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DALLAS (Feb. 28, 2022) – Jeremy Fudge, Managing Partner of the award-winning immigration law firm BAL, has been named a 2022 Outstanding Director by the Dallas Business Journal. Jeremy is recognized for his excellence in governance and his role in the success, growth and development of BAL.
“I’m honored by this recognition from our leading local business publication,” Jeremy said. “I’m proud to help lead the amazing people at BAL as we continue to attract the top professionals in the industry, pave new ways of serving clients through our proprietary tech tools, and provide platinum-level service to our clients.”
Jeremy has overseen tremendous expansion of the firm, nationally and in the Dallas area. In just the past two years, the firm has hired over 600 employees, including 60% diversity hires. The firm’s Center of Excellence and national headquarters in Richardson grew by 18.5 percent in 2021, and is set to add another 100,000 square feet of space this summer. BAL has opened a new office every year for the past five years, including two during the pandemic (Denver and Austin), and the firm continues to expand into new markets.
As Managing Partner, Jeremy embodies the firm’s people-centric approach, not only in his unique management style, but also in his relentless support of industry-leading technology innovations and investment in people. These twin priorities enable BAL to offer exceptional client services to some of the largest multinational companies around the world, while attracting and retaining top legal talent at BAL, even in these challenging times.
Under Jeremy’s management and leadership, BAL has weathered the pandemic as well as the ensuing Great Resignation. Jeremy personally recruited several of the top immigration professionals in the country to BAL in 2021. The firm also added unlimited vacation as a benefit, developed a proprietary tool to measure and balance workloads, and automated document processing that liberates employees from mundane tasks—initiatives that make BAL the destination for the industry’s top talent.
“Jeremy embodies the firm’s mission to make a positive difference in people’s lives, whether he’s serving our corporate clients, their employees, or his own colleagues and every BAL employee,” said Partner Kortney Gibson, who oversees the Center of Excellence in Richardson.
Jeremy takes his coaching and pursuit of the exceptional beyond his professional role. A competitive runner and marathoner, he most recently coached 14 BAL attorneys and staff from couch to completion of the 2021 BMW Dallas Marathon.
A member of the Texas bar, Jeremy earned his Juris Doctor, cum laude, from The University of Texas School of Law and his Bachelor of Science, magna cum laude, in Journalism and Political Science from Baylor University.
About Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP (BAL) BAL, one of the world’s leading corporate immigration law firms, is the Most Diverse Law Firm in America (2020 and 2021) and the Best Law Firm for Women (2019 and 2020). BAL’s Cobalt® digital immigration services platform won the 2020 CODiE Award for Best Legal Tech Product and the prestigious CIO100 award for Innovative Use of Intelligent Automation in Immigration Services. The firm won Legalweek’s Most Innovative Law Firm Operations Team of the Year in 2021. BAL is singularly focused on meeting the immigration challenges of corporate clients around the world in ways that make immigration more strategic and enable clients to be more successful. Established in 1980, BAL has consistently provided immigration expertise, top-notch information security and leading technology innovation. The firm entered into a strategic alliance with Deloitte UK to create the world’s first global immigration service delivery model. BAL and its leaders are highly ranked in every major legal publication, including Best Lawyers, Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500, and Who’s Who Legal.
Media Contact: Emily Albrecht Senior Director — Marketing & Communications ealbrecht@bal.com 469-559-0174
DALLAS (Feb. 21, 2022) – Immigration powerhouse Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP (BAL) is once again a top-ranked firm in Chambers and Partners’ new 2022 Global: Multi-Jurisdictional Guide. This is the eighth year in a row that Chambers has awarded BAL a place in its prestigious annual global ranking.
BAL is ranked a Band 1 firm in the U.S. business immigration category, and is highly-ranked for its global work. Denver Partner Jeff Joseph and Washington, D.C. Partner and head of the firm’s Government Strategies Team Lynden Melmed are Ranked Lawyers. Founding Partner David Berry and Managing Partner Jeremy Fudge are both cited as Notable Practitioners.
Chambers notes the firm’s “expertise across a broad spectrum of services, from application support and immigration program management to strategic advice on compliance and government relations.”
Chambers quotes BAL clients as well. One impressed client notes: “They partner with us like an extension of our team, making the immigration process seamless for our business.”
Another client said: “They proactively inform us of new developments that could impact our immigration program, and strategies to navigate any changes or challenges.”
BAL and its leaders have a sustained presence in the Chambers Guides.
