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DALLAS (Jan. 26, 2023) — Pacesetting global immigration firm BAL was lauded last night by the mayor of the city of Richardson, Texas, in the annual State of the City address. The environmentally minded law firm set a record by providing the largest group of volunteers to partake in the city’s Community and Corporate Environmental Cleanup program.
Applauding BAL for its “tremendous showing of community spirit,” three-term Mayor Paul Voelker, who has overseen the cleanup since 2017, invited BAL Partner Kortney Gibson to attend his address in person and stand for official recognition by the audience.
“It is an honor to be recognized by the mayor and the city for our volunteer work,” said Kortney, who manages BAL’s local operations and Center of Excellence. “We pride ourselves on extending our time and efforts and compassion into initiatives that support the environment and our local community.”
In July, 500 BAL team members from the firm’s Richardson headquarters gathered at the nearby Spring Creek Nature Area preserve to clean up sections of heavily wooded terrain. The earth-conscious BAL team was the largest cadre of volunteers to partner with the city’s Environmental Cleanup program outside of the city’s annual Trash Bash initiative. The city facilitates the cleanup initiative to maintain the popular 100-acre nature destination, which is nestled within a thriving urban environment.
BAL Partner Stephanie Pimentel coordinated the volunteer effort as part of the annual firm-wide volunteer “Service Day,” in which teams from BAL’s 14 offices around the country volunteer for a project of their choosing to help their local communities.
“Coordinating the Service Day was one of the highlights of my year,” said Stephanie, who also attended the mayor’s address. “Joining with 500 colleagues to beautify the nature area and preserve our local environment was an inspiring reminder that the work BAL does to make a positive difference in people’s lives doesn’t stop with our clients and teams, but extends beyond the front door to the communities we are a part of.”
About BAL BAL, the world’s leading corporate immigration law firm, is singularly focused on meeting the immigration challenges of corporate clients around the world in ways that make immigration more strategic and enable businesses to be more successful. Established in 1980, BAL has consistently provided immigration expertise, people-centered client services and leading technology innovation. In 2018, BAL entered into a first-of-its-kind strategic alliance with Deloitte U.K. to create the world’s first global immigration service delivery model. BAL’s proprietary 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 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.
BAL has ranked #1 on multiple industry rankings for diversity, equity and inclusion, including the #1 Law Firm for Women by the National Law Journal four years in a row (2019-2022), #1 on the Diversity Scorecard by The American Lawyer (2020 and 2021), and #1 on Law360’s Diversity Snapshot for three years running (2020-2022). BAL won in seven of Comparably’s Best Company categories, including Diversity, Women, Career Growth, and Perks & Benefits. The Dallas Business Journal named BAL one of only a handful of the 2022 Best Places to Work based exclusively on employee feedback. US News & World Report–Best Lawyers named BAL the 2023 Immigration Law Firm of the Year.
Media Contact: Emily Albrecht Senior Director — Marketing & Communications ealbrecht@bal.com 469-559-0174
Dallas (Jan. 6, 2023) — BAL, the world’s leading corporate immigration law firm, promoted five of its attorneys to Partner this month: Shehryar Chaudhry, Haesung Kim, Amy Lighter, Stephanie Pimentel and Michael Sela.
Shehryar Chaudhry provides strategic counsel to companies from BAL’s San Francisco office, managing immigration programs for companies in the technology sector and providing guidance on compliance, program management and corporate restructuring.
“As an immigrant myself, I get a lot of joy out of working with corporate clients in shaping their immigration program and in helping their foreign national employees,” Shehryar said. “It’s a win-win, and I’m honored to step into a new leadership role at a firm that values those relationships.”
In the firm’s Tysons, Virginia, office, Haesung Kim has extensive experience representing Fortune 500 companies on all aspects of employment and family-based immigration matters. Her practice focuses on managing PERM labor certification and green card processes for large corporations.
Amy Lighter, who practices in the firm’s Santa Clara, California, office, works with companies to craft immigration solutions that facilitate the mobility of executives, managers and specialized workers, with a particular interest in securing extraordinary ability visas for leading scientists and researchers.
“I have lived abroad as a ‘trailing spouse’ without work authorization and have walked in my clients’ shoes,” said Amy, who has a background in science and technology. “I’m excited for my new role at BAL — a tech-forward firm that empowers my passion for leveraging technology to improve the quality and delivery of legal services.”
Practicing at BAL’s headquarters in Dallas, Stephanie Pimentel represents companies across diverse industries, including pharmaceutical, IT and consulting. She manages immigration programs for large multinational corporations as well as startups, and previously served as Liaison to Customs and Border Protection at Boston’s Logan Airport through the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Michael Sela, who practices in BAL’s San Francisco office, has expertise in all facets of business immigration matters having represented clients of all sizes in industries such as healthcare, entertainment and technology. Michael advises global companies and their employees on both nonimmigrant and immigrant visas processes.
“Our new partners represent BAL’s continuing pursuit of the exceptional for our clients, DE&I in our firm and innovation in our industry,” explains BAL Managing Partner Jeremy Fudge. “This year, we are resetting our own benchmark for high-quality, people-centered services powered by technology, and these elite professionals will help us meet those goals and our clients achieve success.”