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People v. Stephanie Ellena Grewe
In one immigration matter, Stephanie Grewe agreed in August 2018 to pursue an I-130 petition for an alien relative of a client. For nearly four years, Grewe failed to file any immigration documents other than the I-130 petition and didn’t keep the clients reasonably informed about the status of the matter, including the status of documents filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. When the clients asked Grewe for a USCIS receipt notice of the I-130 petition, she replied that she lost the notice but would obtain another copy. After the clients prodded Grewe several more times for the receipt, she sent them a receipt notice that she falsified in several respects, according to the disciplinary opinion.
Effective Jan. 31, 2023, Grewe was suspended for six months, with 30 days to be served and the remainder stayed on successful completion of a two-year probationary period. She was also suspended from practicing before immigration courts and other related authorities, effective Feb. 13, 2023. Because Grewe never sought reinstatement, she remained suspended in Colorado and with immigration authorities. Even so, the disciplinary opinion noted Grewe knowingly filed several documents with immigration authorities while her law license was suspended. In those filings, she represented that Nebraska was her “licensing authority” and that she was not subject to any order of suspension. In May 2023, Grewe also represented a client before an immigration judge without disclosing her suspension.
In another immigration matter, Grewe failed to meaningfully advance her client’s case from late 2015 through 2023. She filed an I-130 petition, which was revoked due to inaction, and she failed to pursue the client’s mother’s residency. When Grewe’s license was suspended, she didn’t inform her client that she couldn’t represent him and his family after her suspension’s effective date, according to the opinion. She continued to represent the client, concealing her suspension from him and creating the impression she was permitted to do so. Later, the client’s subsequent counsel requested she return the client’s file; she didn’t comply with that request. She also failed to submit a written response or any documents related to the client when disciplinary authorities requested that information.
The presiding disciplinary judge approved Grewe’s stipulation to discipline and disbarred her, effective Aug. 29.