Leadership Roster

American Immigration Council

2011-2012 Leadership Roster

Kirsten Schlenger, Chair

Weaver Schlenger & Mazel

Education
Columbia Law School, 1985, J.D., Stone Scholar (1985)
Yale University, 1981, B.A., East Asian Studies

Kirsten Schlenger, a founder and managing partner of Weaver Schlenger Mazel LLP, has expertise in helping companies lawfully employ the best talent worldwide. With extensive experience in business immigration, removal defense, family immigration, naturalization and asylum, Ms. Schlenger is adept in all facets of immigration law. Her broad background allows her to expertly and comprehensively advise clients on the full range of immigration options and risks.

Ms. Schlenger has devised and implemented customized corporate immigration policies to improve the management of immigration matters, conducted immigration trainings for human resources professionals, and performed internal employment documentation audits. Through her extensive professional contacts, she is able to anticipate immigration trends and advise clients proactively.

Ms. Schlenger found her calling in the immigration field after several years on Wall Street and a brief stint in San Francisco as a tax lawyer. She mistakenly thought that her interest in languages (French, Mandarin, Ancient Greek, Latin) and things international (food, travel, music, literature) would be satisfied through an international tax practice. Instead, she learned from a pro bono asylum assignment that helping foreign nationals secure immigration status and pursue their dreams in the U.S. was her true passion. She employs a quick sense of humor to combat the sometimes-Kafkaesque absurdity of the immigration bureaucracy.

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Robert Cohen , Vice Chair

Porter Wright

Rob's primary area of practice is immigration and nationality law. He has extensive experience in all aspects of business and family immigration procedures. In addition to his legal experience, he is also an instructor for the Legal Assistant program at Capital University. Rob was recently appointed to serve as Vice Chair of the American Immigration Council and served as Chapter Chair of the Ohio Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association from 2003 to 2005. He has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America® in the area of Immigration Law every year since 1995, and is recognized by Ohio Super Lawyers®.

Professional Associations

American Immigration Lawyers Association
Columbus Bar Association
Ohio State Bar Association
American Bar Association

Education

J.D., University of Cincinnati College of Law, 1976
A.B., Miami University, 1973

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Peter Ashman

Law Office of Peter Ashman

Mr. Ashman is an attorney licenced in Nevada, who practices primarily immigration law. He had served for many years as the chapter chair of the Nevada chapter of the American Immigration Lawiers Association (AILA). His name is well known in the immigration legal community in the state as well as in the whole country.

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Ally Bolour

Law Office of Ally Bolour

EDUCATION

Southwestern University School of Law, Los Angeles, California Juris Doctor: May 1996

California State University, Fresno, California Master of Business Administration, May 1990

California State University, Fresno, California Bachelor of Science, Business Administration, May 1984

EXPERIENCE

Law Offices of Ally Bolour, Los Angeles, California

Sole Practitioner (Fall 1998 – Present); Practice exclusively dedicated to Immigration Law – Business and Family Immigration, Asylum and Refugee Matters;

Escandari, Bolour & Jansezian, Beverly Hills, California

Partner (Fall 1996 – Fall 1998); Practice exclusively dedicated to Immigration Law – Business and Family Immigration, Asylum and Refugee Matters;

Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen and Loewy, P.C., Los Angeles, California

Law Clerk (Spring 1996); Preparation of H, L, O, and E visas and labor certificate petitions; researched legal issues; assisted in preparation of appellate briefs for the 9th Circuit and the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Public Counsel, Los Angeles, California

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Anne Chandler

Tahirih Justice Center

Anne Chandler, JD is the Director of Tahirih Justice Center's Houston office. The Tahirih Justice Center provides protection to immigrant and refugee women and girls fleeing gender-based violence through public policy and legal advocacy. Anne serves on the Board of the American Immigration Council and the Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council. Prior to joining Tahirih in August of 2009, Anne served as a Clinical Professor for the University of Houston Law Center where she served as the Interim Director of the Immigration Law Clinic. Prior to joining the Law Center in 2003, she served was the Director of Immigration Legal Services for the YMCA International Services of Greater Houston. Anne is a cum laude graduate of the University of Houston Law Center where she served on the Houston Law Review, received a Distinguished Service Award, won the Joan Glantz Garfinkel Scholarship for civil liberties research, and served as President of the Public Interest Law Organization, focusing on provision of services to immigrant children detained in Harlingen, Texas.

