James Pittman: Welcome to Immigration Uncovered, the dynamic world of immigration law with the latest developments, practice management strategies, and the transformative impact of legal technology. I'm James Spittman. So here, for episode 20, the 1st episode of the new year 2024, I have with me my friend, Jim Hacking, of hacking law practice. He is a longtime immigration attorney, operating, in a couple of cities. Jim, you're in the where you're in Are you in Saint Louis?

Jim Hacking: Saint Louis' headquarters, and we have a satellite office in DC and one in San Diego.

James Pittman: Great. So, I mean, before we get into we're gonna be talking about out New Year's resolutions for 2024. And it's a kind of a fun topic, just discussing sort of aspirational things. We'll also be hitting some New Year's resolutions for immigrants themselves, things that they should do to protect their immigration status, protect their families, maximized our chances of achieving permanent residency and and citizenship. And, some resolutions, maybe, some for prescriptive resolutions for the immigration agencies, things we'd like to see them change about. And that could be a very big topic, but we'll hit Some of our greatest hits for things that we think they should do differently in the new year, and hopefully, they'll they'll they'll listen to it. Right. So Jim, before we do that, Just tell us just give us a nutshell version about your practice.

Jim Hacking: Sure. So, we started the firm in 2008, so we're on year 16. We are a family based immigration law firm primarily. We do, oh, probably 25, 30 h one b's a year and probably that many employment based things, but our bread and butter are, marriage based cases, family based cases, consular processing and adjustment. We do a fair amount of asylum. And then, also, I do a lot of suing USCIS and suing the state So we're up to over 1600 lawsuits that we have filed, for mandamus and APA action. We also do litigate some erroneous decisions made by the agency, so it's a it's a fun practice.

James Pittman: That's great. I mean, we had, we had attorney Joe Gentile who also focuses on the federal litigation aspect on it, so it's something we've explored. And I think it's, again, it's something that's underutilized. It's a really important tool in the toolbox. Podcast.

James Pittman: So I'm glad that you're you're focusing a lot. And you're actually the author of a book called Staying Here.

Jim Hacking: Yep. So that's a that's a little book that I wrote for international students. I Think that these universities do a great job of recruiting international students, and I also think they make a lot of promises to international students. And I think once they get here, You know, sometimes, like, there's a little university up in Hannibal, Missouri where Mark Twain is from, and we had these Brazilian soccer is playing in Hannibal, and they look like deer in the headlights, and they have sort of no clue as to what it's gonna take if they wanna stay in the United States. So I do these talks for international students, sort of at schools all around the country, and I sort of put it all into a book, all the best advice I have for people about how they can go from the f one OPT route to h one b to green card and and that whole thing. So that's what that's all about.

James Pittman: Where where is the book available?

Jim Hacking: Oh, well, they, I need to update it. It it is on Amazon, but, also, we we have a landing page for it, but it's broken at the moment, so I need to

James Pittman: fix that.

Jim Hacking: Oh, okay.

James Pittman: Alright. I'm sure you'll get it fixed. Alright. Great. Yeah. I mean, the student area, That is I I feel like there's so many pitfalls for international students, and there's not that many attorneys really spending, A ton of energy on really exploring the issues with international students, so I'm really glad that you're doing that because I think that's also really, really important work. But let's get into our our topic for today, which is New Year's resolutions. And happy new year, everybody. 2024. So how should immigration practitioners resolved to do better in the new year. What they should they aspire to? Well, I mean, I had a couple that I came up with, as conversation starters, and some of them were aimed at enhancing professional competence. Some of them were aimed at personal well-being. The first one I I came up that was pretty obvious. It's continuous learning, you know, that we should commit to ongoing professional developments by staying abreast of changes in the immigration law policies and precedents. And, Jim, what are what's your best advice for how to go about staying abreast of changes in the immigration field as a whole and in a a person in a practitioner's particular niche.

Jim Hacking: I think, to me, we're spoiled, those of us who are members of AILA, in that we get that Great recent postings alert every day. I believe that if you dedicate 15 minutes, 20 minutes a day to just reviewing the things that come out, It it's gonna get you 90% of the way you need to be, updated on all the different changes in the law.

James Pittman: Yeah. I agree. The AILA eight newsletter is an slot resource. Also, I'll make a plug for the DocuWise, newsletter, which is also a summary of immigration developments. So that's a really easy way to do it. Get on these newsletter subscriber lists and just make it a habit every day. I mean, it's It's what you do every day that ultimately makes a big difference. So another resolution I had was consider specializing in a specific immigration area to deepen expertise and provide more focused and effective representation. Immigration, even though it's, you know, one area of the law, it's one federal statue. It really is extremely varied in the kind of practice environments and the kind of client populations that you're dealing with. It's actually Multiple different subfields, together. So, you know, one of the trends is for practitioners to find a particular niche within that. Jim, how did you go about finding, you know, your niche, your particular client demographic that you target?

