Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2007 13:43:19 -0700 From: Norm Matloff To: Norm Matloff Subject: Pittsburgh local angle about YouTube-Gate To: H-1B/L-1/offshoring e-newsletter Here's the local angle below on "YouTube-Gate," with some interesting quotes, and a surpise I'll add at the end. I must say, this statement, while certainly not new, tells the story in the most succinct manner I've seen yet: # The segment of the video drawing all the attention is one in which # lawyers from Cohen & Grigsby's highly regarded immigration practice # advocate methods to comply with a law requiring employers prove that # they have tried to find qualified American workers before applying for a # green card for a foreign worker. The lawyers urge the audience, in so # many words, to do exactly the opposite. I should add, though, that there is a lot more there than just that one segment. Unfortunately, what's on the Web now is only part 9 of 20 parts, and in fact only a small excerpt. There are in fact a number of other outrageous segments in the parts of the video that are no longer on the Web. The law firm's response (see below) cleverly exploits this, by giving the impression that the small part put on the Web by the Programmers Guild is the only offensive part, which is not true. # Yesterday, Cohen & Grigsby put out a statement that while the firm # stands by the substance of the seminar, "we regret the choice of words # that was used during a small segment of the seminar. It is unfortunate # that these statements have been commandeered and misused, which runs # contrary to our intent." Again, it was not just "a small segment." Even the article here shows some other segments showing the firm advising clients to use loopholes to avoid hiring Americans. And who do they think they're fooling when they say that the statemets are "contrary to our intent"? Their intent was crystal clear--to help their clients avoid hiring Americans. Note also that their intent, shown in another part of the video but not mentioned in this article, was clearly to help clients pay their foreign workers less than market wage. See this and other points in my detailed analysis of the videos, at http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/YouTubeVideosH1B.txt The article here notes: # Cohen & Grigsby, one of Pittsburgh's top 10 largest law firms, had This is very important. As I mentioned before, this is not some rogue law firm. EVERY IMMIGRATION LAW FIRM DOES THIS. The use of loopholes illustrated in the videos, in order to avoid hiring Americans and to use foreign workers as cheap labor, is standard practice. An immigration lawyer can't afford to NOT do these things, just like a good tax accountant can't afford NOT to use every possible loophole. The issue is always to save the client as much money as possible, whether it be taxes or payroll costs. # But the issue is slightly more complicated than it is being portrayed on # the Internet, said Crystal Williams, deputy director for programs at the # American Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington, D.C. # When companies apply for a green card for a worker, she said, it's often # for somebody that they already have brought over on a temporary visa and # is working at the company. But in order to fill the green card # requirement that there are no qualified American candidates, the company # needs to redo the job search -- even though they already have somebody # working in that position. Indeed! And you know what? This AILA representative Williams is being just as tricky here as this law firm is in the videos. Let me explain: That temporary visa she cited above, H-1B, does NOT require employers of H-1Bs to try to recruit Americans. So, what Williams is referring to is that the employers bring the foreign worker on the temporary visa, without having to recruit Americans, and then when they sponsor that worker for permanent residence, Williams says they shouldn't have to recruit an American since they already have the foreign worker! And note that the AILA has always opposed adding a requirement to H-1B under which Americans must be recruited. This is real chutzpah. Remember, this is the American Immigration Lawyers Association talking! So if I didn't convince you above that all immigration lawyers do these things, this quote from the AILA should remove any remaining doubts you may have had. Now get this: # In the Cohen & Grigsby video, attorneys advocated placing advertisements # in newspapers -- where they would be less likely to find qualified # workers -- versus more fertile recruitment venues such as Monster.com or # campus recruitments. "Certainly we are not going to try to find a place # where applicants would be most numerous," said Mr. Lebowitz, who is also # an adjunct professor of immigration law at the University of Pittsburgh # School of Law. You already know about the first few lines here. But I'm now referring to the last two lines, citing Lebowitz's status as an adjunct professor at Pitt. There is more to this story--much more. Lebowitz and his firm have a very cozy relationship with the University of Pittsburgh. The university's Katz Graduate School of Business has developed a program they call KATZPORT. This program PAYS THE H-1B FEES for foreign students who get a job with a U.S. employer after graduation. And guess who those fees go to? They go to LEBOWITZ'S LAW FIRM, Cohen & Grigsby! It's all explained on the Katz Web page, at http://www.katz.pitt.edu/career_katzport.html Norm http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07173/796195-28.stm City law firm's immigration video sparks