Rationalization
Sociologist George Ritzer explained rationalization in terms of McDonaldization and it’s four principles of efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. McDonaldization is the “process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world” (Ritzer, 1993, p 2). Although Ritzer defined rationalization relative to fast food chains, it was explicitly clear that it was applicable to most professions. While McDonaldization has its advantages, such as uniform quality, safer regulations, less presence of biases, and greater availability of goods or services, it also has its disadvantages. Critiques of McDonaldization cite inefficiency, high cost, dehumanization, homogenization, and disenchantment (Ritzer, 1993, p 7). Immigration lawyers and the justice system are being affected by this new way of working.
Rationalization of IMmigration lawyers
To fully understand how rationalization is affecting immigration lawyers, one must become knowledgeable of the rationalization of immigration policy as a whole. Kate Enegold, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill law school establishes the tone of problems with rationalization within the law, citing that “the law doesn’t always serve justice.” When things are overly rationalized or categorized, there is no room for judgements or circumstantial decisions when judges and juries are making their decisions. The law is so narrowly designed, with limited room for objection. Rationalization within the U.S. court systems has led to greater efficiency and control, yet sometimes at the cost of innocent individuals. Because the U.S. has established such defined laws, the work of immigration lawyers becomes somewhat standardized. Immigration lawyers work especially hard to separate their clients from the “illegal immigrant” stereotype, working effectively and efficiently to establish them as “worthy” of citizenship. A major job of lawyers is removing their client from the crime/event that they have committed.
Political polarization, especially in recent years, has increased the anti-immigration sentiment held by many Americans in the United States. While this sentiment is held by millions, only a very small figure of Americans are not immigrants or descendants of immigrants themselves. A prominent reasoning for upholding this ideology surrounds politicians and their supporter’s wariness that immigrants will take jobs away from Americans. However, the economy is reliant on disposable labor, which is most often done by immigrants who can’t afford not to take these lower paying jobs. They are working the jobs many Americans may not necessarily want. For many, this is hard to accept. This position is an irrational thought, and as Enegold says: a “single market analysis” of the effects of immigration. The divide in ideologies of the public makes the job of immigration lawyers increasingly more difficult, as they have to work to eliminate and deescalate the implicit biases of their audiences. A further issue surrounding the politicization of immigration is the increase in cost to immigrate to the U.S. As immigration costs fluctuate, different flows of people enter the country. Meaning, immigration lawyers must prepare for a variety of clients. The political atmosphere is changing the way immigration lawyers conduct their work.
Trends In Rationalization
Trends in rationalization are changing the legal profession. To begin, technology is increasingly affecting the way law is practiced. In the last few decades, the increase in technological advances has changed the way we work. As the technological world develops, the prospect for routine work done by lawyers to be replaced by algorithms is increasing (Klinkner, 2017). This potential will allow lawyers to focus on the parts of the job that require the most attention. Lawyers will be able to allocate more time to clients and preparation for trial, rather than the demands of paperwork and other small tasks. Further, the allocation of work to algorithms or legal staff creates a more predictable environment. Technology is helping to reduce the uncertainty in lawyers.
Artificial intelligence is changing the way law is practiced. Artificial intelligence is helping to draft contracts for clients. It helps input the client’s data into a general contract, eliminating the need for human involvement (Klinkner, 2017). Additionally, artificial intelligence can be used in cases. Although artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly used, and is often very beneficial, it has its downsides. Artificial intelligence is replacing the need for the lower skilled work, making higher skill leveled positions more valuable. Technology has been replacing the need for human capital for years now, making it plausible that lawyers will eventually be replaced all together.
An often-overlooked aspect of technology that is negatively affecting the law profession is security. With technological advances, both humans and robots are getting better at breaching security systems. With all of lawyers’ confidential information organized online, they are greatly susceptible to security breaches. A growing issue is that firms are not taking necessary precautions to establish a secure network for their firm. Without proper investment, the private information of lawyers and their patients could be illegally obtained (“5 top trends,” 2019). The upward trend in technology use as a form of rationalization in the law profession could lead to a great security risk. In decades before, a security breach would have to involve stealing or duplicating physical documents, which imaginably would be more difficult than for internet hackers today. While the use of technology is a widespread trend across many professions, it must be implemented in a way that cannot be tempered with.
