American Immigration Council
2012-2013 Leadership Roster
Robert Cohen , 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
Website: Click Here [1]
Lori Chesser, Vice ChairDavis 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.
Website: Click here [2]
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.
Website: Click Here [3]
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
Website: Click Here [4]
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.
Website: Click Here [5]
Rashid Chotani
TASC Inc.
Dr. Chotani has over twenty years of experience as a leader, primary investigator, professor, program manager, and scientist in academia, government, Department of Defense and industry. He utilizes his expertise in medicine, public health, infectious and chronic diseases, epidemiology, vaccine/therapeutic sciences, microbiology, disaster mitigation, bioinformatics, biodefense/biosurveillance and management skills to guide science and technology initiatives to develop novel solutions for affectively dealing with current and future scientific challenges. He analyzes and defines highly complex problems and architectures, develops approaches, investigates and synthesizes fully integrated solutions applicable to the needs of an organization, and plans implementation.
Dr. Chotani currently serves as the Director of Chemical-Biological Defense Programs at TASC. In this capacity he also is the Program Manager on the CB Task Order as well as the Chief Scientist to CBTD-J9 DTRA. From 2008-2010 he served as the Chief Scientist to the Joint Project Manager - Chemical Biological Medical Systems (JPM-CBMS), US Department of Defense. He was responsible for leading joint service, interagency (DoD & Civilian including HHS), international teams of scientists in developing, acquiring and fielding Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved CBRN medical countermeasures (vaccines/therapeutics) and diagnostics. The ultimate goal of his office was to take IND products to FDA approval.
In 1996-97 while at the Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene (DHMH) he developed the HL-7 Specifications for Electronic Laboratory-Based Reporting of Public Health Information, which has now become a CDC standard. As the first Hospital and Microbiology Epidemiology Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Hospital he authored the nosocomial infections chapter in Nelson, Williams, Graham, ed. Infectious Disease Epidemiology: Theory and Practice now in its third edition. In 1999, while a fellow in bioinformatics at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory he developed the first proof of concept for early detection of bioterrorism agents that assisted in the initiation of the US syndromic surveillance program and served as the genesis for ESSENCE and BioSense.
Dr. Chotani served as an Assistant Professor and Director of the Global Infections Disease Surveillance and Alert System (GIDSAS) at the School of Medicine and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) from 2001 to 2006 where his main research focus was infectious diseases & surveillance in Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Iran, Iraq and Jordon. During this time he also served as the medical director of several relief teams, including the Canadian Tsunami Relief Team in Indonesia, the Tsunami Relief Team in Sri Lanka and the Earthquake Relief Team in Pakistan. From 2006-2008 he served the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) as a Senior Science Advisor providing technical and programmatic support to the Chemical Biological Directorate, Joint Science & Technology Office. As a result of his initiatives a new capability area “Bioinformatics,” was incorporated into the Directorate.
Dr. Chotani is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics, Associate at the Center for Global Health at Johns Hopkins University and a Mentor to the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He has served the Office of the Maryland Governor as a Member of the Pandemic Influenza Coordinating Committee; Senator Ben Cardin’s Health Advisory Committee; and the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration Commission of Howard County. He has authored or co-authored over 50 scientific peer-reviewed papers, technical reports, chapters and two books. Dr. Chotani has extensive experience in public speaking and has presented over 30 scientific papers and has been invited over 70 times to give lectures at national and international conferences and seminars. He has represented the US DoD interests and given talks at NATO, Pakistan, Indonesia, FSU Countries, Poland, Singapore, Turkey, Malaysia, UK and the Netherlands.
Dr. Chotani received his MD from the Eugenio Maria de Hostos School of Medicine in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in 1991, his MPH (1996) and Diploma in Tropical Medicine (2000) from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. He received formal training in disciplines of Vaccine Sciences (School of Public Health), Biomedical Engineering (Applied Physics Laboratory) and Hospital Epidemiology (JHU Hospital) at the Johns Hopkins University. Most recently he was appointed a Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.
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.
Website: Click Here [6]
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).
Website: Click Here [7]
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.
