidden snags -- to immigration law rookies like Loria so they are more likely to be successful and encouraged to continue serving.

But to hear Loria tell it, shepherding his client through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was not second nature.

"It was a sort of a slow go for me," said Loria. "There [are] a lot of different partners that need support [at Brown & Sheehan]. Sometimes it's hard to juggle it. Sometimes I just ended up staying late to get things done for this. Part of it's my inexperience with this."

Loria principally spoke with his client in English, though he said the Spanish he learned in college and the Spanish-laced dialect his parents speak were helpful as well.

Loria said the filing he made on his client's behalf in July was voluminous -- at least 100 pages -- and included marriage and birth certificates with certified translations, medical examinations, the client's two children's birth certificates and an application for the third-party sponsor who was required to vouch for the low- income client.

"You want to make it as organized as possible so it makes it easier for whoever's reviewing it to make a decision," Loria said.

Loria and his client attended a hearing in January that would determine whether he would get a green card. In late April, Loria first received a call from his client's wife, and written confirmation from the government days later, that his client had been granted permanent residency.

"I enjoyed it," said Loria. "And as challenging as it was, the end result speaks for itself. It's a pretty great thing."

"Now that I'm free, I'd like to take another case," he said.

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