Jim Hacking: So, James, my wife is originally from Egypt. She moved to America when she was 7. We met on the 1st day of law school back in 1994. And, in 1998, I became a Muslim in 99. I, we got married. And And then whenever I would go to the mosque, people would ask me to help them with their immigration cases, and I thought, this is an opportunity. So I did sort of general litigation. I did maritime law for about 8 or 9 years. The Muslims kept asking me, Jim, can you help me with my citizenship case? Can you help me with this delayed case? And I would always say, well, I do barge work, and they'd be like, what in the hell is a barge? And so, I just sort of followed the request for help, and I thought in 2008 when we launched the firm that we would do Law for immigrants. So I thought we would do car accidents for immigrants, wills for immigrants, and then teach ourselves immigration. Well, Within 2 or 3 years, it became pretty clear that the desire and the need was in immigration itself. So then in 12 2012, we said, Okay. Just immigration. And every single time I've narrowed down, every time I've let go of practice areas when I, you know, I I would I would get I wouldn't get these, you know, Huge car accident cases. I'd get all the little car accident cases because I wasn't really good at it, and I didn't know how to find those cases. And so I was spending all this time on a one off Car accident case that would ultimately pay me the same kind of legal fee for a pretty straightforward green card case or citizenship case. So It just became it it's not that I'm this brilliant guy. I just sort of paid attention to what people were asking me to do. But every single time, James, that I've narrowed down the focus of the firm, We have improved our systems. We have gotten better at what we do. We've, eliminated a lot of mistakes, And we've made more money. So, in 2016, 17, we stopped taking on deportation because Nobody in the office really liked working on deportation. It was really, really stressful. And so when we let go that part of the process and when we started referring that to people who specialize in deportation, They started sending us some cases, and we got to let go of something that was causing a whole lot of stress for a lot of us.

James Pittman: Yeah. I mean, it's so important. The the the the client population you're gonna be dealing with I mean, 1 I think you should consider all factors when you're deciding on the particular niche. I mean, it's great to hear how for you it really developed organically from your circumstances. I think that's a really strong way to go If you have an organic connection to a particular community and you can kind of suss out what their their immigration needs are and focusing on that where you already have that connection, and that's a great starting point. You wanna consider, like, geographically where you are, what are the the particular, communities that exist, in the area where you're planning to practice. I mean, if you are miles and miles away, you're, like, 4 hours from the nearest immigration court, You know, you may not wanna be taking 1 to 10 cases because logistically, it's gonna be very, very hard to coordinate that. So there's a lot of factors, and we have great content available in the other DocuWise podcasts and on our on our blog and website on how to, you know, determine what your niche should be and and what are the practical, steps that you should take to really focus in on that niche. So my next resolution was a huge one for us at DocuWise. That's technology integration. So Resolve in 2024 to embrace and leverage technology to enhance your efficiency in case management, in legal research. We have a whole plethora of AI related tools coming out and client communication. Get involved in the legal tech focused groups. For example, on Facebook, There's, some excellent group. There's technology for immigration practitioners just to name 1, and follow, legal tech thought leaders on LinkedIn. There's some, people I can think of off the top of my head who are kind of thought leaders in immigration tech itself. I can mention some names of good friends Jared Jascott, Nadine Heights, Greg Siskin, Ian Almasi, Andrew Thrasher, Emily Bavrowski from formally Again, not intended to be, a complete list by any means, just some off the top of my head names, follow our podcast like you're listening to right now. Jim, how what are you doing to stay abreast of technology and get the most out of your legal tech in 2024.

Jim Hacking: So we've actually made the decision last year to build out our own Processes in Salesforce. So we we are leaving Pipedrive, which was our before unit, and Filevine, which Which is our operations unit, and we're doing it all in, Salesforce starting in about 10 days. So it's been it's been a big process, but it's also been a great opportunity Truly look at our systems. You know, I think whatever system you're using, you need to make sure that you're, you know, delegating things, you're automating things, that you're not, doing things just because this is how we've always done things around here. I think trying to get off of paper. You know, we've been paperless since The 1st day we opened to the extent that you can be at USCIS. But I really think that lawyers that don't embrace change are really gonna suffer And not be able to keep up because I I think the ABA has even talked about a duty of keeping up competency in technology. And I think I think, you know, whatever you're doing right now is great. That's a good baseline. Try to do a little bit more. Try to automate a little bit more, you know, big things, small things. I'm a big believer in Zapier And Make, which allows you to connect 1 piece of software to another. So I think that I agree that following the the legal tech Experts is really good, but I'm also very practical. And I think that there's a lot of technology that people can use on a small scale to make their life or their practice easier.

James Pittman: Yeah. I agree. And and and, I mean, I wanna just hit a couple of points. I mean, first of all, one of the things that we always tell people, I'm embarrassed repeating, is Try to get the most out of the technology that you already have. I mean, really look at what what tools you already have, and are you actually familiar with all the features that they offer.

James Pittman: Are you making the most of what you do have rather than getting Nervous or wondering whether you need something else right away? First, assess what you already have. Secondly, For us here at DocuWise, we are part of the AffinitiPay MyCase family, and we are, in 2024, gonna continue deepening our integration with MyCase, and a whole lot of, you know, interesting developments around that, allowing more and more DocuWise functionality to be used through MyCase. So, integration is definitely, the way that everything is going. And, you know, we really pride ourselves here just to shoot our own horn on being very forward thinking in terms of making the most out of our integrations. Next, Point I had was mentorship. Resolution was mentorship. Seek or provide mentorship within the legal community to foster skills development and share experiences. So, Jim, how to how to know when how should someone know when they should seek a mentor? How should an experienced person know or go about becoming a mentor. What are your tips on that?