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Lori Chesser

Davis Brown Law Firm

Lori Chesser is a senior shareholder of the Davis Brown Law Firm and the chair of the Firm's immigration Department. She has a background in finance and corporate law, but has been practicing primarily in immigration law for 20 years.

Lori represents individuals and companies in employment-based immigration applications for both temporary and permanent positions, assists in making visa applications, trains and advises companies on I-9 compliance and audit response, and helps plan immigration strategy for business owners and entrepreneurs. She also assists in family-based immigration, including fiancé(e) visa applications and marriage-based and other family-related immigration issues. Finally, she advises clients on maintaining permanent residence and applying for naturalization, and works in conjunction with the firm's tax and estate planning departments to optimize immigration status for financial planning purposes.

Lori has been active in immigration advocacy and as a liaison with the federal government regarding immigration issues, as well as in the Des Moines community:

She co-founded the American Immigration Lawyers Association Iowa/Nebraska Chapter, and was its first Chapter Chair. She is now chair of AILA's national Access to Counsel Committee.
She was involved in advocating for the opening of the Des Moines Suboffice of the Immigration Service so that Iowa residents would not need to travel to Omaha for their immigration applications.
She served on numerous AILA national committees, including the Nebraska Service Center Liaison, USCIS Benefits, Immigration Reform and Media, helping to bring areas of concern to the government's attention, assisting on individual cases, and forming strategy.
She co-founded the Iowa Immigration Education Coalition, a non-profit organization committed to providing factual information and education to people across Iowa regarding immigration law and policies.
She helped organize and maintain local and state-wide grassroots advocacy groups to push for positive immigration law reform.

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Dino De Concini

The Apollo Group

Dino J. DeConcini has been a director of Apollo Group since 1992. From December 2007 through September 2010 he served as Lead Independent Director. Mr. DeConcini is the Chairman of the Nominating and Governance committee, and a member of the Compensation Committee. From 1959 to 1962 he served in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Office. From 1962 to 1979 he practiced law and held various government positions including Tucson City Attorney and Chief of Staff to the Governor of Arizona. From 1979 to 1995, Mr. DeConcini was a shareholder in DeConcini, McDonald, Brammer, Yetwin and Lacy, P.C., Attorneys at Law. From 1980 to 1993, Mr. DeConcini was also Vice President and partner of Paul R. Gibson & Associates, an international business consulting firm, and from 1993 to 1995 and 2002 to 2005, was a Vice President and Senior Associate of the successor firm, Projects International, Inc. From 1995 to 2000, he was the Director of the U.S. Savings Bonds Program in the Treasury Department and from 2000 to 2002; he was the Director of Financial Education at Consumer Federation of America. Between 1981 and 1992, Mr. DeConcini was a member of the board of directors of University of Phoenix. Mr. DeConcini is a graduate of Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and the University of Arizona Law School.

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Mo Goldman

Goldman & Goldman PC

COMING SOON!

Lucas Guttentag

ACLU Immigrant Right’s Project

Lucas Guttentag was the founding national director of the Immigrants' Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation from 1985-2011. He is now Senior Counsel to the Project and teaching at Yale Law School, where he is the Robina Foundation Distinguished Senior Fellow in Residence. He began directing the ACLU's immigration work in 1985, founded the Immigrants' Rights Project in New York at the ACLU’s National Headquarters and opened Project’s second office in California in 1996. Under his direction, the IRP grew into the nation’s premiere litigation and advocacy program dedicated to advancing the constitutional and civil rights of immigrants, and it coordinated the immigration program of the ACLU’s affiliates nationwide.

