American Immigration Lawyers Association recognizes MHB immigration lawyer Ester Greenfield for Pro Bono immigration legal services
Posted by Carmen Carrillo
Ester Greenfield is now semi-retired and maintains her long association with MacDonald Hoague & Bayless and its immigration group. In her former practice, she represented a wide variety of clients, including individuals, start-up companies, and large corporations. She actively consults with the practicing immigration lawyers at MacDonald Hoague & Bayless, bringing her years of experience to today's immigration challenges.
How did you get started with pro bono work?
I was always interested in pro bono work but I didn't have time to do much while I was practicing business, family, and citizenship law full time, raising a son, sharing management of a law firm, and trying to balance family obligations. Many amazing immigration lawyers are able to do it all at the same time, but I could not. I only did sporadic pro bono work until I retired.
Why do you do pro bono? What do you personally get out of doing pro bono work?
It is so obvious that it is rewarding to help each individual person who could not otherwise get help. The work provides purpose, uses the skills I developed for so many years, and the people you help appreciate it so much.
What has been your most rewarding experience and your most challenging experience doing this work?
Most rewarding: In the fall of 2023, I fell in with efforts at the Riverton Park United Methodist Church (RPUMC) in Tukwila WA to help homeless migrants, including many Venezuelans. With the support of a local organization, Jewish Coalition for Immigrant Justice, nonlawyer Ellen Kleyman and I developed a Monday afternoon clinic at RPUMC that helped these community members apply for TPS and CBP-1 work permits. Dozens of volunteers participated in the weekly clinics. Until these programs were terminated in the spring of 2025, we filed applications for more than 400 people. It was so rewarding to develop systems for processing all of these applications, to find ourselves in the midst of a supportive and caring community of well-trained and dedicated volunteers, and to help so many people. And most of the benefits sought were granted!!!!!!
Most challenging: RPUMC, working with AILA and Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), also developed a monthly asylum clinic on Saturdays that helped hundreds of people apply for asylum in their removal proceedings. Now OHS is seeking to pretermit many of these applications based on ACAs, asylum cooperative agreements. OHS is trying to deport these asylum seekers to 3rd countries. We are trying to come up with a scalable strategy for fighting back. It is challenging because it takes a lot of time to prepare an opposition brief, even with the excellent templates available from CGRS, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies.
What is a pro bono project you are currently working on that you are most passionate about?
I just filed one brief in opposition to a Motion to Pretermit. I am outraged that our government seeks to deprive asylum seekers who came here in good faith of the opportunity to have their persecution claims heard in the US.
Do you have advice for other attorneys interested in taking on pro bono matters?
Every community has opportunities for immigration lawyers to provide pro bono services. Attorneys should be aware that the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project's litigation a few years ago resulted in an EOIR rule allowing attorneys to assist unrepresented respondents by filing the EOIR 61 or 60 notice of limited appearance. This allows attorneys to provide document and drafting assistance without committing to represent the client in a removal case that could go on for years. The attorney helps with one brief or pleading at a time and the client remains pro se. Attorneys who want to help but are not willing to take on a long-term pro bono commitment should consider filing individual pleadings in appropriate cases using this rule.