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Utah Legal Assistant Sued by State Bar for Posing as an Attorney

By Lynne DeVenny

The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that Leticia Avila, a legal assistant formerly employed by the Ayres Law Firm in Sandy, has been sued by the Utah State Bar for practicing law without a license and taking money from undocumented immigrants, in the guise of assisting them with their immigration paperwork.

At least 17 people who claim they were defrauded by Avila face deportation, some as soon as next week. Many say they knew the Davis County woman as a fellow member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In addition to losing money, the victims also lost their opportunity to present legitimate legal arguments on their right to stay in the United States, the suit says.

Her former employer, attorney Tyler Ayres, told the Tribune that Avila was a good employee and did not represent herself as an immigration attorney ? but that he terminated her employment a few weeks ago to focus on DUI cases.

The Salt Lake City Weekly recently published a feature story based on an interview with Uruguayan Sylvia Mendes, who alleges that she gave Avila $4,000.00 in cash to help her family, which includes two children with Down Syndrome, with its immigration status.

Avila told the Weekly that she did take money from approximately a half dozen immigrants but says she gave it to another church member that had a friend in the Department of Labor who could falsify immigration documents.

?I thought the Lord was using me as an instrument in his hands,? Avila told the Weekly.

Somehow I?m finding it hard to believe that the Lord really wanted this legal assistant to take large amounts of cash from fellow church members trying to become legal U.S. residents and instead of aiding them, got many of them deported without judicial recourse.

Full post as published by Practical Paralegalism on July 08, 2009 (boomark / email).