Episode 105: Hockey diehards & vampire dads: Meet BAL’s immigration litigation and program building experts

Episode 105: Hockey diehards & vampire dads: Meet BAL’s immigration litigation and program-building experts 

This episode of the BAL Immigration Report is brought to you by BAL, the corporate immigration law firm that powers human achievement through immigration expertise, people-centered client services and innovative technology. Learn more at BAL.com. 

In this week’s episode, BAL’s Gabe Mozes and Jeff Robins introduce BAL’s newest office and service group while diving into their deep experience in immigration. 

From Dallas, Texas, I’m Rebecca Sanabria. 

BAL has recently expanded its footprint with a new office in Atlanta, Georgia, led by Partner Gabe Mozes, and a new litigation service led by Senior Counsel Jeff Robins, who sits in the D.C. office. 

Mozes and Robins joined the BAL Immigration Report to discuss their shared passion for hockey, what inspired their careers in immigration and how they plan to support BAL’s clients.  

[The following transcript has been slightly edited from the original audio for clarity.] 

Gabe Mozes: So, Jeff — two Long Island boys who are big hockey fans of the New York Islanders who have kids that love Taylor Swift both joined BAL last year. I mean, wow, that’s kind of awesome. I don’t know how much we want to dig into the hockey piece, because I think that’s what drew us together immediately and formed our connection.  

In addition to that, when you did join, of course, I looked you up immediately. And holy cow, you are impressive. I mean, you are like one of the best litigators in the country. 

So here’s what I want to know from you a little bit more: Tell us about your background, because I know you’ve advised leadership and all these government agencies. And so maybe touch a little bit on the hockey piece and then tell us a little bit about your incredible litigation background. 

Jeff Robins: Yeah, thanks, Gabe. I guess we hit the right metrics to get recognized and brought on at the same time here: hockey and Taylor Swift. 

But I’m a native Long Islander like yourself, grew up loving hockey and the New York Islanders. And my kids have also had the opportunity to be introduced to my passion. And some of my favorite things to do are to watch them play, coach them, and I even started working as a referee, which is really a helpful crossover for a litigator because you’re just getting yelled at the whole time. That is a common trait in both litigators and hockey referees — so really a helpful thing for hockey, and the crossover is pretty cool.  

In terms of background and what brought me to BAL, I come to BAL with almost 20 years of experience with the government and almost 18 of that with the Department of Justice, working in the Civil Division Office of Immigration Litigations District Court Section. And the district court section is the office that’s primarily responsible for handling all immigration-related defensive cases that come in. 

And so, over the years, I’ve been able to work on a wide array of cases involving DACA, involving U visas and cases that have run from the inception of those programs to challenges and other issues involving them. And so I come to BAL with that perspective and a real knack, I hope, for being able to identify the issues that really matter and an opportunity to resolve things and work on them on behalf of our clients.  

When we look at what litigation means for especially the business immigration community, the volume of litigation nationally — right back to hockey, it’s a beautiful hockey stick chart — has increased in the hundreds and almost a thousand percent over the last 10 years. So the volume of immigration cases filed in federal court is going through the roof. 

And the reasons why are the things that you said are primarily challenges to delayed petitions and applications and a real environment that is where individuals are challenging programmatic decisions and constitutional grounds. And for business immigration, that means an opportunity to help companies and help their employees get things done — maybe not more quickly, but done in a reasonable amount of time. Applications and petitions that are pending for years is something that really affects the ability to get work done and to bring workers in. Litigation is a very helpful tool to help raise awareness with the government that there are equities and interests that should and need to be considered to help speed things up there. 

On the programmatic side of the house, I’ve worked through four presidential administrations of both parties. As any good lawyer might say, there’s always something to fight about. There’s always something to litigate about, and we’ve seen it in certain contexts. We’ve seen regulations that have existed from one administration to the next. And there are a whole variety of sources that may challenge policy decisions that are made by the executive. 

Being able to understand the players, being able to understand the issues, being able to advise our clients on what’s going on and how they can also get involved to represent their interests in those cases is something that I hope to bring to the table.  

Mozes: You know, I love that. When I joined just a few months before you, one of the things that I was really excited about — and I’ve known this for a while because I’ve known Lynden [Melmed] for, you know, a couple of years — and it’s this idea that we have a Government Strategies team that is dedicated to helping our clients with a lot of these matters. And I know that it was interesting because it was one of the early conversations we had where there was an interest in beefing up our ability to litigate, that one piece that I think we have other litigators on the team that have some litigation experience. 

But it was one piece where when they announced that you were joining, it was, you know, this Government Strategies team just grew exponentially in strength. So it’s a really exciting time.  

Robins: Yeah, and I’ll kind of end my thoughts with the idea that my goal to achieve with our clients and present and future is to be able to spread the gospel that litigation is a tool. It’s not the only tool.  

What all of us here at BAL and the Government Strategies team offers together is a real cohesive approach to looking at not only benefit processing and getting through the initial stages of a process, but identifying problems that could arise in advance, trying to solve those problems through a whole toolbox of things that can help get results for our clients with litigation, as just one example of those. 

And so the real takeaway is litigation is here. It’s a tool. And we’re now better able to get involved with that if and when it’s necessary. 

But let’s turn the spotlight on you, Gabe. I know that you were a Fulbright scholar. You taught in Romania. Did your background, teaching in Romania, did that ultimately influence your path into immigration?  

Mozes: Yeah, I mean, for sure. My parents were born and left Romania in the ’70s, and so I was born in the U.S., but my first language was Romanian. I always had an appreciation for the immigration process and that always played a big role — just the background of being a first gen and being someone who grew up here with a kind of multicultural background, and it definitely influenced my decision. I was an economics major in college, and when I was graduating, it was 10 years after the fall of communism. And so I decided to do a, I proposed a project where I got to study the economic environment 10 years after the fall of communism in Romania, which led me to spend a year there — actually in Transylvania, and I get a lot of jokes.  

