Bailey finds ideal job with community Legal Center

Law Talk profile for The Memphis Daily News

Jan. 31, 2013

At the beginning of January, Johnna Bailey began work as immigration attorney for the Community Legal Center, a resource for the working poor.

“It’s defined as those who are just above the poverty line, meaning that legal aid would not serve them, but it’s still too expensive for them to hire a private attorney,” Bailey said.

In addition to the immigrant justice program, directed by Bailey, there is also, within the CLC, a civil division handling cases such as uncontested divorces, tenant-landlord issues, wills and estates.

Immigration falls under federal law and, because the immigration court for the region is in Memphis, the program services all of Tennessee, Arkansas, the western third of Kentucky and areas north of Jackson in Mississippi. It keeps Bailey and her colleague, Sally Joyner, a 2012 graduate of the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, extremely busy.

“We obviously see a lot of clients, many of whom we aren’t able to service just because of capacity, so half of my job is representing those clients, but the other half would be placing those clients with pro bono attorneys,” Bailey said.

She has found the Memphis legal community to be willing and eager to help when called upon and, to that end, the CLC also works to train lawyers who don’t have any previous immigration experience … (read more)