Jim Hacking: Well, I think that the best opportunity is probably gonna be with your local AILA chapter. And I think that when you develop those friendships of people who do the kinds of things you don't wanna do like, I've become good friends with my deportation referral sources. I'm also I also like to talk often to the people in town who sort of run clinics, that, You know, might do a fair amount of deportation, but I think that, generally, if you if you are deliberate about it And if you think about what you have to offer, I think getting involved in your chapter, if you can do it on a small scale. You know, to me, I really like focusing on the CLEs. If there's presentations that we can do or if you know, we do we do a lot of training here. So in our office right now, we have 4 lawyers who have been practicing maybe 2 years at the most. And so we we do a lot of our training, You know, on, like, Wednesdays at lunchtime, and then we but we've also then sort of perfected those trainings and and presented them at local AILA chapter things too because Information is great and information is good, but a lot of people just really struggle on especially, you know, a lot of immigration lawyers are sort of solos, So they don't really feel like they have a lot of people. So just put yourself out there. I think a lot of lawyers are introverts, and a lot of lawyers just sort of have their head down and wanna do the work. But when you When you can help someone else sort of solve their problem or help them solve their client's problem, it's it's it's fulfilling.

James Pittman: Absolutely. Absolute. So important to to give back. And I think one of the things that, always strikes me is that immigration lawyers are a very open community. Seems to me that they're very much open to sharing knowledge, sharing information, and providing mentorship.

James Pittman: So it's, a receptive environment for if you need advice or if you're looking to, serve as a mentor. Well, my resolution number 5 is language proficiency, and this is something that I think a lot of immigration lawyers do have a good handle on, but I think it's there's always room for improvement. So a lot of times, you know, we'll deal with, non English speaking populations in the immigration law context, and, practitioners should strive to enhance their language proficiency relative to the client bases that they're serving to improve communication and understanding. And I had some suggestions. I mean, people either I mean, a lot of immigration lawyers have an organic that organic connection. Maybe they are from a particular, background, they may be immigrants themselves or, like in your case, you have the connections to the community through your wife and so forth. But some suggestions I had if you're trying to get up to speed on a new language, there are excellent apps. There's Duolingo. There's Babbel. There are nowadays a variety of private online tutoring services available for Video lessons. I you know, I've looked at, Preply. There's also Verbling, Italki, Verbal Planet, Wyzant, and others. Jim, in your practice, what, foreign languages do you encounter, and how do you make sure that you are able to effectively communicate with those clients?

Jim Hacking: So Saint Louis has a huge Bosnian refugee, community. We have about 70,000 Bosnians in, In Saint Louis, the biggest population outside of Bosnia because of the great work of the International Institute. And then, so we have 2 native Bosnian speakers here at the office, and then we have A whole team down in Argentina and some native Spanish speakers up here in Saint Louis. So that's those are really and then Arabic, my wife handles a lot of that stuff. So I took Russian for 8 years, so I can understand the Bosnian piece a good chunk, but I should if I had more time, I would spend It's funded on Duolingo Learning Arabic.

James Pittman: Alright. Excellent. Alright. Well, the next, topic I had was client relationships, and my resolution number 6 was cultivate empathy and cultural competence. So this kinda ties into the last one, but we wanna make sure that not only can we communicate orally and, in writing with our clients, but that we have the cultural competence and the empathy to to understand and serve clients from diverse backgrounds. So when you are dealing with, clients from, let's say, other cultural backgrounds. What do you do in your office to ensure that you, that your office is culturally competent?

Jim Hacking: That's a great question, James. And so, You know, I I stopped practicing law as far as handling cases, maybe about two and a half years ago. So the time that I spend with People from foreign countries is I have this YouTube show where people who can call and ask me immigration questions. I go along for an hour probably 2 or 2 or 3 times a week. And so I get people with all different kinds of education levels, English levels, and, of course, Immigration situations. And I I am 99% of the time very, very patient with people. Now the people that watch the show regularly really get excited when I get mad, and I don't I try not to get mad, but sometimes people just don't listen to me and then I do get mad. So When it comes to cultural competency, I think because I learned immigration law on my own that I have learned how to it to people in plain language. When I first started practicing immigration law, you know, you'd have these immigration lawyers who could cite the exact provision of an INA statute based on just this fact pattern. Well, I had to put it in plain language. So I think I told you in the past, like, we just called overseas cases an I one thirty away or an I one thirty here. So he had so, I think that being able going to law school is terrible for teaching you how to talk to regular people. So so being in the practice of doing consults or like I do on the YouTube show, being able to talk to people at their level and their language and their level of understanding, you know, you have to understand. People come from places where the government is corrupt or the government will throw you in jail or or the government's just incompetent. And so Being able to explain that to people in in words that they understand is is really, really hard.

James Pittman: Yeah. And that actually feeds into my resolution number 7, which I have clear communication, which is, probably one of the most important things. But improve communication with clients by explaining the legal processes and expectations in clear and understandable terms. This is exactly what you're saying. This is this flows flows out of the cultural competency too. So I have here my suggestion was to review your office templates and your website copy to make sure that you're setting expectations clearly and properly. Review your intake and follow-up processes. So, Jim, in your in your office now, how do you so you are, kind of hands off as far as the actual management of the cases. So you are, what, managing the overall practice, and you have attorneys who are actually handling the cases. Is that right?

Jim Hacking: So I'm in charge of marketing intake. Then my wife, she my wife joined us in 2016, and she sort of oversees the lawyers. So we have About 5 pods which are lawyers and paralegals handling cases that she sort of oversees that.

James Pittman: And, how do you go about, setting client expectations. I mean, what what steps are there, in in the office to make sure that, you know, from the front end clients know know what to expect as far as how to deal with the firm.

Jim Hacking: So this is a great question, James. I love to tell clients we're not gonna take their case. I always tell clients exactly what I think the chances of success are. Obviously, I'll have caveats in there, but I think it's super important Super important at the outset that if a client has a tough situation, a tough case, a case that might not get approved, I there's no way in hell that I'm gonna promise them the moon And say, if you hire me, I will save you. I'd much I want them I always picture it this way. I want them sitting next to me. I want them to understand exactly how hard their case is. I want them to understand all the pitfalls and the problems. I was on a call last night with a couple where they got one hell of a notice of intent to deny, And I I, 1, wanted to put the fear of the Lord in them, and and I did that last night. I thought there's no way in hell they're gonna hire us Because I said, look, even if we do our very best work, I think you got a 25% chance of winning this thing.