Mr. Guttentag has litigated major class action and constitutional cases on behalf of immigrants throughout the United States; argued landmark appeals in the United States Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, and many federal circuits; testified before Congress; frequently speaks and writes on immigration law and civil liberties; and has often appeared on network television and in major national print and electronic media.

Mr. Guttentag received his JD cum laude from Harvard Law School (1978), his AB with honors from the University of California Berkeley (1973), and served as law clerk to Judge William Wayne Justice in Texas. Before joining the ACLU he was a member of the clinical faculty of Columbia Law School and previously litigated class action Title VII and civil rights cases in federal and state court as an attorney at the Center for Law in the Public Interest (CLIPI) in Los Angeles. He has regularly taught courses on immigration law and constitutional rights of immigrants as an adjunct at Columbia, University of California Berkeley Law School (Boalt Hall).

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Doug Hauer

Mintz Levin

Doug is a Member in the firm's Immigration Practice and Israel Business Section. Based in our Boston office, Doug's practice focuses on business immigration law, related government investigations, family-based green card sponsorship processes, EB-5 investor visa filings, and corporate immigration policy development.

Doug has represented multinational corporations in the financial services, technology, management consulting, specialty chemicals, insurance, defense, and engineering sectors. He has in-depth experience counseling corporate clients on the immigration consequences of complicated corporate restructuring and has drafted immigration provisions of acquisition agreements. Doug has also guided in-house counsel and human resources professionals on all aspects of U.S. and global immigration law and policy.

One of Doug's related practice areas is advising private clients on a range of issues involving the Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regulations and procedures. He has assisted accomplished individuals with securing visas and green cards and has provided counsel to individuals on expatriation and green card relinquishment. Doug is also particularly strong in working on EB-5 matters for clients from jurisdictions with restrictive currency control and export laws. He has represented high-profile business leaders, artists, and public figures in securing permission to live and work in the United States. He also has experience appearing at U.S. embassies and consulates in exceptional situations and is often asked by lawyers across the globe to resolve the most challenging U.S. visa and consular issues.

Before joining Mintz Levin, Doug founded his own firm, where he focused his practice on immigration law. Prior to that, he was a partner with a leading immigration law firm in Boston, where he managed a high volume of routine and more complex business immigration matters, ranging from green card applications and nonimmigrant cases (e.g., H-1B, J-1, L-1, E-1, E-2, E-3, TN, and O-1) to complicated Extraordinary Ability and Outstanding Researcher petitions. Doug also gained extensive experience guiding large-scale corporations in implementing I-9 best practices and acting as a business and legal advisor in helping companies assess the E-Verify program, the performance of global immigration providers, and the immigration implications of major legislative developments, such as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Doug frequently speaks about broader immigration law issues, ethics, marketing and business development, and employment immigration law for national and international legal organizations, universities, and industry forums.

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Mario Hernandez

Western Union

COMING SOON!

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Matthew I. Hirsch

Law Office of Matthew Hirsch

Matthew I. Hirsch is based in Wayne, just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After law school, he joined the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service as a Trial Attorney. As a Trial Attorney for the INS, Hirsch represented the U.S. government proceedings involving deportation, political asylum and adjustment of status.

Since leaving the INS, Hirsch has concentrated his practice in the field of immigration law. He is a past-officer and Chair of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and currently serves as a Trustee of the American Immigration Council. He regularly speaks at local and national conferences and has authored and edited a considerable number of published articles on immigration law.

Since 1993, Mr. Hirsch has been an Adjunct Professor of Immigration and Nationality Law at Widener University School of Law. In addition to teaching and speaking at regional and national law conferences, he has been a frequent speaker on immigration topics for international students, attorneys and business professionals.

