PITTSFIELD — In recent weeks, immigrants in Berkshire County have been scrambling to determine the status of their cases after learning their lawyer — one of the only immigration law specialists in the county — allegedly failed to manage them, according to people working closely with former clients.

Local groups that help immigrants navigate the resettlement process held legal clinics this month to assist over 40 former clients of Scott Paul Clark, whose Massachusetts and Rhode Island law licenses were administratively suspended amid disciplinary investigations. Clark kept his immigration law practice open in the months following the suspension, according to several sources working with the families.

Clark has disputed that he was barred from practicing immigration law, which is handled in federal court.

The scramble to assist the clients comes amid heightened federal immigration enforcement under the Trump administration, when even brief lapses in legal representation can have consequences.

Clark, who has an office on North Street, was placed on administrative suspension effective in March after the state Board of Bar Overseers said he failed to meet deadlines to respond to the inquiries into "complaints involving allegations of ethical misconduct," according to the agency's petition seeking Clark's administrative suspension.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued the suspension under a rule that allows the court to sideline an attorney who fails to participate in a disciplinary investigation.

The suspension is not a final punishment for misconduct, but will remain in place until he complies with the investigators from the bar association so the underlying complaints can be examined. The complaints that prompted the investigations are not public, and Clark declined to discuss them when reached by The Eagle.

The community organizers who help immigrants get settled in the Berkshires said the suspension came on the heels of months of unreturned calls, missed filings and stalled immigration cases that left some clients unaware of critical court dates or decisions.

Community organizer Fernando A. León said that in recent months he and colleagues have assisted dozens of Clark's former clients — some who discovered their immigration cases had stalled despite them paying Clark.

At a community legal clinic at the Berkshire Athenaeum earlier this month, attorneys said multiple people arrived with urgent questions about their status and cases. Two immigration attorneys from Framingham firm Centurion Legal Group were on hand to answer questions from dozens who attended, some with their children.

Around two hours into the clinic, one of the attorneys, Luciano Park, said he had spoken to about a dozen people, and helped them look up details about their cases.

He had discovered that three of the people he was helping had final orders of removal from the United States that they didn't know about and were issued because they missed hearings they didn't know they had. León, who helped facilitate the clinic, said he knew of at least two local families, equating to about eight people, who were clients of Clark's and discovered their removal orders too late.

“In some cases, they didn’t even know they had court dates,” Park said. “If you’re represented, that should never happen.”

Once detained, people with removal orders cannot ask for bond and face rapid deportation unless an attorney succeeds in reopening the case, something that must happen before U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers pick them up, according to Park. Clark did not respond to a subsequent request to comment on the removal orders.

León said several people also reported that deadlines for appeals or filings had elapsed without their knowledge. One person brought a receipt showing she paid Clark to file an appeal that was never submitted, the attorney said.

“What worries me is we don’t know which cases were followed through,” León said. “If someone has a check-in and their case was abandoned, they could be at risk of being detained.”

Clark, in an interview with The Eagle last month, claimed he is permitted to continue to represent clients in immigration matters, which are federal, since he holds a valid New York law license.

He said his office, in an area marked by a dearth of immigration law specialists, has been “short-staffed” and overwhelmed.

"I wouldn't say services are not being rendered. They certainly are. We're just, well, inundated right now, but we are doing our best and getting things out as best as possible, and any delays, we have been communicating with clients," he said.

But León said he and a colleague were informed by the bar association that Clark should not be practicing. He and some of his colleagues have assisted with the preparation of 11 complaints about Clark that he said will be delivered to the Board of Bar Overseers.

Clark is not included on a list of currently disciplined practitioners kept by the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which runs federal immigration courts.

Clark said the bar association has requested documentation in relation to the three complaints. He said he has furnished some of what was requested, but there's "a dispute" over what should be provided during the investigation.

Clark remains suspended in Massachusetts and, separately, was indefinitely suspended in Rhode Island after failing to respond to its reciprocal discipline process, according to court documents. He has not been disbarred.