Jim Hacking: I'd much rather do that than tell them, oh, yeah. Just, You know, write me a check for $75100, and I'm gonna save your butt. Like, that that's just not how we do it. So, you know, that's a real big piece of it. The other one is, You know, because I have this YouTube channel, because I have the show, everyone wants Jim to be their lawyer. They want mister Jim to be their lawyer. Well, I don't handle cases anymore. So we really have to do some education on Why Jim does things that he does and why you don't want Jim handling your cases. You want Jim's wife, Amani, handling your cases and the other attorneys because they're in it every single day.

James Pittman: And once we've set our expectations, we wanna provide the best client experience and handle our cases efficiently. So this, is kind of, part of what you're doing in your marketing function at your firm, educating clients on immigration processes, rights, and responsibilities. So let's talk about, what do you think of some of these suggestions? So some of the suggestions I had were A welcome packet, you know, once have a client that's retained, you know, providing the clients with a comprehensive sort of packet that outlines the immigration process. They're going through key timelines and an overview of their rights and responsibilities. Have you done anything like that in your practice?

Jim Hacking: James, I'm ashamed to admit that this has been on my to do list for almost 4 years. So this is I think it's a great idea. We just haven't gotten around to it.

James Pittman: Okay. How about client workshops? You mentioned the work a lot of the important work you've been doing with foreign students. But one of the ways to educate the client base is to organize seminars or workshops for clients to attend either in person or nowadays online, where you explain the immigration processes, discuss common issues, and answer their questions in person. Have you done any you've done q and a, shows?

Jim Hacking: Yeah. And we have a Facebook group with, like, 12,000 immigrants in there, but it's not clients. I do think I do think that's a good idea, and I think we could be doing more to love on our current clients. Yep.

James Pittman: And, How about videos, webinars, and online resources? I mean, this we've kind of been talking about a little bit, but, do you are your videos prerecorded or do you do live stream sessions as well? And are there other Sort of besides sort of your, regular show, are there other resources video resources that clients can access us at their convenience. And how do you break that down?

Jim Hacking: Yeah. So, I'm sort of undiagnosed ADHD, and I had probably 1200 YouTube videos before somebody said to me, hey, Jim. You might wanna organize those into playlists. So now if someone wants to see all my videos about, You know, a spouse case adjustment or about an asylum case, then the team sends them the intake the, email with the links to those channel those parts, Those are playlists inside YouTube.

James Pittman: One of the suggestions that I, had was, really, including a comprehensive FAQ, section on your website, frequently asked questions. I mean, that is something which I think people are likely to turn to when they look at your website. Jim, do you have an FAQ section on your website, and What do you believe should be included in that type of section?

Jim Hacking: So I think that if there's any lawyers who are having trouble with content and that FAQ should be the first thing that they do. So So first thing is ask yourself 10 questions. What are the 10 questions I get asked the most about each case type or each or even just our firm if you're just starting out? Then what are the 10 questions that people should be asking? And I think that if you do those 2 things, that's a great way to get Started, and that'll be something really helpful for people on the website. It's also good content for search because if people are asking these questions of you, they're also asking that question of Google. Right? So Most of my content ideas come from client questions or potential client questions. I I will make a YouTube video when someone asks me a question. If I know the answer, I'll just make a video about it and then send them that answer because I'd rather, you know, use that content over and over and let other people share in the knowledge that that I have. And if I don't know the answer, I'll go look it up, and then I'll make a video about what I learned when I went to look it up. So I think I think that Creating content can be really easy if you just follow what people ask.

James Pittman: Alright. Well, again, we're we're on the resolution of improving how to improve our client experience in 2024. And my next tip that I or suggestion I had was using role playing sessions to prepare for interviews or hearings. So, Jim, I know you're not hands on with the cases anymore, but maybe you can still speak to it. Did you use or do or does your is currently used role playing sessions to simulate, you know, common scenarios or help them understand what to expect during, interview or hearing.

Jim Hacking: Yes. We do that both for, any case in which there's going to be an interview at USCIS or at an embassy. The attorney part of what they hire us to do, the attorney We'll prep the clients, for that interview, and they'll act as if they are the USCIS officer or the consular official. And Some of these, we've even we've even role played, in the office with team members acting as the lawyer, acting as The clients and then my wife acts as the mean old USCIS officer, and we have filmed those and put those on YouTube. And number 1, they're really funny. But number 2, our team learned why it's so important to have a file well organized when you go to an interview because it's like this. And they were sort of surprised and shocked to see, you know, how quickly you have to be able to grab a Particular document. And so they really started to understand why it's so important to to be organized.

James Pittman: Absolutely. And, being organized also leads into my, you know, kind of 10th, sub aspiration, which is resolved to use an online client portal or online system for collecting documents and information from clients and for sharing documents and perhaps invoices with clients. So for example, at DocatWise, we have a client portal. That's a feature of our product where the users' clients, the attorneys' clients can, upload documents, upload information, answer questionnaires, and also the attorney side can share documents, share invoices, etcetera with the clients through the portal. So, Jim, In your office process, how far along have you gotten as far as being able to collect and receive and share All information or practically all information online.

