Karen L. Dean – Science Advisor and Strategic Consultant
Karen has worked closely with Nathan since 1995 on the strategic analysis of researchers’ CVs and other documents, to delineate their fields and advise them on the types of documentation that will optimally support their NIW and Extraordinary Ability (EA) petitions. She brings to this task a varied background in biomedical research, graduate study of archeology, and more experience in medical and scientific writing than she really wants to acknowledge. She has co-authored several articles on the NIW with her husband, Nathan, and has edited or contributed articles to books, magazines, and newsletters in many different fields of medical research and practice, and technology transfer. She looks forward to the day when she can make sense of it all by writing science fiction.
She earned a B.A. in Anthropology at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH), and spent several years in graduate study at the Universities of Chicago and Pennsylvania (in Philadelphia, PA).
Bithi Mukhopadhyay – Senior Employment-based Immigration Specialist
Bithi is our senior Labor Certification (PERM) technical specialist, and has 15 years’ experience in masterfully supervising corporate clients H-1 and labor certification programs. Bithi is also an authority on the preparation and submission of P and O petitions, often under considerable deadline challenge, for an impressive variety of for-profit and non-profit organizations seeking to bring talented musicians and performing artists to this country.
Like Nathan, Bithi has acquired a Master’s degree in Philosophy and studied both Sanskrit and law. She earned a BA (Hons) and an MA in Philosophy at the inestimable Presidency College/Calcutta University, and she studied law at Burdwan University in Bengal.
Susu Durst – NIW/ Extraordinary Ability Specialist
Susu has worked since 2004 on an extraordinary range of NIW and EB-1 petitions for clients ranging from avant garde artists through novelists, theologians and journalists, to scientists and medical researchers. She has a BA in English Literature from the University of Toronto. Prior to joining WAXLAW, she conducted art historical research in the US and Germany for the Foundation Dina Vierny - Musee Maillol, Paris, France.
Lynn Batun Duvall – Paralegal
Lynn has worked with WAXLAW as a consulting paralegal since October 2006. She has experience in H-1B filings, extensions and renewals, J-1 waivers, consular processing, family-based I-130 and I-485 adjustment petitions, and citizenship applications, and she assists with National Interest Waiver/Extraordinary Ability petitions and special projects. A graduate of City College in New York, she has an advanced certificate in Immigration Law Studies from the Graduate Center School of Professional Studies. Prior to joining WAXLAW, she worked at the City University of New York as a coordinator for the Citizenship and Immigration Project providing immigration related assistance to students and faculty.
Lynn spent half of her life in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Egypt, Pakistan, Thailand, Singapore, Burma and the United States with her Burmese diplomat parents, to whom she attributes her global perspective.
Daniel S. Larson – First Year Summer Associate
Daniel graduated from the University of California (Santa Cruz) with high honors in History with a concentration on China. Fluent in Mandarin, he taught English at China’s prestigious Beijing Normal University before he initiated the study of law at Michigan State University. In 2008, Daniel served as Special Projects Coordinator on several high-profile EB-1 cases, all of which proved to be successful. We look forward to welcoming Daniel back as our Senior Summer Associate in June 2011.
Blagovesta Momchedjikova, Ph.D. – Special Consultant Arts and Culture
Blagovesta holds a PhD in Performance Studies from New York University, where she teaches essay writing classes on art and the city in the Tisch School of the Arts. She is an expert on the artistic use – and significance – of urban spaces and on the role of art in society, particularly in contemporary urban culture. She has written about the role of such public institutions as museums as symbols of the urban experience, and as mediators between past and present and tradition and modernity. She is herself an alumna of the WAXLAW National Interest Waiver program.
Of Counsel Attorneys
Rio Guerrero, JD (www.guerreroyee.com)
Attorney Guerrero is renowned for successfully representing companies, organizations and individuals with complicated U.S. visa, work permit, and "green card" matters. In particular, he is respected for achieving creative solutions for the most complex immigration cases.