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Loan T. Huynh

Fredrikson & Byron PA

Loan Huynh is a shareholder in the Immigration Group at Fredrikson & Byron. Loan practices exclusively in immigration and nationality law. She has extensive experience in employment and family based immigration, worksite enforcement and corporate compliance (I-9, E-verify, and ICE/DOL audits), and H2A agricultural and H2B nonagricultural workers. Loan represents clients in the following industries: agribusiness, biotechnology and life sciences, energy, healthcare (healthcare systems, hospitals and individual physicians), software and other high-tech sectors, sports (athletes and coaches), education, research, financial services, and manufacturing.

University of Houston Law Center, J.D., 1995

University of Houston, B.A., Political Science & History, 1992, summa cum laude

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Jeff Joseph

Joseph Law Firm PC

Jeff Joseph is a graduate of the University of Denver, College of Law. He is a past Chapter Chair of the Colorado Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and currently serves as an elected director on the AILA National Board of Governors. Mr. Joseph also serves as Vice Chair of the AILA National 2010 Annual Conference Planning Committee, and the AILA Membership Committee as well as the local Colorado USCIS liaison committee.

He formerly served on the AILA National Liaison Committee with the headquarters of the Executive Office for Immigration Review for two years, two terms as chair of the AILA Amicus Committee, and for three years as a member of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Liaison Committee.

Mr. Joseph has represented clients before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service, the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the Board of Immigration Appeals, the U.S. District Courts, and the Circuit Courts of Appeals, and has published several opinions in those courts.

He is an adjunct professor of immigration law at the University of Denver, College of Law.

Mr. Joseph heads up the employment-based immigration section and works primarily on employment based immigration cases, employer sanctions and federal litigation.

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Lisa Koenig

Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy LLP

Lisa has more than fifteen years of experience practicing immigration and has been with Fragomen since 1994. She directs the firm’s Summer Associate Program serving multiple offices on the East Coast, and she is also a member of the firm’s Hiring Committee and Pro Bono Committee. Lisa currently represents corporate clients in a variety of industries such as IT Consulting, Accounting and Professional Services, Advertising and Communications, Investment Banking, Media, Automotive Software and Data Solutions, Biotech, Chemical Companies, Broker/Dealers, Financial Services, Insurance, Manufacturing Private Equity, Architecture, Engineering Consulting, Telecommunications and Wireless and Renewable Energy. In addition, she has extensive experience working for small and emerging companies, as well as investors, entrepreneurs and individual clients.

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Nolo Martinez

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

H. Nolo Martínez, Ph.D.(North Carolina State University), a Puerto Rican native, is a Research Scientist at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Department of Social Work where he serves as the Director of the UNCG Center for New North Carolinians. In 1998, North Carolina Governor James B. Hunt Jr. appointed Dr. Martinez as the first Director of Hispanic/Latino Affairs, a position he served in for six years. Dr. Martinez has held a number of positions focused on working with immigrant groups.

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Noemi Masliah

Masliah & Soloway PC

Born in Havana, Cuba, Noemi Masliah immigrated with her family to the United States as a child and grew up in NYC. She attended Queens College and Yeshiva Univ. Cardozo Law School. Ms. Masliah has practiced immigration law since 1980 and has worked extensively in all aspects of immigration law becoming a recognized expert in the field with frequent speaking engagements, written articles, interviews and panel discussions at legal conferences and law schools. Her practice areas include routine and complex employment immigration cases for permanent and non-permanent work visas, including national interest waiver, alien of extraordinary ability and other non-labor certification. Ms. Masliah advises corporate clients on compliance with immigration law and regulations.

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Kelly M. McCown

McCown & Evans LLP

Kelly McCown is one of fewer than 200 attorneys certified as a Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization and has received the highest possible rating ("AV") for legal ability. Since 2004, Ms. McCown has been honored each year as a "Northern California Super Lawyer" by San Francisco Magazine and Law & Politics Magazine and was recognized in 2007 and 2010 as one of the "Top 50 Female Super Lawyers" in Northern California across all legal specialties.

Since 1994, Ms. McCown's business immigration law practice has focused on employment-based visas, labor certification, and employment-based permanent residence applications. She also advises employers on federal compliance issues in the areas of mergers and acquisitions and government audits. Prior to forming McCown & Evans LLP, Ms. McCown was a partner at a prominent San Francisco business immigration firm.