Jim Hacking: So I think that's one of the key features of Docowise and one of the things that people really need to think about when it comes to efficiency and automation. Think how much time you spend going back and forth with clients. Hey. You got that birth certificate. Hey. You got that birth certificate. Hey. Can you send me that birth certificate? You know, when you have a system where it's laid out clearly where people can upload their documents minutes and everyone's on the same page as to whether it's there or not. It's just it's just a no brainer when it comes to to automation and making everybody's lives easier.

James Pittman: Right. It's perhaps the biggest pain point in practicing immigration laws. It is it traditionally was a very labor and time intensive Process of collecting documents and information and and so forth then, you know, kind of minimizing that, eliminating the pain involved in that was kind of, you know, talk one of DocuWise's main reasons for for existing. Okay. So I have my, next, sort of tip on maximizing client experience is, community outreach. And, Jim, you talked a little bit about this, engaging in community outreach to reach your potential clients and provide basic information about immigration processes and legal services. So talk to me about, you know, nowadays, what your community outreach looks like. Are you still, you know, you know, giving programs at the you know, in the mosque or or how does it work nowadays?

Jim Hacking: If you talk to most marketing people, they're gonna all wanna talk about SEO and clicks and all that stuff in in social media. There's certainly a place for that. Very, very important. But there's also Something to be said for meeting people where they are, to make it easier for them to find you, to make it memorable that you came. So In Saint Louis, when I when I first converted in Saint Louis, we had 2 mosques. Now we have 18 or 19. So I'll actually go and give a talk about once a month at night To people where that, you know, there's a never ending supply of immigration questions. So, and I also like I said, I do the talks with the international students. So The that's a really, really good long play because when you're there, you should be capturing people's contact information so that you can stay in contact with them. But I also invariably, whenever I do a a talk, I almost always come away with at least 1 or 2 new cases right then. So it's a good Long term play, good short term play, plus you're adding value. You're being seen as an adviser and an expert, and you're being able to show your expertise by being able to answer people's questions on the fly. Now you might not Feel so comfortable with that if you're sort of new in your practice, but that's why we go back to the very first thing that James said, which is spend 15 minutes a day educating yourself On this practice area that you're claiming that you're an expert at.

James Pittman: My next sort of sub sub aspiration for client experience was storytelling. So I think that you get a lot of mileage out of, sharing success stories or case studies. And these can be done in your videos. These can be done with testimonials, and and so forth. Jim, have you utilized the technique of storytelling in your in your marketing efforts.

Jim Hacking: James, one time I made a video about sort of a a an an amalgam of clients into 1 person that I called Mohammed. I made a video about Mohammed's story, which was that he'd been waiting for his visa to come to United States for a really long time, and his wife hired us to file a lawsuit form. And I had people emailing me saying, I'm Mohammed. I'm Mohammed. I'm Mohammed.

Jim Hacking: Like, that's me. That's me. So I don't think there's anything more I mean, having a lawyer talk about The nuances of immigration law, that's all well and good. But at the end of the day, it's the stories and the connection that are gonna resonate with people when they say, hey. That's me or that's the woman for me or the man for me. That's the lawyer I need.

James Pittman: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, my next sort of set of aspirations or New Year's resolutions, have to do with, personal well-being. So we've talked a lot now about your, practice competence. Now onto the lawyer's personal well-being and the well-being of their staff. So some of mine I'm gonna sort of condense Some of these so we can get to some of the other resolutions. Work, life balance. Prioritize work, life balance to prevent burnout and maintain overall well-being. Again, I wanna emphasize, Everything I'm saying here is not only for the attorney, but you need to make sure that if you have employees, you're also providing them the opportunity to have balance in their lives, and avoid burnout. Mindfulness practice, incorporating mindfulness like meditation or yoga or just some quiet time every day to help You manage stress and stay focused. If you can have some quiet time I personally find that having some Quiet time every day where you simply sit by yourself, and, allow your sort of thoughts to go quiet. It allows you to then move back to your day after that with good mental focus. That way, things aren't you know, you're not feeling overwhelmed by multiple things. You let everything quiet down and then go back in a focused manner, and you're more efficient. Also, healthy boundaries, establishing clear boundaries with clients to maintain a healthy and professional attorney client relationship. So this, I think, is also a big one for immigration lawyers because I think that a lot of immigration lawyers are altruistic by nature, and, you wanna help the clients. You wanna go all out to help the clients, which is great because there's a duty of being a zealous advocate. But at the same time, it is a professional relationship, and there must be certain boundaries, you know, to, basically, for things to remain as they should. And also my last one let me throw my last one in which is self care days, scheduling regular Self care days for you and your employees to recharge and and foster a positive, mental and emotional state and incorporate physical activity on a daily basis. So even here, even though I haven't practiced since I, I'm cofounder of DocuWise. We do have at our company now, you know, days where, people are Take personal time and, it's basically a kind of a well-being day. You take a well-being day and come back to your job much more energized and focused. So, Jim, out of these, well-being, aspirations that I've given, which which have you found most valuable? And let's hear your thoughts.

Jim Hacking: So, I wake up in the morning. I go to the gym. When I get to the office, I then meditate and I journal. Those are all really helpful. During the day, I have a mat over there that I try to stretch on as well if I haven't stretched at the gym. I go to therapy once a week. I have a coach, a mindset coach. And so and I'm a big believer in all these things that you said. I think getting that blood flowing is really important. I think boundaries are really important, and I also think that mo some people will say, well, I don't have time to do all that stuff. Well, that's why you delegate. That's why you automate. That's why you use things like Docowise to make your life easier. I suspect that most people listening to this are probably doing at least 20% of their time is being spent doing things they don't need to be doing somebody else can do. And if you either automate that stuff or delegate that stuff or eliminate that stuff, Then you're gonna have time to take care of yourself because at the end of the day, this is a a marathon. It's not a sprint.