His individual clients include foreign investors, health care professionals, persons with extraordinary ability in the arts, sciences and business, corporate executives and managers, and other professionals. He also provides corporate clients with services to ensure compliance with U.S. immigration and labor laws, including I-9, LCA and PERM internal audits.
Since 2007, he has taught as an Adjunct Professor of immigration law at the City University of New York - School of Professional Studies. He is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), where he serves on the National Committee on Health Care Professionals, as well as the Corporate Immigration Committee and the U.S. Department of Labor Committee for the New York AILA Chapter. He founded and currently Co-Chairs the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) Immigration and Nationality Law Committee.
Further, he frequently serves as a speaker at continuing legal education seminars and other pro bono events, concerning U.S. employment-based immigration law, such as EB-5 "green cards," "E" investment/trade visas, health care professionals (nurses, physical / occupational therapists, and physicians), H-1B professional employee visas, PERM Labor Certification and I-9 compliance. He has authored and published articles in newspapers and other periodicals concerning various U.S. immigration laws and procedures. He has served as a U.S. immigration law expert witness before the New Jersey State Superior Court System.
Attorney Guerrero is authorized to represent clients in all fifty United States and abroad. He is admitted to practice law in the States of New York and New Jersey, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
Tsui Yee (http://guerreroyee.com)
Tsui Yee has been practicing immigration law since 1999, handling a wide variety of immigration matters, including family-and employment-based applications for permanent residence, nonimmigrant work visas, defense in removal (deportation) proceedings, naturalization applications, and applications for various waivers of removability.
Ms. Yee is a Co-Chair of the Immigration and Nationality Law Committee of the Asian American Bar Association of New York and a Vice Chair of the Solo and Small Firm Practice Committee of the New York County Lawyers Association. She is also a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the Korean American Lawyers Association of Greater New York.
Ms. Yee has presented and spoken at continuing legal educations courses regarding various aspects of immigration and nationality law. She has also volunteered on numerous pro bono matters.
Ms. Yee graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law in 1998 and her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Tufts University in 1993. She is admitted to practice law in the State of New York; the Second Circuit Court of Appeals; and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
Prior to forming Guerrero Yee LLP, Ms. Yee was a founding partner of the immigration law firm of Yee & Durkin, LLP.
Nina J. Fantl, JD (www.fantlfirm.com)
A descendant of Mexican and Czech immigrants, Nina Jayme Fantl exclusively practices in the area of immigration and nationality law. Having lived and worked in various Latin America countries such as Colombia, Peru, Panama, El Salvador and Costa Rica, she has firsthand knowledge of the concerns of those seeking visas to live and work abroad.
Ms. Fantl was awarded a Bachelor of Science from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. in 1985. In 1989, she received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Texas School of Law where she was an articles editor of the American Journal of Criminal Law. Upon graduation, she served as an attorney for the National Security and International Affairs Division of the United States General Accounting Office. Thereafter, she served as resident director of the Center for Democracy in San Jose, Costa Rica, where she directed a project to help strengthen legislative operations.
Since 1993, Ms. Fantl has been providing legal services to individuals and companies seeking immigration benefits. In addition, she has volunteered her time to nonprofit organizations in the community such as the Political Asylum Project of Austin, State Bar of Texas Committee on Laws Relating to Immigration and Nationality, the Travis County Bar Association Immigration Committee, the Advisory Board of the Human Rights Documentation Exchange and the Advisory Board of the Immigration Counseling and Outreach Services of the Catholic Diocese.
She is certified as a specialist in immigration and nationality law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. To become Board Certified in a specialty area, an attorney must have been licensed to practice law for at least five years, devoted a required percentage of practice to a specialty area for at least three years, handled a wide variety of matters in the area to demonstrate experience and involvement, attended continuing education seminars regularly to keep legal training up to date, been evaluated by fellow lawyers and judges and passed a 6-hour written examination. There are 86 board-certified immigration lawyers in Texas.
Ms. Fantl is a member in good standing of the State Bar of Texas and District of Columbia Bar as well as of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.