an Internet firestorm Friday, June 22, 2007 By Anya Sostek, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette What started as a simple marketing video for Downtown law firm Cohen & Grigsby has resulted in an Internet firestorm encompassing tens of thousands of YouTube viewers, Lou Dobbs and the U.S. Secretary of Labor. The video features portions of Cohen & Grigsby's "Seventh Annual Immigration Law Update," held May 15 at the Pittsburgh Hilton, Downtown. The segment of the video drawing all the attention is one in which lawyers from Cohen & Grigsby's highly regarded immigration practice advocate methods to comply with a law requiring employers prove that they have tried to find qualified American workers before applying for a green card for a foreign worker. The lawyers urge the audience, in so many words, to do exactly the opposite. "Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker," said partner Lawrence Lebowitz on the video. "And, you know, that in a sense that sounds funny, but it's what we're trying to do here." When Kim Berry, president of an organization called the Programmers Guild that opposes the issuance of visas to foreign workers, watched the video clip after he received it in an e-mail on Saturday, he thought it was anything but funny. Mr. Berry shortened the video from the version that he received, adding subtitles and music for emphasis. "I grabbed the two masters and edited it down, just to make it more convenient for the few hundred people I thought might want to watch it," he said. "I didn't expect it to get 44,000 hits in three days." *By the end of the weekend, political blogs of all stripes -- from DailyKos to National Review's The Corner -- had linked to the video, which just so happened to play nicely into issues raised in the immigration bill that the U.S. Senate is debating this week.* Yesterday, Cohen & Grigsby put out a statement that while the firm stands by the substance of the seminar, "we regret the choice of words that was used during a small segment of the seminar. It is unfortunate that these statements have been commandeered and misused, which runs contrary to our intent." The firm already removed its version of the video after a Monday article in the online publication Information Week detailed the controversy. But Mr. Berry's version remains on the Internet and by Tuesday, the story was widespread enough to be featured on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight," with Mr. Dobbs saying that "the law firms and everyone else, they're just basically try to [stick it to] the American worker." Cohen & Grigsby, one of Pittsburgh's top 10 largest law firms, had found itself embroiled in the 24-hour news cycle fueled by cable news and the blogosphere. And it was about to get worse. Yesterday, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao asking her for assistance in "reviewing the video and investigating the law firm's unethical procedures." What made the video into such an Internet hit, said Mr. Berry, is that it validated long-held suspicions that he and others had been unable to substantiate. "It's proof from the attorneys themselves that they are getting resumes from qualified Americans and they are going through all sorts of steps so that Americans don't get jobs," he said. "It shows what's really happening behind the curtain." But the issue is slightly more complicated than it is being portrayed on the Internet, said Crystal Williams, deputy director for programs at the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington, D.C. When companies apply for a green card for a worker, she said, it's often for somebody that they already have brought over on a temporary visa and is working at the company. But in order to fill the green card requirement that there are no qualified American candidates, the company needs to redo the job search -- even though they already have somebody working in that position. "It sounded a lot worse than it is," said Ms. Williams. "They were talking about the electronic labor certification and that is a program that is very formalized. By its very nature, it's a little bit twisted." That twisted process leads to what Mr. Berry considers to be "fake" newspaper advertisements for jobs that are essentially already filled with green card candidates. For years, he's been tracking such ads in his hometown newspaper, The Sacramento Bee. In the Cohen & Grigsby video, attorneys advocated placing advertisements in newspapers -- where they would be less likely to find qualified workers -- versus more fertile recruitment venues such as Monster.com or campus recruitments. "Certainly we are not going to try to find a place where applicants would be most numerous," said Mr. Lebowitz, who is also an adjunct professor of immigration law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. If a company does find an undeniably qualified American candidate through newspaper advertising, "if necessary schedule an interview, go through the whole process to find a legal basis to disqualify them for this particular position," said attorney Jennifer L. Barton on the video. Those particular sections of the video "sounded bad," Ms. Williams said. "I don't know that they are common practice." Advertising positions in places where a company would not find job applicants, she said, is "kind of the opposite" of the correct process. But the real problem, said Ms. Williams, is the immigration process itself. "Nobody's happy with it -- that's about the one consensus we can get, and that includes the Department of Labor," she said. "That being said, no one's been able to come up with a better one."