James Pittman: Absolutely. And like I always say, doing something is better than doing nothing. I mean, if View. If you have a day where you have, you know, multiple meetings and and so forth, and you really feel like, well, you know, you you're not Gonna get in your your physical exercise. It's better that you go and do 15 minutes than do nothing at all, really.

James Pittman: The continuity is very important, And you'd be surprised, you know, if you're efficient, what you can really get done in a short period of time. Again, if you don't have, 20 minutes to, you You know, practice mindfulness, practice it for 5. So always better to do to do something and do it regularly and maintain the habit. It's it's in the it's in the accrual over the long term that these habits really make a difference for you. And also social connection. Cultivate social connections and and cultivate social connections both within and and outside the legal community. You know, sometimes people in a in a in a structured profession like law, you know, can kind of they get to a point where they're so busy with their job and their family that the only people that they talk to are people within their profession. But I think is there something to be said for maintaining social connections even outside of law with nonlawyers and, you know, getting continuing to stay in touch with, you know, people in in various walks of life, and have have a social support system, you know, of of different sorts of people who can provide you different sorts of, you know, feedback. Now about, I wanna talk about resolve to, do the best that you can in your professional relationships with other attorneys. And, I have as, some of my aspirations here, foster collaboration with other legal professionals and other experts in the immigration space as well as advocacy organizations. One thing you can do is review your LinkedIn profile and make the effort to reach out and connect with colleagues who might have valuable insights. Review your LinkedIn profile, review your connections on LinkedIn, who are you following, and, are you following people who are who are adding value and who might have important insights? Another aspiration I had was networking. Now there's never enough time to attend all the events, and all the conferences that we might want to attend. So, really, choose the ones that give you the most bang for your buck. Plan it well in advance. I think one of the keys is planning it well in advance and commit to it. Also, community engagement, we talked a little bit about through pro bono work and outreach. Ethical practice, resolve to commit to having the most ethical practice can review your ethical rules, ethical opinions, make sure you're getting the required number of CLE credits. And then the last aspiration that I'm gonna give before getting Jim's thoughts is advocacy for change. So engage in advocacy for positive changes in immigration policies that will benefit Your clients and benefit American society as a whole so that we can get the most out of immigration to the United States and work toward a fair and just immigration system. I don't need to tell anybody that 2024 is an extremely pivotal year. It's an election year. It's a presidential election year. It's important for reasons that everyone already knows, and it's more important and than ever to support reform initiatives and work toward electing candidates that reflect your concern for a fair immigration system. So, Jim, out of those, please, let's have your thoughts on connecting with colleagues and making a difference in the system.

Jim Hacking: I think those are all great suggestions that you had, James. The only one that I would add is When it comes to networking, sometimes we get a little too insular, and so meeting with you you said people in other professions, I think that's But I think specifically lawyers and other practice areas is good. I think it's interesting to hear how other people run their firms, how other people, Solve certain problems and, you know, because a lot of the issues that we that we encounter as law firm owners, I mean, you can learn lessons from all different kinds of industries, but specifically from other law firm owners. And also there's that collegiality aspect of, You know, we're all going through this together. We have a a pod I have a podcast with my friend, Tyson.

Jim Hacking: He's a personal injury lawyer. We've done it for 7 years where it's called Maximum Lawyer, and it's just us Talking about what it's like to run a law firm. So that's really how I connect to other law firm owners is through the podcast and and everything that's grown out of that.

James Pittman: Excellent. I'm definitely gonna check out that podcast, Maximum Lawyer. One last said I had before we're gonna move on in second to resolutions for the immigrants themselves. But one last set for practitioners I had was self reflection and improvement, and how to how to go about improving in the new year. So couple things is in terms of goal setting, you wanna set clear, measurable professional goals for the year and regularly assess your progress. So it is really not a stretch to say that you should plan out what you want to achieve. Plan out your professional road map for 2020 for what you wanna achieve, and set and break that down into quarterly or even monthly goals so that you can Stay in touch with your progress. You know, you might have a a goal of growing your your practice by a certain amount by the end of 2020 2024. Well, how is does that translate into how much you need to do each quarter? That's that's the key is breaking it down into smaller steps and staying in touch with your progress and and and establishing, first of all, monitoring your progress, but also establishing a feedback mechanism. So very important in self improvement is having feedback. You wanna seek constructive input from your employees, your colleagues, and your clients. And an important way of of doing this is by surveying. You can have surveys of your employees. You know, how do you feel that we, as a firm, are doing on this measure, this measure, and this measure? What would you like to see us do differently? Same thing with the clients. You should definitely be surveying your clients, if not every single client whose case you finish, at least surveying clients periodically about how they found their experience and suss out, you know, suss out that feedback into, you know, what is what where do they have legitimate points of ways that your firm needs to improve. Very important. And learning from setbacks, which sounds, You know, kinda cliche, but it's super important. Embrace setbacks. Nobody gets it perfect the first time. Embrace setbacks as learning opportunities. Don't get scouraged, but rather take a step back, look at the situation objectively, and use that to refine your strategy and your approach to the problem. And don't forget to celebrate your achievements. That's super important as well. You have a lot that you wanna accomplish. You You don't wanna get discouraged. You do wanna celebrate your achievements. If you met your quarterly target for, let's say, your your growth target in your firm, Celebrate that. You know, take the staff out for a pizza or whatever. But acknowledge and celebrate your achievements, both big and small, to keep your outlook positive and maintain momentum. Jim, what do you think about these aspirations?

