6. Please indicate whether or not you use outside counsel and if you do, note which option best describes your system. (Please note question about how attorneys are chosen in comments box under this question.)

• We have one primary attorney that we encourage employees to use; however, it is not required.
• Used RFP to initially select counsel; also have in-house counsel who specializes in immigration and services as liaison
• For Labor Certs, we use approved counsel hired through RFP process. For anything else, it is the FN's decision.
• We pay for firm selected by U but applicant is free to select own firm
• We have not used an RFP. We have had relationships with a couple of firms and have ended up using the one that worked best with us. It is still more expensive than we'd like but the results are good.
• The college does the Labor Cert and I-140 in-house and also uses outside counsel from time to time. However, the foreign national is responsible for retaining and paying for his or her own attorney to file the application for permanent residence.
• Our attorneys are appointed as Special Assistant Attorneys General to assist with immigration matters.
• An "approved list" is something of a misnomer for our practice. There is a firm to which our International Education Office generally refers nonimmigrants for LPR applications, but any attorney may be retained. However, University policy requires approval of the outside counsel by General Counsel's Office prior to retaining that attorney or firm. There is no process or criteria that the General Counsel's office uses to provide approval. It is more of a check to ensure that the legal fee is reasonable, and to caution against local attorneys with whom there have been problems in prior cases.
• Outside counsel is still assigned sometimes based on individual circumstances. However, cases are assigned out on a matter-specific basis by the State Attorney General's Office after a request to the university’s Office of Legal Affairs. There is no list of approved firms or attorneys.
• The contract was handled by the University Legal Counsel. I believe they did use a formal bid process when they first chose the law firm.
• Attorneys are added by ISSS office. ISSS office must request vetting through systemwide Office of the President (10 campus system).
• We have a part-time, in-house attorney. We also provide a reference list of attorneys on our website for self-sponsored cases.
• None of the above. Use university counsel for home institution only (not university-wide), but use outside counsel in unique/special circumstances. Those instances outside counsel is selected by the institution with approval of university system's general counsel.
• None of the above. Our office of General Counsel will use any counsel who is a registered member of a state bar.
• General Counsel works with State Depth of Justice to assign attorney
• The attorneys on the list were vetted by the office of General Counsel. The limit is 4. If problems arise, General Counsel will review to determine if they should remain on the list.
• Attorneys are selected based on our experience in working with them or from external recommendations. An attorney can be removed because of bar disciplinary actions, poor quality of work or difficulty in working with.
• All outside counsel appointments are made through the state Attorney General, although the individual universities have input in the selection
• University Counsel has an immigration lawyer on retainer who can be contacted for advice, not casework. We rarely use this. An employee/dept can use outside counsel for petitions, but university counsel must approve if university funds will be used.
• The University completes the first two-steps of employment-based immigration but the FN must pay for and file their own I-485.
• We have one main outside counsel contracted by the university, but we use others for specific types of cases.
• We process the applications in house, but if there are issues/questions, we refer to our immigration attorney on retainer. Our attorney was selected using an RFP.
• The institution ask for an estimated or quotation, depending on cases and situations from lawyers we have worked before.
• There is a university system wide contract with an immigration law firm that we use to file all LPR cases.
• We do not provide a list. At this time, we will use one law firm and refer all cases to that one law firm.
• List was inherited; forwarded to system-wide General Counsel for vetting. Attorneys are removed from the list by General Counsel for unsatisfactory performance at the request of the campus office having responsibility for the process.
• We do file cases in house. The position is structured, trained, and funded for this.
• We also provide a short list of attorneys who have a history of involvement in NAFSA because they're familiar with academic filings.
• Attorney must be on approved list for the state and our institution. No RFP that I am aware of.
• Terms/cost set by General Counsels office; reviewed annually
• For some cases, we use outside counsel - must have special asst attorney general designation (university represented by the state's AG's office). Only one law firm currently has this designation for immigration purposes for our university.
• Has been in use since I started.
• We file OPRs, standard and special handling LCs in-house. If international employee wants to hire outside counsel to file an OPR, he/she must first obtain university permission. He/she can hire any attorney of choice.
• The director and assistant director of ISSS has had positive experiences with the original 4 attorneys on the list. One attorney was added after he was recommended by one of our attorneys for a possible mandamus action. After reviewing his credentials and given the positive experience we had with him, we asked if he would like to be added to our list.
• Used an RFP.
• Our Office of Legal Counsel, in consultation with the Office of International Services, has negotiated preferential rates with two law firms.
• Office of General Counsel has one immigration firm on retainer that the Univ uses when necessary, but we (Scholar Services) often refer scholars to outside attorneys we know and trust for such matters as family based PR, Adjustment of Status filing or problems, maintaining PR issues, etc.
• General Counsel selected 3 attorneys that are on approved list to do work for institution.
• For university-sponsored PR petitions (Standard Labor Certs) we have a contracted attorney determined through the RFP process decided upon by the International Office and University Counsel. For non-university sponsored petition or other immigration-related issues where an immigration attorney may be needed we provide the AILA immigration attorney list for the state as a reference.
• Our in-house counsel works just for our institution. Some cases are referred to outside counsel. The attorney has to be on the Attorney General's approved list. I'm not familiar with the process of getting on the Attorney General's list.
• The State's Attorney General's Office appoints the attorneys
• We process 99% in-house but have occasional need for outside counsel. We have been trying for 2 years to establish a select list of attorneys. We conducted an RFP and took results/recommendations to the powers on campus. It has stalled so we are left acting like we have a select list - but if pushed by beneficiary or PI we allow any known (via AILA and peers) imm. lawyer
• Firms are vetted/established by RFP; I have discretion to use whom I choose within this rubric.