Ms. McCown was the 2005-06 Chair of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)'s Northern California chapter, a 600-member professional bar association, and previously served as the organization's Vice Chair/CIS Liaison, Secretary, Treasurer, and Media Liaison. She also has served on AILA’s Business Immigration Committee, USCIS Liaison Committee, and California Service Center Liaison Committee. Ms. McCown is on the board of directors of Bank of San Francisco and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. She is a Trustee of the American Immigration Council, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., and a past Co-Chair and board member of Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF). Ms. McCown also serves as a volunteer attorney with the AIDS Legal Referral Panel and as a mentor attorney and trainer with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Asylum Program.

Ms. McCown is a frequent speaker and author in the immigration law area. Her speaking engagements over the past few years include the California State Council of SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management), Bar Association of San Francisco's Labor & Employment Law Section, national and regional conferences of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the American Immigration Council's Community Education Center, and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center .

Kelly McCown received her Bachelors of Arts degree in International Relations from Stanford University in 1985 and her J.D. from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California Berkeley in 1993. Ms. McCown is admitted to practice in California and New York, and is fluent in Italian and conversant in Spanish and French.

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Amy R. Novick

The Haynes Immigration Law Firm

Amy Novick is Of Counsel to The Haynes Immigration Law Firm, where she focuses her practice on obtaining visas for highly skilled professionals, waivers of the two-year home residency requirement, issues of concern to G-4 international workers, investors, foreign adoptions, naturalization and citizenship, waivers of inadmissibility, and family-based immigration matters. Amy also specializes in complex immigration problems that relate to public policy and immigration agency interpretations of law. Before joining The Haynes Immigration Law Firm, Amy practiced at Maggio & Kattar as a Senior Attorney and Shareholder.

Amy also has a number Of Counsel and affiliated relationships with other law firms, including a Strategic Alliance with St. Ledger-Roty Neuman & Olson LLP, a telecommunications boutique law firm located in Washington, DC.

Amy has been involved with immigration and nationality law and policy for more than 20 years. She also served as Deputy Director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) where she directed the Association's extensive immigration education program, including publishing, legal education conferences, and marketing. Amy has significant experience in organizational management and strategic planning.

Named to International Who's Who of Corporate Immigration Lawyers.

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Ana Cristina Reymundo

American Airlines

COMING SOON!

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David Rousseau

Salt River Project

COMING SOON!

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Marcine Seid

Law Offices of Marcine A. Seid

Marcine A. Seid, Esq., practices exclusively in the area of Immigration and Naturalization Law as a member of the State Bar of California. She is a graduate (Phi Beta Kappa) of the University of California, Davis (B.A.) and earned her Juris doctorate degree from the Santa Clara University Law School in 1993.

Ms. Seid is currently an elected Director of the Board of Governors of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and was a former Chairperson for AILA's Santa Clara Valley, California chapter. She had the opportunity to act as a liaison between AILA and the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the U.S. Department of Labor. Specifically, Ms. Seid served as an AILA liaison with INS' California Service Center in 2001-2003, as an AILA liaison for the U.S. Department of Labor, Region VI in 2004-2005, , and as the AILA's liaison committee Chairperson for USCIS' Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) from 2005 to 2007. Currently, she serves on AILA's Compliance Auditing Standards Task Force.

Ms. Seid is a frequent speaker for many national, regional and local continuing legal education (CLE) conferences and seminars. She has authored and co-authored numerous articles on immigration law and was published in the Santa Clara University's Law School's High Technology Law Journal.

Ms. Seid has participated as an immigration expert witness at the Santa Clara Superior Court, in California, and has guest lectured on employment-based immigration at the Santa Clara University Law School and Stanford Law School.

Ms. Seid is recognized in Best Lawyer's in America and listed in the Heritage Registry of Who's Who's and the Global Directory of Who's Who.