Jim Hacking: I think those are all great. I also think so much At a time like this, we wanna add all these things. I think you'd touched earlier a little bit on subtracting things. I I read a great book by a professor at my son's school, University of Virginia, call called subtract, and it's all about doing less. And I think that Sometimes the best thing we can do is to to stop doing some things.

James Pittman: Yeah. It's it's also an important thing to keep in mind. Sometimes it's better yeah. Especially if you're doing unnecessary things. Much better to do a smaller set of things very effectively than try to do too much and do it not so well. That's that's important as a general principle. And I think people get, you know, caught up in Focusing on achievement, focusing on quantity, we should really be focusing on quality of our improvements. Alright. Well, we're gonna move to part 2 of our show today, which is New Year's resolutions for immigrants or clients of immigration lawyers. And What should they be aspire to do differently in 2024? So, Jim, what are your thoughts? I mean, some some ones that I had off the top of my head, stay informed. They should commit to staying informed about changes. And how should they do that? How should they do that?

Jim Hacking: So I think that, you know, learning from their their attorneys is a good way. But I think I think that Most immigrants when it comes to to, what they need to be thinking about is that they're always mad the cases are taking too long, And I understand that. You know, I tell my team all the time, we're a logistics company. We're trying to get them from point a to point b. Point a is where they're at. Point b is where they wanna go. I I Explain this to clients too. You know, we wanna get up from Cincinnati to Chicago or from green green card land to citizenship land. Right? And so They they get really frustrated with how long these things take. And I say, what you should do instead of getting mad about that, think about how to make your case better. Think about how to get ready for the interview that you might have, especially, you know, if it's citizenship, they clearly will have an interview. So spend your time reviewing what you submitted. Spend your time, Spend your time, you know, reading over the questions. Have somebody read them to you. These questions are all in written form, but you're not gonna have That writing in front of you when you go to your interview, so use this time wisely. And and the other big thing that I tell people is stay off the goddamn, alerts Because half the time, they're wrong. The online portal, Emma, tells you things that aren't true. You know, people say, I'm at this I'm at the California service center. Can I send my case to the Virginia service center? I'm like, dude, I've had cases that are at allegedly fast service centers go very slowly. I've had cases that are at allegedly slow service centers go very quickly. So I I would Tell them about some of those meditation tools and the mindset tools that we talked about earlier. To me, it's about how do I get through this process without being a crazy person? And so we spend a lot of time talking to them about that. There's all the information in the world is out there, but if if their mind is going crazy and they can't rest at night, they're they're not gonna be any good to anybody.

James Pittman: Nadim, what would be your your top tips in terms of what what clients of immigration lawyers, as a general proposition in your experience, what should they Do do differently or avoid let's say, what should they avoid doing vis a vis working with their immigration lawyer?

Jim Hacking: Well, Number 1 is don't view your immigration lawyer as your enemy. View them as the person who's trying to help you out of the situation that you find yourself in. Do what you can to make their life easier. There will be down periods when the case is just simply pending. And we will try to keep you updated during those lulls and activity, but you have to understand at the outset that there's gonna be a lot of activity at the beginning and a lot of activity at the end, and then there's gonna be a whole lot of waiting in between. We'll do what we can on to make sure that that goes faster. If the time comes where we need to start bothering them to, get your case moving, we have tools to do that. But you have to trust us to let us do our job, and you need to spend your time focusing on living your life and trying to be as happy as you can. And and don't worry about the ups and downs of the momentary changes in your case online or in reality.

James Pittman: Absolutely. It's it's great advice. Some of the aspirations or resolutions I I had, were, they could consider building a support network. So actively engaging with local support groups around that work on the issues of immigration or organizations, all for immigrants, to build a strong support network. That way, they don't feel isolated in the journey that they're going through. Immigration is a journey, and like You just said it has ups and downs, so it's really important to cushion the downtimes or the times when nothing is happening by staying staying in touch with people. Be choosy about the information that you consume. Do not, let's say, believe rumors. Do not be careful that you are getting information only from qualified sources. Right? Also have regular check ins with your immigration lawyer. And if you have a question, ask your attorney. Don't stay stuck don't stay mired in uncertainty. If you're stuck in uncertainty, you're more vulnerable to kind of consuming, let's say, bad information or information that is unreliable. Also, maintain your documentation. Organize and maintain all of your relevant immigration documents in a structured way. Have a file where you've got everything organized. That way, you are it's much easier for you to provide necessary information when required. For example, Somebody gets a conditional green card. They know that 2 years later, they're gonna have to file for removal of conditions. So have a file, maintain Your joint bank account statements, your your leases, your other documents, you know, for example, that you have with your spouse over the 2 years so that when the time comes to remove conditions, you just have all of that ready. You're not running around at the end of the 2 years trying to go get, You know documents from years ago. And keep all of your copies including your electronic copies in safe places and safe virtual places. Is make sure your password protect sensitive data. And also participating in community activities, can help immigrants to build connections, contribute to the community, and also showcase the positive impact, of immigrants on society that helps to, improve public perceptions. Jim, which of those resonate with you? And what are your other tips for, how immigrants can, have or or in 2024, the best immigration journey possible.

Jim Hacking: I think that you're right that that ultimately, immigration can be a very, very lonely the and then immigration process can be very, very lonely, especially if you're talking about Trying to bring a family member who you miss and love to the United States. Right? So that's a lot of our clients. And so I think Finding places where you can talk, whether it's with a therapist or with friends or other people who are going through the process. That's one of the reasons why we started the Facebook group so that people could just sort of talk about What's going on emotionally when they're separated from their spouse or their children or whatever?