Trends in rationalization have also helped to grow and expand law professions. Most notably, expanded technological resources and increased internet access is allowing for the development of virtual law firms. In 2016, 10% of all solo lawyers had a virtual component to conduct their work (Klinkner, 2017). This is generating increased access to help for consumers and allows lawyers to expand their clientele beyond their primary location. Virtual firms are also rather time efficient, as it eliminates the need for travel for both the client and the lawyer. Trends in rationalization through technology are making it easier for lawyers to expand their clientele. As efficiency grows in the practice of immigration law, lawyers must make certain they are accounting for the time and cases lost to prior inefficiencies. Backlogged cases still remain high, and lawyers must remain diligent and aware of the potential of reverting back to an inefficient practice. Until the majority of these cases are worked through, cases will continue to pile up and reduce the predictability and efficiency of the workplace.
Additionally, it is important to considering how trends in rationalization are helping to diminish the impact of Covid-19 on lawyers and firms. With the expansion of technology, lawyers have had a smooth transition into working remotely. Because everything they need is on a computer, it is not hard to work from home. Further, apps and services like Zoom, Google Hangouts Meet, and GoToMeeting are making remote work feel just as interactive and collaborative as the office. Rationalization is helping lawyers make the transition from in-person work to remote working.
Artificial Intelligence cannot beat emotional intelligence
While technology continues to rationalize the work of immigration lawyers through methods of efficiency and calculability, lawyers still remain in demand. The humanity and individuality that comes with a real lawyer has yet to be perfected by AI, reducing the ability for it to fully take over the job of humans. Bradley Wendel, a professor of law at Cornell, cites that AI is unable to conduct the same tasks as humans because of a lack of normative judgement. He proposes humans to be the “authority” that can alter “the normative situation of a subject; it means possessing the power to change what someone else ought to do” (Wendel, 2019, p 26). Technology may appear to its audiences as overly capable, yet it has its limitations. Additional qualities of lawyers that seem to be irreplaceable are empathy, creativity, in-court appearances, and the ability to create statements and written work that are not obviously computer generated (Wendel, 2019, p 25).
Further, lawyers rely on collaboration for perfecting their craft. The probability for lawyers to reduce their interactions with others from face to face to fully digital is unlikely. Within a law firm or office, it is to be expected to see people collaborating and strategizing to help their clients. The prospect of virtual law firms replacing in-person traditional ones is discussed by John Markoff, a writer for the New York Times in an article that centers around the “overblown” idea that automation will take over the work of lawyers. He offers his opinion on start-ups like LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer: “two sites that can aid in the preparation of legal documents … more likely be in expanding into underserved markets rather than in displacing existing legal services” (Markoff, 2016). This concept should ease all lawyers worried of their future. Additionally, Markoff confidently suggests that while it is expected for roughly 13 percent of legal work to eventually be replaced by automation, it will not cause as much uprooting for lawyers as some predict.
Wendel’s use of the phrase “emotional intelligence” to further describe his reasoning for why humans will not be fully replaced by automation is insightful. When considering the issue of immigration as a whole, human emotion has been used widely to grasp the attention of the public to help advocate for legislation change. The same emotion is needed within an individual courtroom to help persuade the judge and/or jury. Immigrants facing deportation must in-part rely on human emotion to help establish them as a “worthy” person to stay in the United States. It is thus vital to the defendant that a human be present there with them to help demonstrate their humanity. Wendel concludes his opinion on the improbability of AI replacing human lawyers with this question: “would a computer have access to the motives behind any given action, even assuming that people were sincere or reliable reporters of their own motives?” (Wendel, 2019, p 32).
In summary, artificial intelligence will change how immigration lawyers work over the next few decades, but it will not replace the need for them all together. Humans possess certain qualities that cannot be cloned by technology. While artificial intelligence is rationalizing the job of immigration lawyers, it is primarily to help reduce time spent on routine tasks. Immigration will continue to require human capital for some time.
