Phillip Clark

03/15/12

Professor Lazarus

Law Office Practices/Legal Ethics

Interview with Immigration Attorney Sheela Murthy

As I was scanning CCBC’s website one afternoon I noticed that an immigration attorney, named Sheela Murthy, had been appointed an honorary chair of the school’s Global Education Committee. This greatly intrigued me. Even though I do not think I would want to work within the immigration sphere specifically, the fact that this area of the law dealt with helping people made me pay attention. In my future work as a paralegal I would very much like to do something that would be impacting, and making a difference in, the lives of individual persons, as opposed to a corporate entity. Public interest, civil rights, and international law remain the areas where I have the most curiosity. Given that the issue of immigration is somewhat intertwined with international law, Sheela Murthy seemed like the ideal candidate for this interview. As I learned more about her, and her ambitious and dramatically influential career, I became even more inspired by the living testimony she exercises daily on behalf of those who have no voice.

PC: What is a typical day at the Murthy law firm like?

SM: In terms of my day, because of our size and because of our operation, and how we’ve set it up, I do less of actual real, legal cases. I do more of mentoring other lawyers and speaking with clients, on consultations and helping with the management of the firm. A lot of fun stuff. First you have to learn the knowledge; you have to be really good as a lawyer, and that’s taken for granted. Then if you’re not good then there’s no way you can go to the next level. And once you’re outstanding at that level you then move to the next level, and then the next level, and then the next level…

So I’d like to think it took a long time but it was well worth it. So, a lot of the day I spend talking to clients, making strategies, drawing the outline of the case, and then once the client hires us then the other lawyers take it on, and then work the cases, work the files, with paralegals doing most of the work, and then the attorney supervises the work of the paralegals.

Every single case is reviewed with importance, paralegals do a lot of the preliminary information, they’re allowed to communicate with clients, they’re allowed to do a lot more at this firm than most other law firms, where paralegals are given very little hands on experience and direct contact with the client, we allow our paralegals to have a lot of contact with the clients.

PC: What do you think would be the most important skill to bring to the table when working for a law firm?

SM: Well, there’s not one necessarily very important skill, I think it’s a combination of skills. The ability to look at raw data, look at the facts of the client’s case, have a very strong knowledge in the law, and if you don’t have the knowledge then go hit the books, study, read. So, the ability to work really hard, to juggle different issues that pull you in ten directions, because there may be ten clients all demanding that you file their case within the next week.

So, how do you juggle it? How do you maintain your sanity and calmness? How do you stay focused and how do you help, and mentor, and guide, and inspire the next younger generation – whether it’s lawyers, or the paralegals, or other support stuff – to keep remembering the mission of why we come to work each day, what we hope to do, and the lives we hope to change, how we help people to realize their great American dream of living and working in this fabulous, great country, called the United States of America. It is a nation of immigrants.

So, keep pointing out the vision, the mission, the policy, the philosophy of the firm. Keep maintaining your balance with the work, pulling you in ten directions. Try to inspire different levels of people and stay focused on what’s the goal. The goal at the end of the day is to get our clients what they need, and if we are calm and focused then we can help them to accomplish their goal, and we can have, hopefully, an opportunity to make them realize their dreams and to have a good life in the bargain.

PC: During the years that you’ve practiced law, what do you think have been some of the most challenging experiences that you’ve encountered?

SM: Well, we get a lot of cases where a lot of other law firms have gotten denials, or haven’t been able to deal with it, or they say, ‘Oh no, you can’t do that’ and we’re like, ‘Well the law is grey. If you want to take a chance we can fight for you,’ and most people say, ‘Well I’m caught between a rock and a hard place, fine I’ll do what I need to do,’ and then we take the case, and we fight it, and we win it.

So, we win a lot of really difficult cases. Some of the fun cases have been suing the U.S. federal government by filing writs of mandamus in the District Court in Washington, the federal District Court in Washington D.C. We’re like apparently number one in the country to file lawsuits against the U.S. government for writs of mandamus, to demand the government to produce the document within a certain timeframe.

That’s been challenging, very difficult cases that others get denials, getting those cases approved. Cases where people have complex criminal issues, sometimes its mistakes they made, and sometimes its stuff that they didn’t intend to make, but it’s happened – partial things. I don’t want to say anything is totally unintentional. People always say, ‘If you choose to drink and drive, then you choose to kill people,’ but, you know, a lot of people say, ‘Well they were depressed, they had a couple extra drinks, they got drunk,’ and then they killed somebody. They didn’t even kill somebody actually, it’s a DUI offense, you can be deported for life, from getting a green card with just a small ticket, a DUI ticket, for a person who’s brilliant, and smart, and an asset for America, to think that we could kick them out…

Sometimes we take cases that are a little bit uphill, steep uphill battle, but we try to win it, at the end of the day that’s why we’re here, to serve the client, to follow the laws, to be ethical, to be just and to be right, but never forget our goal, which is to make a difference in the lives of people.

PC: How exactly did you personally become involved with immigration law?

SM: I went through the process, had a horrible experience, and so decided that if this lawyer’s going to treat me, a fellow colleague as a lawyer, in such a poor fashion, I tried to think how he’s going to treat other doctors, and engineers, and other people in the country. So, I decided that, ‘You know what, maybe we should start…’ because I was doing other law, real estate law and business law, and I said, ‘You know, I wonder if I should do immigration?’ and I’m so glad that we did it because it was the best decision in the world, to do it and corner that whole market.