In 2007, 2009, and 2010 Ms. Seid was selected as a "Northern California Superlawyer" - i.e., one of the top 5% of the lawyers practicing in Northern California, chosen on the basis of peer evaluation and independent research.

Ms. Seid is president of the INBLF's Silicon Valley chapter. The INBLF is an organization of the most highly credentialed and preeminent single-discipline law firms throughout the United States and some of the world's most prominent full-service law firms in foreign nations.

In addition, Ms. Seid has co-authored the book "Immigration Law in the Workplace", a resource written specifically to make immigration law understandable for American employers.

Most notable, Ms. Seid volunteers her time as a Trustee of the American Immigration Council and advocates for positive Comprehensive Immigration Reform as the Chairperson of the Bay Area Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

Ms. Seid was a former Commissioner for the Parks & Recreation Department of Santa Clara County and a member of the San Jose Leadership Program.

Areas of Practice:

Immigration & Naturalization Law

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F. Daniel Siciliano

Rock Center for Corporate Governance

Faculty Director, Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance

F. Daniel Siciliano '04 is a legal scholar and entrepreneur with expertise in corporate governance, corporate finance, and immigration law. He assumes a variety of leadership roles at the law school, including faculty director of the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, associate dean for executive education and special programs and co-director of Stanford's Directors' College. He is also the co-originator of the OSCGRS (Open Source Corporate Governance Reporting System) Project. Previously, Siciliano was a teaching fellow for the law school's international LLM degree program in Corporate Governance and Practice and executive director of the Program in Law, Economics and Business. He is the senior research fellow with the Immigration Policy Center and a frequent commentator on the long-term economic impact of immigration policy and reform. His work has included expert testimony in front of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Prior to joining Stanford Law School, Siciliano co-founded and served as executive director of the Immigration Outreach Center in Phoenix, Arizona. He has launched and led several successful businesses, including LawLogix Group—named three times to the Inc. 500/5000 list. Siciliano serves as a governance consultant and trainer to board directors of several Fortune 500 companies and is a member of the Academic Council of Corporate Board Member magazine.

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Lydia Tamez

Microsoft Corporation

COMING SOON!

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Ian Wagreich

Choi & Wagreich LLC

Ian D. Wagreich's practice focuses on business-related immigration law, including nonimmigrant working visas, employment-based permanent residence, labor certification, employment authorization, employer sanctions, and permanent-residence investor visas.

Mr. Wagreich’s previous experience includes practicing corporate immigration law on behalf of multinational companies, hospitals, universities, professional athletes, artists, investors and small business-persons. His broad experience in representing a variety of corporate clients makes him sensitive to the complexities of corporate entities and their issues.

Mr. Wagreich received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990 and a J.D. from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law in 1995. He was admitted to the Illinois State Bar in 1995 and received a Diploma in International Practice from Austria’s Center for International Legal Studies in 1996.

Professional Memberships/Civic Activities

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Drew Wilson

Heinrich Hispanidad

COMING SOON!

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Ben Johnson

American Immigration Council

Benjamin Johnson is the Executive Director of the American Immigration Council (formerly the American Immigration Law Foundation) in Washington, D.C. The Immigration Council was established in 1987 as a tax-exempt, not-for-profit educational, charitable organization. The Immigration Council is dedicated to strengthening America by honoring our immigrant history and shaping how Americans think and act towards immigration now and in the future. The Immigration Council has developed four programs areas designed to address the core issues of immigration policy, law, education, and cultural exchange: the Immigration Policy Center; Legal Action Center; Community Education Center; and International Exchange Center.

Mr. Johnson has studied and worked in the immigration field for more than 15 years. He has written extensively on immigration law and policy and has been an invited to present testimony on immigration issues before the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He is a frequent guest commentator on television and radio, with appearances on CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, Fox News, BBC World News, National Public Radio and other television and radio programs.

