ABOUT US

I came to this country as an immigrant in 1979, in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution. My “class” of people had no place in the new post-revolution Iran, and I was in desperate need of finding a new “home”. America for me was this home, but it took me more than a decade to finally become legal in this country and feel like I could finally exhale. Those were hard and uncertain years.

My senior associate Michelle Taheripour also comes from a similar background. She too came here after the Iranian Revolution and suffered through years of uncertainty with her immigration status, before she finally became a permanent resident and a United States citizen.

When this firm was founded more than 25 years ago, we had no idea that during this period we would see immigration as an increasingly political issue. With each administration, layers of law and regulation have been added to what was already a convoluted and complicated process. As a result, we have seen an underclass of “illegal aliens” (a term we hate) grow from a few hundred thousand to more than eleven million people. We have also seen rules related to immigration through marriage and work become more cumbersome and difficult, and those seeking the protection of the United States through asylum and refugee status having to jump through more hoops

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Unlike most other areas of law that deal with the life and liberty of citizens, immigrants have few rights under the law and the U.S. Constitution. This makes being an immigration lawyer, a challenging, frustrating and exhilarating career choice, but one that is also rewarding beyond any other. To be the only one standing between a human being and disaster, to be the hero that advocates for the one who has no voice, to espouse the cause of the fearful, to represent the entrepreneur who will have the next big idea only if given a chance, this is what motivates me, and my associates, and we are privileged to have dedicated our lives to it.