Posted:

04/24/2001

By JEFF WRIGHT
The Register-Guard

Raquel Hecht speaks her clients' language - in more ways than one.

The only lawyer in Eugene devoted exclusively to immigration law, Hecht can greet a client in Spanish - or Portuguese, Italian, French and several other languages she speaks.

According to friends, co-workers and clients, she also speaks the language of blunt compassion: "She talked to me like I was an actual person, not just another client," says Toni Chapman-Sanchez of Monroe. "She's straightforward, she tells you the truth, and I love it."

Hecht, 34, operates a law office in a converted home just east of Eugene City Hall. The largest immigration law firm in the southern part of the state, the office handles about 400 immigration-related cases each year from Albany to Medford and beyond, helping clients acquire visas, residency status and U.S. citizenship.

The office includes Hecht and six staffers, and there's a partner and third lawyer in a smaller branch in Portland. Unlike most lawyers, Hecht charges a flat fee rather than bill by the hour - in keeping with her philosophy that clients should have all their immigration concerns addressed without having to guess about the cost.

Hecht put in long work hours even before December, when Congress passed a new immigration law that gave illegal immigrants until April 30 to seek permanent residency without first having to leave the country. She and her staff have been so swamped with requests for help - 10 to 20 phone calls a day - that they had to temporarily refuse new appointments.

Hecht says she serves plenty of Canadians, British citizens, Russians and Australians. But Spanish-speaking clients account for about half of her business, and she readily admits that the people of Central and South America hold a special place in her heart.

It was an appreciation cultivated at an early age for Hecht, who grew up in Los Angeles and remembers being cared for by a Brazilian woman who spoke only Portuguese. Enamored by the woman's culture and language, Hecht realized a childhood dream when she spent a year in Brazil as an exchange student.

For several years, in fact, she spoke Portuguese almost exclusively - even when she returned to the United States or traveled abroad. "Everywhere I went, I just told people I was from Brazil," she said.

Learning new languages has always come easy to her, and worked to her advantage when she chatted up her Scandinavian husband-to-be - in Swedish. The two met as graduate students in international studies at UCLA.

Hecht said she was uncertain of her career path and applied for law school on something of a lark. But it proved fateful when her husband, Lars Skalnes, was hired as a political science professor at the University of Oregon.

They moved north, and Hecht quickly found herself in demand as a Spanish-speaking lawyer. She briefly assisted clients at Centro LatinoAmericano, a social service agency for Hispanics in Eugene, before opening her own law practice in 1994.

Hecht said her passion for helping immigrants comes from personal experience. "I've been a foreigner in so many countries myself, I feel like I understand their needs and how I can help them," she said. "It's more a personal than political thing for me."

But friend Jane Cramer - a political science professor who teaches with Hecht's husband - says it runs deeper than that. Hecht's life experiences, she said, have caused her to embrace other cultures and their people - and to recoil at the unfair burdens she feels the immigration system places on them.

"It makes a lot of sense to her to help unite families across borders," Cramer said. "To her, it just seems nuts that people can't move freely and be with their loved ones.

"She has a lot of empathy for people of other cultures," Cramer added. "She's experienced other cultures and sees their people as more similar than different from us."

Cramer calls her friend an idealist who sometimes obsesses on the need to make the law compassionate. "She feels overwhelmed because there's a huge need for what she does, and she doesn't have enough hours in the day."

Hecht is serious about her work, but attacks it with a friendly manner laced with caustic humor. The mood in her office is convivial, the ambiance more homey than lawyerly. There's even a music stand with sheet music in a corner of Hecht's office, where she likes to play the Brazilian guitar.

As recently as last fall, she was taking lessons once a week. "But not now," she said, alluding to the extra workload brought on by the immigration law. "I told my instructor, I'll see you after April 30."

THE HECHT FILE

Name: Raquel Hecht

Family: Husband Lars Skalnes, political science professor at UO; two sons, Erik, 3, and Benjamin, 2.

Education: Law degree and master's degree in Latin American studies from UCLA; bachelor's degree in Latin American studies from New York University; attended universities in Brazil, France, Italy and Spain.

Languages: Fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French. Semifluent in Norwegian, Swedish, German, Japanese.

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