Website: Click Here [8]
[7]
Mario Hernand
ez
Western Union
Mario Hernández is Director of Public Affairs at Western Union, a leader in global payment services with a combined network of approximately 510,000 agent locations in 200 countries and territories. In this position, he is responsible for the development and implementation of public affairs strategies to reach Western Union’s various constituencies, including Latin American communities in and outside the United States. He has played an instrumental role in designing and implementing Western Union’s corporate social responsibility programs, such as the pioneering 4+1 Program that is creating job opportunities in six Mexican states affected by high levels of emigration and poverty through innovative partnerships between the public sector, immigrant-led hometown associations and Western Union.
Mario Hernández studied Public Administration at El Colegio de México, and received a Masters Degree in Public Policy and Public Administration from the London School of Economics. He participated in the first European Masters in Public Administration, a collaborative program of various European universities. Mr. Hernandez completed all but his dissertation towards a Ph.D. in Public Affairs at the Graduate School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado at Denver, where he served as a graduate instructor on U.S. Political Institutions.
In 2007, Mr. Hernández received a Doctorate Honoris Causa in Humanities from the Pan American University of El Salvador for his contribution to the integration and economic empowerment of Central American and Caribbean immigrant communities and the promotion of positive, bipartisan and comprehensive immigration reform in the U.S.
Mr. Hernández serves on the Board of Trustees of the American Immigration Council (AIC) and the Corporate Advisory Boards of the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute (CHLI) and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), among other organizations.
Website: Click Here [9]
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.
Website: Click Here [10]
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
Website: Click Here [11]
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.
Website: Click Here [12]
Minette Kwok
Minami Tamaki LLP
Minette A. Kwok, a Partner with Minami Tamaki LLP, is a Certified Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law, as designated by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. Her practice focuses primarily on business immigration, where she represents start- ups and emerging high tech companies, as well as global Fortune 500 companies in the IT, engineering, clean energy, and manufacturing industries, working closely with corporate executives and human resources personnel to meet their strategic immigration needs, and advising companies in times of both growth and contraction. Ms. Kwok also assists non-profit organizations, as well as individuals including international athletes, world renowned scientists and Buddhist monks, and those with family based immigration needs.
Ms. Kwok has been a member of the California Bar since 1991. She received her undergraduate education at the University of California at Berkeley, and graduated with a Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Francisco in 1990.
Ms. Kwok is a leader in the immigration bar. Besides serving on the national Board of Trustees of the American Immigration Council (AIC) in Washington D.C., she has also served on the national Board of Governors for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA); as Chair of AILA, Northern California Chapter; as a Commissioner with the State Bar of California’s Board of Legal Specialization, Immigration and Nationality Law Advisory Commission; and as a liaison to the Department of Labor, Region IX and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
For nine consecutive years, from 2004 to the present, she has been named a Northern California Super Lawyer by Law & Politics Magazine, an industry wide poll which identifies by peer review the top 5% of attorneys in their field. In 2007 and 2008, she was also selected as one of the Top 50 Female Northern California Super Lawyers, and in 2012, as one of the Top Women Super Lawyers in Northern California. She has been recognized by Law Business Research Ltd. as one of California’s leading practitioners in its Who’s Who Legal publication, and has been awarded an AV rating by the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, the highest rating for competence and ethics issued by that publication, and reserved for attorneys designated as outstanding in their field.
Website: Click here [13]
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.
Website: Click Here [14]
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.
Website: Click Here [15]
Zachary Nightingale
Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, LLP
Zachary M. Nightingale is a California State Bar Certified Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law. He is a 1996 graduate of Stanford Law School, who received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989, and a Masters degree in Mathematics from Stanford University in 1991. He has been with the firm since 1996. His practice focuses on deportation defense and federal court litigation, with an emphasis on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions. Other specialties include asylum, naturalization, and family-based adjustment of status. A significant part of his practice includes advising non-citizens and their attorneys as to the immigration consequences of pending criminal charges, and how to minimize those consequences.