PC: How did you become involved with the Global Education Committee?

SM: Dr. Sandra Kurtinitis came in here with one of her people and said that, ‘We really, really would like you to be involved, we think you’d be fantastic,’ and they tried to talk me into it. I thought about it, and said, ‘As long as I’m not expected to attend any meetings, regular stuff, and introduce people I’m willing to be an honorary chair, as long as there are other people who are running the consciousness, running the meetings, scheduling meetings, and doing a lot of the work, and I’ll show up once in a while and ask questions, and move people, and give them assignments, and they said that would be fine.

So I got involved again, because I believe in – and they, I think they really impressed me when they said they help, there are as many as 76,000 students that get an education from CCBC, so a fair number of them are from other parts of the world, other countries. And I thought, you know, it would be good if we can try to create a win-win partnership where a lot of the foreign students who don’t have options see that there’s options for them to stay here, and be legal, and make their life here, and see how I could have an impact on the students.

I came through the process; I went through being a student, and then working on a J1, and then an H1, and getting the green card, and becoming a citizen. So, I feel like, if I can help others, why not?

PC: With all the problems that the world at large is facing today, how do you think those in the legal profession could help solve and mitigate those problems?

SM: Well, you have to have passion and desire in what you do. I’ve gone on anti-bride burning dowry marches; I’ve gone on the women’s movement marches that happened in America, 1980, 1990. My goal was always – never – remember I studied law in a country like India initially, I came to America only to do my masters in law. So, I did my law in a country where law is not well respected, it’s one of the poorest paid professions. I was guaranteed a life of poverty and hunger, or, just a little above that as a lawyer. So, it didn’t bother me because I knew was going to fight for justice, I was going to fight against injustice, I was going to help the downtrodden and underprivileged. So, if you don’t have a passion and a desire to make a difference and to truly fight for justice, then you shouldn’t become a lawyer. You have to believe in helping, supporting, and being a voice for people who don’t have a voice.

So you solve it, you go, you do, you can only be who you are, you can only be true to your inner self, and your inner conscience. So, if you have a burning desire to go make some noise and shake people up, maybe law is a great profession for you.

And how can you be successful and do it? You do it, just be true to yourself, don’t tolerate any kind of injustice when it’s being done towards you or against you, or you watch it being done to somebody else. A couple times my husband has said to me, ‘Somebody may true to kill you because you’re so vocal,’ I said, ‘That’s fine, I just want you to know honey I’ll be thrilled, it’ll be an honor and privilege to die knowing I fought for something, or believed in something and died.’ And it may sound like a great martyr, I don’t think it is. I think if you don’t believe in what you believe in, and you don’t fight for what you believe in, you don’t stand up against injustice, then we deserve injustice to be done to us. We have to stand up and say, ‘Excuse me! Hello! What are you doing? Where does this come from? How does this work? Why are you doing this to this person?’ and then say, ‘Who are you to poke your nose when I’m talking to this person?’ and you say, ‘I’m so sorry, officer, I’m really sorry, but this is really not right.’

And they’re going to be pissed at you at times, and it’s possible somebody would kill you if they get pissed enough. If that’s the price you pay for believing in justice and fighting for what you believe I think it’s a small price to pray, but I think the more people do that the less people in power or authority will misuse and abuse that power in ways to harm people. The reason that they do it and get away with it is most people just stand on the side and don’t do anything. Every time you see a cop doing something wrong you call 911 and say, ‘There’s a cop misbehaving, violating the law, violating the police rule of ethics and code. I’m a lawyer, or officer of law you can say, ‘I’m a paralegal, and as a paralegal I’ve studied enough law to know that this looks wrong, this is not what our Constitution protects.’

If nothing else, someone when they file a Freedom of Information Act request on that phone call will find out that they were given notice that there was a problem with the behavior of their officers.

But if you just keep quiet and don’t do even a little bit, then we deserve all the things that are happening wrong to us sometimes.

PC: What ultimately motivates you every day to continue doing your work?

SM: Just the thrill and the excitement, to know that I’m changing, every single day I come in, I know the lives I’m changing, the lives we’re impacting, the dreams we’re helping, the American dream to be realized for all these families, to live and work permanently in America. And even giving a job to my fabulous staff of around 85 people, right here in Baltimore County, Owings Mills. But most important, the fact that we are truly helping all of our clients all across the United States and all across the world to come and live and work legally here, to realize their American dream, to

provide for themselves and their families, financially, emotionally, spiritually, they can provide peace of mind.

Many of them send money back to their home countries, to support their parents, and grandparents, and siblings. We complain all the time that we don’t have enough money for ourselves here, but with the same money that we make, so many immigrants send 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70% of that money back to their families, whether it’s in India, or Mexico, or any other part of the world, so that their siblings can get married, their siblings can get an education, their mothers or fathers can get medical treatment. And the fact that we are helping the world economy and the world to become more successful, and for people to have a slightly better life, that’s what inspires us every day to keep coming back to truly know that we are making an impact in the lives of these people. That’s so exciting!