A native of Arizona, Mr. Johnson was the co-founder and legal Director of the Immigration Outreach Center in Phoenix. Prior to becoming involved in immigration issues he was a public defender and civil litigation attorney in San Diego, CA. He earned a J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law and studied International and Comparative Law at Kings College in London.

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Robert Juceam

Fried Frank

Robert E. Juceam is of counsel to the Firm, resident in Fried Frank's New York office. He joined the Firm in 1966, became a partner in 1974 and of counsel to the Firm in 2006. From 1995 to 2001, he chaired the litigation department in the Washington, DC office.

During Mr. Juceam's 46 years of practice of civil and white-collar criminal law litigation and investigations he has defended public companies and directors of public companies charged with federal securities and Investment Company Act violations, conducted private investigations parallel to federal regulatory law enforcement proceedings and served as lead counsel or principal investigator in internal corporate and special litigation committee investigations and lead defense of complex reinsurance claims. He is a former federal court law clerk and member and co-chair of national and local bar committees on professional and judicial ethics.

Mr. Juceam's diverse experience also includes lead responsibility in mediation, arbitration and judicial proceedings involving commercial contracts, mergers and acquisitions, securities-class actions, FOIA, administrative and constitutional law, injunctive and damages claims against the federal government, real estate, employment, immigration and naturalization, criminal law including resentencing, matrimonial law, defense of attorneys and architects in malpractice and professional disciplinary proceedings, intellectual property and unfair competition.

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Warren Leiden

Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP

Warren R. Leiden is a partner in the San Francisco office of Berry Appleman and Leiden LLP. Mr. Leiden is experienced in all aspects of corporate immigration law. Mr. Leiden has been active in the Congressional debates since the early 1980's and has testified before Congressional Committees on numerous occasions. He was inducted as an Honorary Fellow of the American Immigration Law Foundation in 1997. Mr. Leiden is a counsel to the national steering committee of Compete America, the national business immigration coalition, and works closely with business and trade associations.

Mr. Leiden was the Executive Director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and its Washington Representative from 1982 until 1996. He has served on national liaison committees with the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Mr. Leiden was a founder and executive vice president of the American Immigration Law Foundation (AILF) where he now serves as Treasurer and Director. He is currently a member of the Policy Management Committee of the Employee Relocation Council. Mr. Leiden is also a board member of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) and the Pacific Coast Immigration Museum.

EDUCATION

Juris Doctorate, Boston University School of Law
Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University

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Daivid Leopold

David W Leopold & Association Co. LPA

David W. Leopold has practiced law for nearly 20 years. His Cleveland, Ohio-based immigration, visa and citizenship practice is devoted to the representation of individuals, corporations, health care institutions, law firms, religious organizations, and other entities across the nation and throughout the world.

David has been at the forefront of groundbreaking litigation in the immigration and federal courts. Since September 11 has passionately defended the rights of non-citizens subject to closed hearings, special registration, mandatory detention and "voluntary" FBI interrogation. David also provides frequent comment and analysis to national and international media on cutting edge immigration issues. His views have appeared in The New York Times; The Washington Post; The Los Angeles Times; The Miami Herald; Newsweek; Time; CNN; ABC Radio; National Public Radio, and The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

David is honored to have been recently elected to the national executive leadership of the American Immigration Lawyers Association ("AILA"), the premier association of immigration attorneys in the U.S. He serves as a nationally elected member on AILA's national Executive Committee. He has previously served top AILA committees, including as chair of AILA's Ohio Chapter (2001-2003), chair of AILA's national Due Process Committee (2002-2003), and as chair of AILA's liaison to the Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (2003-2004).

David is a frequent speaker at AILA national conferences and a co-organizer and faculty member of the American Immigration Law Foundation's Litigation Institute, a "hands-on" intensive training program for immigration lawyers.

In addition to his immigration practice, David serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law and directs the immigration curriculum at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio.

He is also an avid road and mountain biker, skier, canoeist, weight-training enthusiast, traveler, husband and dad.

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Laura Lichter

COMING SOON!

