Pros
- Easy money for recent undergraduates who are pursuing other opportunities. - Generous PTO if you are hired on permanently. - Other firms with better compensation and company culture will be interested in you. The sink-or-swim culture of Fragomen makes alumni very hireable.
Cons
- Immigration firms make their money from the volume of cases they process. Offices operate like sweatshops, and the cases are generally formulaic and routine. The work is dull and unengaging. - If you start as a temp, expect to be treated with mild annoyance to outright condescension. Temps often find it intimidating to ask questions from attorneys or even other staff members because of the cynical work environment. - Work is unevenly distributed. Many attorneys exist simply to sign off on work done by junior staff. - Because of the condescending environment & uneven workload, new hires are poorly trained and make constant mistakes while working on cases. Escalations and angry clients are a daily occurrence. - Given the above points, turnover is extremely high. This constant turnover contributes to the uneven distribution of work and poor training. - There is no sense of teamwork. Many attorneys make poor managers; they do not have the skills to motivate their staff. - A dead-end position. OT pay is not worth constant stress and condescension.