“We appreciate that Chambers recognizes the firm’s elite expertise in global mobility and immigration strategy,” said Partner Rob Caballero. “Our focus is always on exceptional service to our clients and their employees, and our people-centered approach to navigating clients through the immigration journey while creating a vibrant workplace that attracts high-caliber legal talent. These are the secrets to our success.”
About Chambers Global Since 1990, Chambers and Partners has published an annual guide ranking the world’s best lawyers on the basis of technical expertise, business acumen, prompt delivery and value for money. A team of over 200 researchers conducts thousands of interviews worldwide to produce the rankings. Lawyers cannot buy their way into Chambers rankings; as a result, its annual directories are considered among the most accurate and reliable.
About Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP (BAL) BAL, one of the world’s leading corporate immigration law firms, is the Best Lawyers® “Law Firm of the Year” in U.S. Immigration Law for 2019, the Most Diverse Law Firm in America (2020 and 2021) and the Best Law Firm for Women (2019 and 2020). BAL’s Cobalt® digital immigration services platform won the 2020 CODiE Award for Best Legal Tech Product and the prestigious CIO100 award for Innovative Use of Intelligent Automation in Immigration Services. The firm won Legalweek’s Most Innovative Law Firm Operations Team of the Year in 2021. BAL is singularly focused on meeting the immigration challenges of corporate clients around the world in ways that make immigration more strategic and enable clients to be more successful. Established in 1980, BAL has consistently provided immigration expertise, top-notch information security and leading technology innovation. The firm entered into a strategic alliance with Deloitte U.K. to create the world’s first global immigration service delivery model. BAL and its leaders are highly ranked in every major legal publication, including Best Lawyers, Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500, and Who’s Who Legal. See website for details: https://www.bal.com.
When President Biden took office, I assumed there would be fewer lawsuits against the government’s immigration policies and that, even as a seasoned immigration attorney with a healthy litigation practice, I would spend less time in court. I prepared to shift the bulk of my time to helping my corporate clients with more routine immigration case work.
I was wrong. While the Biden administration has reversed some Trump immigration policies and regulations, in court it continues to defend its authority to restrict certain foreign nationals from the U.S. (i.e., travel bans), it continues to defend the lengthy delays in processing times for work authorization and interviews at U.S. Consulates, and to defend its narrow interpretations of visa eligibility that impede high-skilled immigration.
In the past year, I’ve won several high-profile and important cases against the government, including successfully challenging the State Department’s visa suspension policies and overturning agency interpretation of “specialty occupation” jobs, the primary visa category for high-skilled foreign workers. By challenging the government on issues that are critical to U.S. companies and their economic competitiveness, we achieved significant progress for the U.S. immigration system and for U.S. businesses and thousands of their foreign national employees. For instance, our victory against the visa suspension policy paved the way for the State Department to announce in November that the new rules requiring foreign travelers to be vaccinated to enter the U.S. would not prevent them from applying for or obtaining a visa at a U.S. consulate. In another case, we won a decades-long argument over how the government interpreted the job role of “market research analyst” for purposes of visa eligibility. The win will hopefully broaden eligibility for many “analyst” roles, including computer analysts that most U.S. employers depend on to fill tech jobs.
The Biden administration has appealed many of these recent cases, so employers should not expect the system to become easier to navigate anytime soon. As global mobility resumes and pandemic-related pressure on the immigration system intensifies, litigation can be an important tool in an employer’s arsenal to overcome restrictive policies.
And in this extremely tight labor market with rapid wage inflation, reflecting the continuing workforce crisis and immigration bottlenecks, employers should consider every available legal strategy to challenge immigration policies that are restricting them from filling critical vacancies. Fighting for employees can also give companies a hiring and retention advantage—the Great Resignation is less likely to sweep through workforces with a strong culture of loyalty, and being willing to go to bat for your employees sends a powerful message of support to your workforce.
Understandably, many companies instinctively shy away from litigating against the government, in part because of concerns about reputational risk—after all what business wants to make headlines for suing the United States? However, there are tools to protect a company’s need for discretion while advocating for its employees. Not all cases need to make headlines. In fact, most are resolved with no public attention. And the desire to stay out of the immigration spotlight must be balanced with the need to show employees that the company is fighting for them and their colleagues. Executives want to and need to stand up for their workforce, and asking the government to treat their employees fairly is one way a company can show that they value all employees and will look out for their rights.