Mr. Nightingale was honored with the 2003 Jack Wasserman Memorial Award for excellence in litigation from the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). He has spoken regularly at local and national conferences of AILA, and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, and was a member of AILA's 2002 Annual Conference Program Committee. He has litigated a number of important immigration cases which established new Ninth Circuit law, including Quintero-Salazar v. Keisler, 506 F.3d 688 (9th Cir. 2007), which held for the first time that a conviction for sex with minor is not necessarily a crime involving moral turpitude; Camins v. Gonzales, 500 F.3d 872 (9th Cir 2007) which applied retroactivity principles to find that the grounds of inadmissibility do not apply to returning lawful permanent residents based on criminal conviction sustained before April 1, 1997; and Li v. Ashcroft, 389 F.3d 892 (9th Cir. 2004), in which the Court overturned a finding of removability where the fraud evidence of conviction through jury trial did not demonstrate the required elements of the aggravated felony definition. In addition Mr. Nightingale has been co-counsel on a number of significant cases, including Abebe v. Gonzales, 493 F.3d 1092 (9th Cir 2007) (finding applicant ineligible for 212(c) relief for crime of violence, in the absence of a corresponding ground of inadmissibility), in which a petition for rehearing en banc is currently pending; Magana-Pizano v. INS, 200 F.3d 603 (9th Cir.1999) (establishing eligibility for relief from deportation for those in immigration proceedings before the effective date of the statutory amendments eliminating relief, and for those who pled guilty before that date in reliance on being eligible for such relief), and Barahona-Gomez v. Reno, 167 F.3d 1228 (9th Cir. 1999) (affirming district court stay of deportation for circuit-wide class of applicants for suspension of deportation incorrectly denied eligibility due to directives of Executive Office for Immigration Review personnel).
Website: Click Here [16]
Amy PeckJackson Lewis LLP
AMY L. PECK is a Partner in the Omaha, Nebraska office of Jackson Lewis LLP. She dedicates her practice exclusively to immigration law.
Ms. Peck currently is handling numerous I-9 Notices of Inspections for clients, and is conducting I-9 compliance audits for organizations across the country. She has travelled across the U.S. this year conducting internal I-9 audits of fortune 500 companies, consulting on compliance issues such as correct I-9 completion techniques and E-verify practices. She has recently counseled two Fortune 500 companies on issues surrounding changing from paper to electronic I-9 systems and changing from noncompliant to compliant electronic I-9 and e-verify vendors.
Ms. Peck is one of 21 Directors elected to serve on the 12,000 member American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Board of Governors. She currently is Director of the American Immigration Council. She recently served on the AILA Interagency Committee, The Annual Conference Committee, previously chaired the AILA FOIA Liaison Committee, the AILA Comprehensive Reform Committee (2010-2011) and is a founding member of the Global Migration Action Group (2009 to present). Ms. Peck previously served on the AILA National Verification Liaison Committee, which liaisons with OCAHO on I-9 and worksite verification issues and I-9 enforcement policies. She served as Chair of the AILA National Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) liaison committee (2008-2010). Ms. Peck also served as Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee for AILA (2008-2009) and served on the Spring Conference committee (2008-2010). She was chosen as the editor of the AILA Midyear Conference materials in 2010, and past Chair of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) liaison committee (2004-2006). She is past Chair of the AILA Iowa-Nebraska chapter (2001-2003), and previously served as its treasurer (1999-2000). Ms. Peck received the President’s Award for Worksite Compliance in 2008 and has received the top AV rating by Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, and has been listed in the US News “Best Lawyers” report (2010 - 2013), a “Top Lawyer” in Omaha Magazine (2010-2012) and was selected by her peers as Best Lawyer for 2011 Annual Guide to Immigration Law, featured in The American Lawyer. She was selected for Martindale-Hubbell’s Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers 2011 and 2012. Ms. Peck has been AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell since 2010. She was named the Best Lawyers’ 2012 Omaha Immigration Law Lawyer of the Year. Ms. Peck was selected by her peers as
Super Lawyer.
Ms. Peck is a frequent speaker on worksite enforcement issues, and has recently been quoted in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal on employment and enforcement immigration issues.
Ms. Peck is admitted to practice law in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, the District of Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa. She is a member of the Missouri State and Nebraska State Bar Associations.
Ms. Peck received her B.A. from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in 1984. She earned her J.D. from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in 1987.
Website: Click Here [17]
Ana Cristina Reymundo
American Airlines
COMING SOON!
Website: Click Here [18]
David Rousseau
Salt River Project
COMING SOON!
Website: Click Here [19]
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
Website: Click Here [20]
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.
Website: Click Here [21]
Lydia Tamez
Microsoft Corporation
COMING SOON!
Website: Click Here [22]
Ian Wagreich
Law Offices of Ian D. Wagreich
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.
Website: Click Here [23]
Drew Wilson
Heinrich Hispanidad
COMING SOON!
Website: Click Here [24]
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.
Website: Click Here [25]
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 Leid
en
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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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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Doug Stump
Stump and Associates
COMING SOON!
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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.
Website: Click Here [32]