Attorney Jennifer Atkinson will speak about practicing immigration law in Midcoast, Maine on Wednesday, November 16, at 6:30-8:00 p.m. at the Rockport Opera House Conference Room. This event is free and open to all.

The map of immigration pathways into the U.S. is as confusing and fascinating as the Delorme Atlas. Some routes are smooth and relatively predictable while others are slow and difficult to follow. In Maine, navigators are hard to find as there are few lawyers who specialize in immigration law (and almost all who do are located in and around Portland.) Foreign nationals with few resources, like asylum seekers, often have to find their way unaided. Immigration attorneys who start practices far from Portland can also find themselves out on a limb.  Having recently started practicing immigration law in the Midcoast, Jennifer Atkinson will share insights from this experience and her work with asylum seekers.

A graduate of Cornell Law School, Jennifer’s legal career began when she came to Maine in 1993 to advocate for ocean and coastal conservation. She worked on these issues in Maine for both the Conservation Law Foundation and the Quebec-Labrador Foundation. In 2013, she made the shift into immigration law in order to represent individual clients and become more involved in an area of law that has deeply affected her own life. Her practice currently focuses on cases involving humanitarian, family-based, and citizenship matters.

This presentation is hosted by the Rockport Opera House and offered as a free community event in in anticipation of the 30th Annual Camden Conference –Refugees and Global Migration: Humanity’s Crisis, February 17-19, 2017. The 30^th Anniversary Camden Conference Community Events Series is supported in part by the Maine Humanities Council.