While I routinely rely on creative tactics to keep clients out of court—from tapping the insight of my firm’s Government Strategies team in Washington to carefully crafting National Interest Exceptions to facilitate mobility in individual cases—sometimes litigation is necessary. It may become an even more important tool in reforming a broken immigration system as we grapple with the fallout of staffing shortages, pandemic backlogs and Congressional inaction. Employers represented by experienced litigators should not hesitate to challenge unfairly restrictive policies to protect the rights of employees and the financial interests of their businesses.
Jeff Joseph is a Partner in the Denver office of BAL. With more than two decades of experience advising companies on immigration law and policy, he is a well-known immigration advocate and currently serves as Treasurer on the Executive Committee of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and is nationally ranked in Chambers and Partners. He is bilingual in English and Spanish, and has given more than 200 lectures on immigration law.
This article was originally published in the California Business Journal on Feb. 7, 2022.
The information contained here is meant to be informational, and while BAL has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information, it is not promised or guaranteed to be complete. Readers of this information should not act upon any information contained on this alert/blog without seeking professional counsel. This alert does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Any reference to prior results, does not imply or guarantee similar future outcomes.
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DALLAS, Feb. 4, 2022 – Award-winning immigration firm BAL has opened a new office in Denver, Colorado, led by Denver native and Partner Jeff Joseph, a prominent immigration attorney and AILA luminary with deep connections in the region. BAL Denver will serve as a springboard to grow the firm’s presence in the Rocky Mountain market.
BAL provides corporate immigration services to companies and entrepreneurs. The firm’s services are comprehensive, from investor visas for start-ups to full-scale global immigration programs for some of the world’s largest companies, including in the tech sector that is flocking to the Rocky Mountain area: a recent SmartAsset survey named Denver one of the best places in the country for tech work. The region also has a disproportionate number of tech job openings, and BAL plans to help companies address this gap by mobilizing talent from around the world.
“As we help companies in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region to mobilize global talent, we’re also staffing a new office in a challenging labor market. BAL attracts top talent because we offer cutting-edge technology tools and a people-centered culture,” Jeff said, adding that the firm offers employees flexible schedules, unlimited vacation and paid time-off to do volunteer work of their choosing. “This complete package enables us to grow a high-caliber legal team that offers top-notch legal services to clients.”
Consistent with BAL’s focus on creating an enjoyable work environment for its employees, the Denver office landed in an 1871 loft-style building in the city’s hip LoDo district. Legal teams work in an office with windows overlooking Denver’s iconic Coors Field on one side and the city’s trendy Dairy Block on the other. The historic office is located within blocks of Denver’s best breweries, restaurants and accessible transportation.
“We look forward to transforming corporate mobility in the Rocky Mountain West, and we’ve found the perfect location for our game-changing team,” said BAL Managing Partner Jeremy Fudge. “The Denver office space reflects BAL’s strengths: We offer people-focused, creative legal solutions, and meet clients with our sleeves rolled up, ready to tackle even the most complex immigration challenges. Add to that our proprietary tech platform and the best legal minds in the business, and it’s a truly special place.”
The expansion is BAL’s fifth new office opening in the past five years as the firm grows through major U.S. economic centers, including the recently opened Austin, Texas and Santa Clara, California offices. The firm’s “oneBAL” culture epitomizes collaborative teamwork: workloads are shared firmwide, while regional offices provide the personal interaction and on-the-ground support BAL clients have come to expect from the service-oriented firm.
About Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP (BAL) BAL, the world’s leading corporate immigration law firm and the Best Lawyers® “Law Firm of the Year” in U.S. Immigration Law for 2019, ranks #1 on the Diversity Scorecard by The American Lawyer (2020 and 2021), #1 on Law360’s Diversity Snapshot (2020 and 2021), and the #1 Law Firm for Women according to the National Law Journal (2019, 2020 and 2021). BAL’s Cobalt® digital immigration services platform won the 2020 CODiE Award for Best Legal Tech Product, the prestigious CIO100 award for Innovative Use of Intelligent Automation in Immigration Services, and Legalweek’s Most Innovative Law Firm Operations Team of 2021. BAL is singularly focused on meeting the immigration challenges of corporate clients around the world in ways that make immigration more strategic and enable clients to be more successful. Established in 1980, BAL has consistently provided immigration expertise, top-notch information security and leading technology innovation. The firm entered into a strategic alliance with Deloitte UK to create the world’s first global immigration service delivery model. BAL and its leaders are highly ranked in every major legal publication, including Best Lawyers®, Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500, and Who’s Who Legal. See website for details: https://www.bal.com