My dad is from Transylvania. When I was younger, he would definitely on Halloween dress up as a vampire, like official, like he had credibility, given that he grew up in Transylvania. So I spent a year in Transylvania, traveling around Romania. And in addition to the economic research, I got to teach English to individuals who were preparing to enter the U.S., who were getting visas to enter. 

And I got to see the immigration process from overseas. And that really piqued my interest and immediately had me applying for immigration paralegal positions. This is a long time ago, but it’s definitely something that influenced where I ended up.  

Robins: That’s incredible. My mom’s also a first generation American. My grandfather’s from Poland, was a Holocaust survivor. And I’ve gone back to visit — not nearly as long and as extensively as you have in Romania — learning about our families and their paths in that history really fuels my passion for immigration as well. 

But we kind of fast forward here, right? So we talked about your seeking those paralegal positions to most recently opening BAL’s Atlanta office and leading the team there. And we know you’ve got deep experience building immigration programs with large companies, including smaller businesses and startups. You’ve helped expand the services that BAL can offer. And so what’s going on with you guys in Atlanta? What’s exciting right now?  

Mozes: Well, Atlanta is, as we all know, Atlanta is a great city. I will say — coming and growing up in the Northeast, in New York, with a family full of folks in Manhattan — when I told them I was going to move and live in the South, there were some jokes. I have to tell you, I am a true convert. I love it here. And when I engaged BAL with some partners to talk about potential opportunities, there was no office in Atlanta. There was no presence here. 

Everybody, there was unanimous consensus that Atlanta is such an incredible market and we want to grow here. And I was honored to be part of that growth. With BAL’s support, we were able to open up a fantastic office in midtown, right across from Colony Square in Atlanta. 

We built out a wonderful office housing close to 40 of us attorneys, paralegals, support staff. And I will say from a cultural perspective, the culture of BAL and the culture of this office, we just have an incredible vibe. Everyone seems to get along quite well, very dedicated to client service, which is kind of one of the things that really is prized at BAL. 

And I’ll say the only disappointment is that we had a naming contest for our conference rooms and I lost that. Maybe we can save that as a second podcast episode where we can go drill into detail on that contest.  

However, putting that aside, it’s a wonderful market. I mean, we have companies here in technology and transportation, financial services, consulting, manufacturing — extremely dynamic market. Every company wants to have a presence here in Atlanta, and I’m really happy that we were able to do that.  

I also urge my colleagues, now that we’ve moved into our new space of just a few months ago, to come visit. Having converted and come down, I’ve been in Atlanta now for about 11 or 12 years, I want more people to come down here and check it out. So it’s really exciting. Jeff, maybe at some point you’ll be coming down here. 

Now, I will say, since we’re carrying this hockey theme, the year that I moved to Atlanta was the year that the Atlanta Thrashers left, which is not a good sign. And it was not a great moment for me, who was hoping that upon moving to Atlanta, I’d be able to go to all the hockey games. But there are rumors that within the next five years, we’ll get our third team here, which would be an interesting change. 

Robins: Well, I can’t wait to do that. I’ve been down in Atlanta a couple of times working for the government. I had a case, a longstanding case, that resulted in an 11th Circuit win in the government’s favor. I’m not going to be able to undo that on this side of the house, but I can definitely come watch some hockey. Looking forward to getting out to all the BAL offices. And so, yeah, that’ll be really great. 

Let me kind of, as we wrap up here, let me talk about the elephant in the room, because we’re recording this episode a week before the inauguration of President Trump on Jan. 20 and three weeks before the Super Bowl. So two enormous events. But what are you doing to get ready down there? What are you doing to get ready for the next administration? And what are you doing to get ready for the Super Bowl?  

Mozes: For the new administration, we’re just paying close attention. We’re talking to our clients about potential changes, and we’re actually relying on your team, on the Government Strategies team, to provide us with updates so that we can better inform our clients.  

And then as far as the Super Bowl goes — so I’m a perpetual underdog here, right? Being a New York Islanders fan, I always want the team that’s not expected to win or that’s never won before. Buffalo, Detroit — let’s see that. Let’s see a team that’s never won it be in the Super Bowl — one of those teams win. 

Mozes: With that, I think we’re done for now. But I do think we should at some point get back together and continue to drill down on some of these interesting points that came up, and also maybe talk a little bit more detail on the immigration piece, because we’re going to see a lot of changes. So let’s leave that for now and maybe come back together in the future. 

Robins: Thanks, Gabe. Looking forward to it. 

Learn more about BAL’s litigation services at bal.com. 

And now, the top U.S. and global immigration news. 

USCIS updated policy guidance to clarify how it evaluates eligibility for EB-2 immigrant petitions filed with a national interest waiver request, as well as guidance clarifying how it evaluates evidence to determine O-1 visa eligibility. 

The Department of Homeland Security announced the extension of Temporary Protected Status for El Salvador, Sudan, Ukraine and Venezuela. 

In Canada, the government announced changes to open work permits for family members of temporary residents. The Canadian government also announced that pools for the 2025 International Experience Canada season are now open. 

For the latest insights and policy updates, immigration and mobility professionals are encouraged to join BAL Community at no cost. 

Find all of our news at BAL.com/news. Follow us on X at @BAL_Immigration. And sign up to receive daily immigration updates in your inbox at BAL.com/newsletter. 

I’m Rebecca Sanabria. Thanks for listening. 

Copyright 

The BAL Immigration Report is provided by BAL. Copyright 2025 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. This report does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Visit bal.com for more information.