A Portland immigration lawyer has been suspended after the state bar said he failed to notify clients of removal orders and other major developments in their cases.

Felix Hagenimana must cease all work on hundreds of immigration cases, according to an emergency order signed on July 1 by Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy.

Hagenimana Notices by emilycovering

Murphy’s order was issued on an emergency basis, following a lengthy petition from the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar. The petition was filed under seal, according to court records, which the bar’s attorneys said was necessary, given the alleged conduct.

They argued that Hagenimana failed to file important documents in immigration court, leading to removal orders against several people. They accused Hagenimana of having clients and employees, who are not lawyers, write up their own filings, which he would file without review, and of advising an employee to create filings using generative artificial intelligence.

“Hagenimana has a high volume of vulnerable immigration clients who have critical, time-sensitive litigation matters,” bar attorneys wrote in the petition. “Hagenimana’s conduct created both a substantial risk of harm, and actual harm, to his clients’ finances, liberty, and ultimately their lives, specifically for those who were later removed from Maine and the United States.”

Hagenimana disputed the bar’s claims in a text to a reporter on Tuesday and said he intends to address the bar’s allegations through the ongoing disciplinary process.

He was admitted to the Maine bar in 2018, and has not previously faced public discipline from the bar.

“My work has focused on some of the most vulnerable people in our legal system, and I have always taken that responsibility seriously,” Hagenimana wrote. “The recent actions involving my law practice are deeply disappointing to me, particularly because of the impact they have on my clients.”

The bar believes that Hagenimana and a business he co-owns based in Bath, Asylum Services LLC, are counsel of record in approximately 1,500 cases, and that he typically charges between $1,000 and $7,000 for representation.

The bar’s petition cites accounts from several other immigration lawyers, community members and former clients, who said Hagenimana failed to communicate with clients and ensure that they understood their legal cases. In at least one case the bar identified, a former client said he wasn’t aware that Hagenimana was representing him for at least a year, because he believed he had signed a contract with a lawyer in New Hampshire whom Hagenimana worked with.

That attorney, Donald Lader, did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. Lader is principal owner of Asylum Services.

An immigration judge issued a removal order against that former client, according to the bar, after Hagenimana did not file pleadings requested by the court. Hagenimana later indicated to the bar that he chose not to respond, according to the petition, in an apparent effort to get the immigration judge to close the removal proceedings.

According to the petition, Hagenimana told the bar in September, in response to the client’s complaint, that he believed that when neither party filed a response, immigration judges usually terminated the proceedings, allowing asylum claims to be considered by a different agency that would not deport people. Hagenimana provided the bar with other examples of cases where he used this strategy, according to the petition.

Several other immigration attorneys and experts told the bar this was wrong, according to the petition, and that attorneys like Hagenimana “are required to comply with court orders in immigration matters” and that “failure to do so can result in a client being foreclosed from other forms of specific relief.”

The client who filed the original complaint hired another immigration lawyer and was able to reopen his case after the removal order by arguing ineffective assistance of counsel, according to the bar’s petition.

Even after the client notified Hagenimana in a Whatsapp call that he was firing him, the bar alleged that Hagenimana went on to file his own motion to reopen the case “against his client’s best wishes.”

In other cases identified in the petition, one attorney told the bar that she felt Hagenimana engaged in “constructive abandonment” of clients. He agreed to represent one client who was detained and then didn’t reach out ahead of a significant hearing, which Hagenimana asked an “ill-prepared” associate attorney to attend.

The bar said Hagenimana also failed to file the appropriate paperwork with the right courts to request that the client be released on bond.

Hagenimana threatened at one point to stop representing the man without additional payment, after the family had already paid him more than $4,000 to work on the client’s asylum case and bond request, according to the bar’s complaint.

That client was ordered removed to his native country, where “he faced a significant risk of political and ethnic persecution,” the bar wrote. When the client requested his file back from Hagenimana so he could pursue an appeal, the bar alleged that Hagenimana refused until he was paid.

Following Murphy’s orders, the bar directed all current clients of Hagenimana, Lader and Asylum Services to email “[email protected]” or to call 207-209-7131 for further assistance. Aria Eee, executive director of the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar, said on Tuesday that neither Hagenimana nor Asylum Services is able to represent people in court.

Eee said that the bar also oversees the Maine Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection, which is used to reimburse clients who suffer losses caused by an attorney’s dishonest conduct. More information can be found on the bar’s website, or by calling 207-623-7801.

Editor’s note: One of the bar attorneys who worked on this case is married to a Portland Press Herald employee.