Political complexities
Rick Su, a professor of law at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, addresses Trump’s administration's effect on the rationalization of immigration lawyers during his presidency. Mr. Su describes former President Trump’s policies on immigration to be “half baked.” He explains that lawyers often face difficulty navigating the parameters of the policies he instated, and that oftentimes they don’t have a clear understanding of what is going on internally during their cases. Additionally, the Trump administration did not simply wish to persecuted immigrants who had committed large offenses, they went after everyone. During Trump’s presidency there was a lack of control or equity that focused on significant crimes. This diminished the calculability for immigration lawyers of what their clients may be arrested for and increased the number of immigrants arrested in the U.S. Many of President Trump’s policies were designed out of fear. Whether or whether not these legislations ended up being enacted or caused changed, the prompted fear in communities.
The public remains hopeful that President Joe Biden’s administration will work to repair and undo some of the immigration policies implemented by Donald Trump, yet experts are wary that the legacy of Trump’s anti-immigration administration can be completely erased. This figure supports the potential risk for a great decrease in the number of migrants to the U.S., effectively “diminishing the country’s economic growth, global influence and cherished role as a beacon of freedom and opportunity” (Rampell, 2020). This proposition further establishes the turbulence and lack of rationalization immigration lawyers can expect on the political and policy side of their work. The Trump administration effectively counteracted the workings of rationalization to create a predictable workplace for immigration lawyers, leaving them with little to no calculability in the long term. Because of the frequency of legislation change and mass movements to limit restrictions on immigration in the United States, the work needed of immigration lawyers for decades to come is uncertain.
Irrationalities within Immigration Lawyers
The work of regular defense immigration lawyers is made further difficult by most immigration cases being considered civil. In the United States, defendants only have a right to a lawyer if their case is considered criminal. In most cases, immigrants facing possible deportation or other standard issues are only considered civil, meaning they don’t have a constitutional guarantee to a lawyer. Because of this, there is not much funding to immigration lawyers from the government. If offered, any funding granted to defense immigration work is highly limited. This inequity in the justice system forces many immigrants to attend court unrepresented. There are drastic discrepancies in the percentage of detained versus non-detained immigrants who are able to obtain an attorney. Non-detained immigrants are five times more likely than detained immigrants to have a lawyer (Eagly & Shafer, 2016, p 5). As a result, many immigrants remain unrepresented, affecting the outcome of the case. Immigrants who’ve had assistance from attorneys in detained cases are more likely to be released than those without council (Eagly & Shafer, 2016, p 17, see figure 3). Rationalization in terms of control of resources to immigrants facing detention and deportation has allowed the U.S. government to have almost complete reign over the success of their cases. While immigration lawyers work diligently to help as many immigrants in need, the lack of public funding and resources available limits them.
Conclusion
George Ritzer delved into the fundamentals of modern society and the implications of rationalization on professions, like immigration lawyers, exposing the fallacies of the way Americans work. Immigration lawyers have been affected by rationalization in all aspects: control, predictability, calculability, and efficiency. These effects have ranged in costs and benefits to lawyers, having the greatest effect on the routine tasks often conducted by immigration lawyers. As technology continues to be innovated, routine and low-skilled work will continue to be replaced by automation. While this will surely lead to greater efficiency and control in the work environment, it may also lead to increased competition.
Technological advances and artificial intelligence are increasing the rationalization of the work of immigration lawyers, for better and for worse. While technology is helping reduce the routine tasks immigration lawyers once had to, it is also taking over jobs for real humans. Artificial intelligence is leading to law firms replacing low-skilled workers with technology and hiring less and less newcomers. Because of this, finding a job right out of law school has been made more difficult. Given the turn of events of 2020, many students pursuing a career in law ended up taking a hiatus, and some decided against going altogether. The expense of law school is deterring people, especially when they worry they may not end up with a job upon graduation. Another implication of technology is that it is helping aid solving cases. Surveillance and tracking technology has made determining the level of crime much easier, benefiting both sides of the law.
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Image 6 Bernstein, Joanna. When Manuel Was Deported from Pittsburgh to Guatemala, He Entered The 'Deportation-to-Death Pipeline' - PUBLICSOURCE: News for a BETTER PITTSBURGH. 14 Aug. 2019, www.publicsource.org/the-life-deportation-and-death-of-guatemalan-immigrant-manuel-brito/.
Image 4 Fishman, Noreen, and Name *. “How to Overcome the Challenges of Managing a Virtual Law Firm.” Good2bSocial, 30 Mar. 2020, good2bsocial.com/how-to-overcome-the-challenges-of-managing-a-virtual-law-firm/.
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