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By Karla Lopez-Owens & S. Daniel Rey-Silva
The practice of law can be unpredictable and surprising. Attorneys are expected to stay abreast of not only changes in the law, but also remain responsive to their clients’ needs. But when your clients are of diverse backgrounds, are nonnative English speakers and are often immigrants, how do you best serve their needs?
One of the most unexpected aspects for attorneys serving Limited English Proficiency (hereinafter “LEP”) clients is the sheer number of LEP clients currently in need of legal services, whether that is immigration, criminal, family, business disputes, etc.
It’s evident that the demographics of Indiana have changed dramatically in the 21st century. For example, Indiana’s Department of Transportation provides that LEP individuals make up over 6% of Marion County’s population, with 4.4% of those being Spanish speaking. Furthermore, Purdue University’s Center for Regional Development analyzed census data and determined that Indiana’s Hispanic population made up 3.5% in 2000 and reached 8.2% in 2020.
Arguably, the Indiana legal community has struggled to keep pace with those changes and clients’ needs. Not being able to meet the needs of these communities’ results in bad outcomes for the client and the legal service providers. Anecdotally, attorneys serving LEP clients often find that they are at capacity. With the limited number of qualified legal service providers, they find it hard to refer out matters to other attorneys who will be able to competently serve these clients’ needs.
Like any other client, the Rules of Professional Responsibility require that attorneys provide competent legal services to all clients regardless of backgrounds or English language abilities. In the legal profession, cultural competency has been defined in the “Oregon State Bar Bulletin” as “the ability to adapt, work and manage successfully in new and unfamiliar cultural settings.” Because of the clients’ evolving circumstances and needs, both new and experienced attorneys serving LEP clients find that challenges encountered are often unique. An effective attorney will recognize these unique challenges and respond accordingly.
For example, Indiana Rule of Professional Conduct (hereinafter “Ind. PR”) 1.4 requires attorneys to “keep the client reasonably informed about the status of the matter” and “promptly comply with reasonable requests for information.” Many of the LEP clients served are often newly immigrated from other countries. Thus, LEP clients frequently do not have a stable mailing address. It is also not unusual for LEP clients to work long hours at multiple jobs. In turn, communicating during the standard 8 a.m.-5 p.m. workday becomes difficult and at times unfeasible. For these reasons, it is critical to have conversations up front with LEP clients about the importance of the client keeping your firm up to date with all contact information — that means address, phone number and email if possible. On that same note, it is imperative for law firms to adapt to these changing communications cultures. For example, we find that many LEP clients can be reached if the law firm is willing to make the effort to communicate via text communications. This grants clients the flexibility to respond at a time that works for the client while allowing the law firm to remain compliant with Ind. PR 1.4.
Clients who recently immigrated may also not have the organizational knowledge which an individual builds up throughout their lifetime. Imagine moving to another state and then having to understand how the local government operates. Many LEP individuals face the same challenges, but to a greater extent, including language and educational barriers. As an attorney, you should be ready to provide basic guidance on governmental organizational structures.
As with any other client, it is crucial that the client understands the scope of your representation and allocation of authority between client and lawyer. See Ind. PR 1.2. Your firm may facilitate the attorney-client relations by providing translations to contracts and documents in the client’s native language. You should consider not just a clause providing the scope, but also addressing the roles that the attorney and the client will play in the representation, providing a detailed description of each other’s responsibilities.
The IndyBar’s Hispanic Lawyers Division will be hosting a virtual 1.5-hour CLE from noon-1:30 p.m. on July 27 addressing the specific challenges raised in the context of the Indiana Rules of Professional Conduct and how each attorney on the panel addresses the special challenges faced in serving clients with limited English proficiency. We will touch on the topics discussed in this article and address how the panel has dealt with difficult clients leading to a breakdown in attorney-client relationship, conflict of interest and other topics in the Indiana Rules of Professional Conduct.•
Karla Lopez-Owens is an attorney and Director of Community Outreach with the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office. Daniel Rey-Silva is an associate with Defur Voran in the Immigration Practice Group.
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