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Eleanor Pelta

Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP

Eleanor Pelta is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Labor and Employment Practice. Ms. Pelta was installed as AILA's 65th President at AILA's Annual Membership Meeting on June 16, 2011. With her practice focused on immigration and nationality law, Ms. Pelta assists corporate clients in various industries with the international transfer of key personnel. She is particularly knowledgeable about managing high-volume employee transfers, as her background includes assisting employers in gaining temporary and permanent visas for all types of business, scientific and executive personnel. Additionally, she advises clients on strategic issues involving movement of staff internationally, including the use of blanket visa programs and qualification of companies as "treaty investor" or "treaty trader" entities.

Ms. Pelta provides further support on the immigration implications of corporate changes, including mergers and acquisitions, downsizing, reductions in force and salary level changes. Likewise, she has developed corporate immigration policies and procedures. Ms. Pelta counsels clients on employer obligations related to temporary transfers, employment eligibility verification and avoiding immigration-related unfair employment practices. She has also developed and performed nationwide I-9 compliance training for human resources personnel, and has assisted clients during I-9 and H-1B audits. In particular, Ms. Pelta frequently counsels tax and payroll managers regarding U.S. tax obligations of foreign nationals.

From 2007 through 2011, Chambers USA recognized Morgan Lewis as a leading firm for immigration law, based on the views of clients, peers and other industry professionals. From 2006 through 2011, Chambers ranked Ms. Pelta in Band 1, its highest honor, calling her "the backbone" of the firm's immigration practice and crediting her with "really driving the practice forward." Chambers has also noted that clients appreciate that Ms. Pelta "remembers every individual and knows their story" and praise her as "a tremendous resource, whose level of service is outstanding."

Ms. Pelta helps clients think and work proactively by providing them with traditional compliance policy reviews and audits, case management and litigation technology and international executive travel and foreign resident worker visa processing.

Ms. Pelta is also a prolific writer on Immigration issues. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania.

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Crystal Williams

American Immigration Lawyers Association

Crystal L. Williams was named as AILA’s new Executive Director. AILA is the national association of more than 11,000 attorneys and law professors who practice and teach immigration law. Ms. Williams has served AILA in the position of Deputy Director for Programs. Williams will be the third Executive Director of AILA since the formation of its national office in 1982.

Williams has been involved in immigration for more than 25 years: as a practicing immigration attorney, as a law publisher, as a pro bono program director, as a government official, and, for most of the past decade, as a program leader within the AILA national office. In the course of her years of practice, she served as chair of the Atlanta chapter, and on a variety of liaison, policy and program committees for the national association. She is a cum laude graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and a magna cum laude graduate of the State University of New York at Oneonta.

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Paul Zulkie

Zulkie Partners LLC

Paul L. Zulkie is a 1977 graduate of the University of Illinois, College of Law. Paul concentrates in Business Immigration and Corporate Law and is licensed to practice law in the State of Illinois and before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

From 2004-2005, Paul served as President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, a national bar association comprised of 10,000 lawyers and law professors dedicated to immigration and nationality law which is headquartered in Washington, D.C. Since 2005, Paul has served as President of the American Immigration Council which is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to increasing public understanding of immigration law and policy. He is the author of Immigration Compliance in Employment and Business, published by Callaghan & Co., which analyzes employer sanctions enforcement and business related visa issues. In addition, Paul is a regular lecturer at local and national continuing legal education seminars on the subject of business immigration and has published several articles in nationally distributed publications. Paul has been named a leading practitioner in the field of immigration law by The Best Lawyers in America, published by Woodward White, International Who's Who of Corporate Immigration Lawyers, published by Law Business Research in London, England, and Leading Lawyers Network published by Law Bulletin Publishing Company. Inclusion in these reference books is based on a nationwide survey of attorneys.

Paul has been interviewed by several national media publications including The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Business Week, and the Chicago Tribune and has appeared on the CBS Evening News, CNN, MSNBC and National Public Radio to discuss breaking developments in immigration law. In addition, he has testified before the U.S. Congress on immigration issues.

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