At the core of Dewey's financial problems were the multiyear, multimillion-dollar pay contracts it gave existing top lawyers and star recruits.
Many of the young immigrants who have sought help for deferred action were victims of crimes or were abandoned, neglected or abused by a parent, making them eligible for visas under existing programs, lawyers said.
According to election lawyers, existing law would require candidates seeking re-election to lower offices to return portions of the donations they received for their citywide campaigns, which have higher contribution limits.
Mr. Davis extended dozens of lucrative long-term contracts to Dewey's lawyers to keep the existing partners happy and poach star lawyers from other firms.
But the larger problem is that rapid urban growth has overwhelmed existing prisons, courts, defence lawyers and police.
Contrary to fears generated by trial lawyers, the existing system of laws and regulations fully protects the city's children.
Existing rules say that lawyers may seek new clients in writing, like in advertising, but that they may not solicit business in person or over the phone.
Published with the disarmingly bland title "New York State Public Health Legal Manual," the doomsday book does not proclaim new law but, rather, describes existing law and gives lawyers and judges ways of analyzing any number of frightening situations.
When the government claimed that it was improving an existing road to Acandí, lawyers for Luis Ángel's community pointed out that there was no existing road to improve; the highway project was being carried out surreptitiously, they argued, in order to evade environmental-impact studies and consultations with indigenous groups.
Although the decision did little to change existing law, some immigration lawyers said, the judges' hands-off position in such a high-profile case was likely to be taken by immigration officials as a signal that the courts would seldom intervene.
