Educational Tech & Media
We believe that like any modern service business law firms must be both educators and service providers of and for their clients. And once you are in the service business it is also important to be able to reach clients through the channels and mechanisms that they themselves are using to learn and do research.
This was the impetus behind Immi Great, our firm’s first Youtube channel, which as of this writing has close to a million views and several thousand subscribers. Unlike other law firms we did not found a channel on Youtube to stream old, stuffy commercials. Instead, we focus on providing guidance to DIY immigration applicants. This is a group of people who may not be able to afford a lawyer, or have good reason not to want to work with someone to prepare an application. Yet, as attorneys who often practice in front of the USCIS and EOIR, giving professional guidance to DIYers provides a valuable service to them. For us it is rewarding.
Our newest channels (!), include the Spanish-language, live-only Facebook Channel, Un Lugar Live, and our latest Arabic and English dual-language Youtube Channel, Arab American Lawyer. Un Lugar is focused on providing information to Spanish speaking, mixed status immigrant families, on matters ranging from the everyday, like how to deal with a traffic ticket, to the critical, how to file taxes. The Arab American Lawyer, like Immi Great, deals with practical legal know your rights tips for immigrant communities.
In each instance, our goal is value add for the listener and subscriber. We invest a lot (for a law firm) in video production, editing, and equipment, because we believe that our future really is tied to media. We always welcome tips from our fans, as this sort of feedback helps us create better programming.
Tech Products for Learning:
On the tech side we have built out a range of tools that have been spun off into Mi Maletin, where Damjan Denoble, the founder of Bull City Lawyer, is now executive director. These tools focus on giving mixed-status immigrants tools for diagnosing their immigration status and finding assistance. In the past, Bull City Lawyer hosted these tools on its website, along with a smattering of automated contracts for business. For now, we have moved away from business contracting apps.
In the past we also built a few chatbots that good diagnose, to a point, the immigration status of the user, and could give advice on what sort of visa to pursue. As the immigration picture in the U.S. has become complicated, we thought that the simplicity of the tool was too much of a weakness, as the helpful information it could provide would often come to not without much more in depth advice. However, the mascot of that initiative, “Bull-e”, still lives on as an icon you will see on this site from time to time.
The future for us involves designing a range of learning tool apps for immigrants and people involved with the criminal system. We believe that there is a lot 0f self-education that can be done with people if they are given the right tools. As we launch those apps, we will post them here.
