Integrity in Immigration Law: Why We Cut Our Own Fees

“Of Integrity and E-Bike”

I was talking with my youngest son the other day. He is considering entering law school next year and we were talking about what it means to become a lawyer. At one point, he asked me, “What does integrity mean for a lawyer?” Well, as is often the case with his generation, he “asked” his phone first. The answer was not bad at all: “Sticking to high ethical or creative standards and refusing to lower them for money or pressure.” He then looked at me and asked what that meant in “real life.” The first example that came to mind was a client who visited our Miami office to explore the different options for acquiring European residency. He ultimately engaged us to apply for the French Talent Passport Program.

One of his reasons was because he had great memories of spending summers in France as a young kid. As we began the documenting stage of his file, we discovered that he had family in France. We investigated further and eventually concluded that he could claim French citizenship-by-ancestry (CBA). We called to share the good news: our fees are much lower for a citizenship-by-ancestry case, and he would not need to invest in opening a business in France. His reaction was quite funny.

He simply said that he had never imagined a lawyer would one day call him to reduce his legal fees.. After hearing the story, my son’s reaction was, “But Dad, you lost a good income from this client.” I answered, “Yes, I did, but I kept my integrity.”

Then I reassured him that I still had enough money to buy the e-bike he had been asking for. It will be dishonest to say that it is always easy to keep one’s integrity, especially in the first few years of practicing law due to all the pressure that you face but it comes a lot easier with time and it becomes an integral part of your professional DNA. It is this very same DNA that I was able to infuse within HLG and all its components.

While this integrity pushes us to say “no” to many potential clients who do not qualify or simply do not require our services, it also guides us, as in the story above, to identify and recommend the right path for every client.