Jim Hacking: And so I think that anything that they can do to Keep positive and to know that this is temporary as time well spent.

James Pittman: And I have some that are kind of resolutions for immigrants to stop doing things that won't help them. One thing is to avoid procrastination. Don't procrastinate on your immigration related tasks. I mean, if your attorneys asked you for information, get to it in a timely fashion. Timely action is crucial for maintaining your status and working with your with your attorney in a smooth and effective way. You wanna have the most time possible to address any potential potential issues that actually do arise in your case. Also, dismiss immigration myths. Dispel myths and misinformation about immigration laws and the immigration processes by seeking accurate information. I said this a 2nd ago. Use reliable sources and professionals. Don't believe rumors or rely on information from unqualified sources. Don't delay in seeking legal assistance. If you haven't retained an attorney yet but you have an immigration problem, don't delay. Reach out to 1 or more qualified immigration lawyers. You can find them on the AILA lawyer search tool, which is an online, web page where you can find qualified immigration lawyers, who can provide guidance and representation when needed. Don't ignore important deadlines. A lot of these ignoring deadlines and missing deadlines in immigration can be really, really bad. It can be perhaps fatal to your case or at least can cause really significant complications. Don't become isolated. Right? We just said it's a it can be a lonely process. So participate in event in community events and seek support. Ensure all of your paperwork and information that you provide to your attorney is accurate and up to date. Plan for the future. I mean, if you know that, you know, your time, let's say, as a student is gonna come to an end. You're gonna finish your academic program, let's say, in a year or 2 years. You know, don't put off, you know, neglecting what the next step of your immigration journey is. Have a long term plan. Discuss with your immigration lawyer, And, again, set realistic goals for your long term immigration journey, and that includes planning for the expenses that you will incur in your case to move on to the next step of your immigration journey. And make sure that you stay in compliance with all, immigration laws and regulations including and especially those around employment.

James Pittman: Be aware and adhere to all of the rules regarding your particular the any work authorization that you have and any, laws and regulations that concern your ability to work in the United States because is you wanna avoid, inadvertently, you know, violating status and causing potential issues that could impact your immigration status. Obviously, never ever ever use anyone else's documents. Jim, any thoughts on those, resolutions?

Jim Hacking: Good stuff.

James Pittman: Okay. Well, the last section is gonna be New Year's resolutions for, the agencies themselves. And this is a little bit tongue in cheek, the, because, obviously, the the the agencies, you know, they have, mandates that come down, you know, from the top that they then implement with the regulations. But, aspirationally and semi tongue in cheek, Let's talk about what we really think USCIS needs to do differently. Jim, what do you think your greatest hit list of things that USCIS just needs to do differently in 2024.

Jim Hacking: James, you'll recall this wonderful thing called InfoPass. Infopass went away early in the Trump administration and hasn't come back. And so when you on your list of things, you had increased transparency. It Seems to me that a government agency should be approachable, should be able to talk to people about their situation. I think the Emma online portal is a joke. I think these Tier 1 and tier 2 officers don't know anything. I think that's all by design. So if I had one resolution for USCIS, it would be Restart InfoPass and put someone in charge of speed at these cases. I I I either someone is not Under no. Someone has not undertaken the task of making things go faster at USCIS or the things that they're doing aren't working. 1 or the 2 is true because processing times are actually getting worse. When I saw that the 7.51 extension letters were gonna be 48 months, I was like, oh, no. That's. We know why that is, because they're gonna start taking 48 months to adjudicate these. So it's a total joke.

James Pittman: So let's talk about the processing times, which are always that, you know, where I I guess, They're never gonna be great, but what do you think are the most egregious, processing times failures, nowadays that you're saying?

Jim Hacking: Work hards. It's it's ridiculous. I mean, I know that they're gonna start extending work hards for greater time periods. I think that's good. But I just think just generally, there's nobody There's nobody trying to make things go faster. There's nobody I I I would say the worst ones are are the the embassies are are ridiculous when it comes to How quickly there's you know, people are getting documentarily qualified at the National Visa Center, and then it's a year before they get an interview. So it's ridiculous.

James Pittman: So, certainly processing times. My understanding is that the time frame for the asylum are set out very far. We would also, suggest, that, ICE really focus on prioritizing its enforcement, you know, on individuals posing genuine threats rather than low priority cases. For EOIR, do everything possible to reduce a backlog. Right? Improve increased staffing, improved technology, explore the possibility of maybe AI to streamline adjudication, support efforts to improve access to legal representation for immigrants. And other efforts to improve pro bono, representation. For training for EYR staff, provide training for immigration judges on trauma informed adjudication to better understand the complexity of certain cases. I can do a quick shout out to a a very innovative, company called Communitology, which is a social science research sort of service, working on asylum cases. Friend Sharon Abramowitz is the founder of that, and they are doing excellent work on, the need for, more training in terms of, trauma informed adjudication and using vetted social science research and asylum efforts. Also strengthening language access, very important, to ensure that individuals in proceedings with limited English proficiency can fully participate in the proceedings. Well, that's all of the New Year's resolutions we have time for today. I think we hit some great notes. Again, I wanna thank Jim Hacking, friend and excellent immigration attorney, based in Saint Louis for joining us today to help us with our New Year's resolutions. And again, to all of you, from me and from Docowise, I wish you podcast in 2024 and a new year filled with health and happiness. Jim, any parting thoughts? James, thanks for your time, man. This was great. I enjoyed spending time with you.

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