L. Ruth Clark, Partner, Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP
Now a welcome and respected presence at mobility industry conferences, Houston based Ruth Clark is an established legal practitioner.
Ruth’s introduction to immigration-related issues came very early in her professional journey. Interestingly, this first experience involved the rights of asylum seekers. She recounts that beginning,
“I started off in the immigration field when I was in law school. My summer after my 1L year, I took an Asylum Law course, which I found fascinating. The professor who taught the course also ran my school’s Immigration Clinic, and he encouraged me to participate. I worked in the Clinic for two semesters and was able to gain experience working on asylum and Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) cases and an appeal with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Through my professor’s relationship with a partner in a local firm, I secured an internship. It was through this firm that I began to learn the business side of immigration, and after passing the bar, I was hired as an attorney. In my early years of practice, I did removal (deportation) defense, family-based immigration, and business immigration.”
Defending the rights of those facing removal from the US was rewarding, but also emotionally exhausting. When Ruth learned of an opportunity to work with a firm specializing in business-linked immigration, she made the move, albeit with some reservations. She explains, “I was nervous at first that I would not feel as fulfilled only doing corporate immigration work, but there is so much room for growth at so many levels managing clients’ immigration programs and managing the talent within the firm. Earlier this year, after 7 years with my current firm, I was promoted to Partner. Every day is a new challenge and I am able to use the foundation that I built in doing all types of cases to help me in my current role.”
Given the ongoing and very public US national immigration debate and seemingly ever-changing regulatory and legal environment, Ruth Clark’s recent work days present more than their fair share of challenges. As Ruth notes, she’s by no means alone.
She observes, “Everyone in the profession is currently struggling with the increased scrutiny from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). We are dealing with a rapidly changing policy environment and stricter adjudication on the government side. Meanwhile, our clients are grappling with how to secure work visas for their employees, and the employees themselves are in a state of anxiety hearing about all of the changes and denials. We constantly have to come up with creative solutions, allay fears and calm nerves all while navigating the new adjudication trends ourselves.”
Facing daily challenges a plenty, Ruth also finds her work gratifying. Again, it’s all down to personal relationships and positively impacting others. These rewards can be immediate or very long term. Ruth explains, “With business immigration, you are absolutely impacting peoples’ lives, but not to the same degree that you do when you are defending someone from deportation. While we still have very grateful clients, you are not as personally invested in their lives in order to see how your help has truly helped them. Therefore, I primarily find reward in the relationships I create with the people with whom I work in the global mobility sections of the clients who I represent as well as with the people with whom I work internally. On the client side, it is rewarding to know that we are making their jobs easier and making the immigration journey more efficient for their employees. Internally, there is nothing more rewarding than seeing someone progress professionally; taking the knowledge you have helped them gain and then allowing them the autonomy to truly grow in their career.”
As her industry and immigration law have changed in the last few years, so too have Ruth’s responsibilities. These days she spends more time managing others and focusing on her clients’ immigration programs rather than the more transactional tasks of processing of petition filings.
Ruth’s sources of inspiration include her fellow BAL partners on whom she relies for guidance and support professionally. But closer to home, it’s all about her children (ages?). She confides, “Personally, I just have to look to my kids for personal inspiration. They are why I work hard, and I want to be a role model for them.”
Striking a work-life balance isn’t easy for any of us let alone an attorney with a practice stretching across time zones. As Ruth explains, “It’s all about priorities and sharing quality non-screen time, “For me, what is most important is to make my kids feel like they have my attention when I am with them. I leave work around 4:45 every day so that I can pick them up from school, spend some time with them, and have dinner with them. While I still glance at my phone every once in a while to make sure there are no emergencies, I try not to. And there is definitely a no phone policy at the dinner table. Once they’re in bed, I log back in to make up for leaving early. I also make sure to create time for working out each week and train for half marathons. It helps keep me sane and organize my thoughts, and I think it’s important to have non-work personal goals.”
Ruth Clark competing in Aramco's Houston Half Marathon
Ruth Clark has some experience-learned advice to share with those considering a career in immigration law, “I think starting out doing all types of immigration law (family, removal, business) is a good idea as it gives you a foundation that is essential. I see a lot of immigration attorneys who only specialize in one niche area, and they really are at a disadvantage because they can’t see the full picture in order to give full analysis.”
Ruth gives a perfect example of how her previous role practicing removal allowed her to help an individual being detained by the government. Several years ago, an individual who works in the U.S. on a nonimmigrant visa had issues with his entry documents, and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was not going to admit him to the U.S. In a panic, and potentially due to a language barrier, he claimed he was afraid to return to his home country, Canada.
CBP then, by law, had to detain him until the asylum claim could be reviewed, which is not a fast process. It was clear an asylum claim for a fear of returning to Canada would never be approved, and the individual would ultimately be removed, or deported, from the U.S. This would affect his ability to return to his job and life in the U.S. Ruth was able to liaise with CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to allow the individual to withdraw his claim of asylum, withdraw his application for admission to the U.S. and voluntarily return to Canada.
The process took several weeks, but in the end, it allowed him to return to the U.S. to his job with no serious repercussions to his future. After having practiced solely employment-based immigration for years, Ruth says “it was exciting to be able to dip my toe back into the removal realm. It is a high-stress situation that really gets your adrenaline pumping, and you feel an enormous sense of relief when you are able to accomplish what would normally be impossible, and in that process, you affect an individual’s life in such an enormous way.”
A credit to her family, her profession, and her firm, Ruth Clark continues to strive each day, keeping her clients’ interests first of mind, herself and her children centered, and her phone sometimes turned off.