News (Noticias) Tagged ‘attorney’

María Blanco joined UC Berkeley Law School on July 1, 2007 as the first Executive Director of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity (Warren Institute). Blanco is a Boalt alumna (’84) who brings more than 20 years of experience as a litigator and advocate for immigrant rights, women’s rights and racial justice. Blanco formerly served as the executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.

As Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee, Blanco oversaw litigation and policy work in the area of immigrant integration and rights, securing the right to vote and expanding the franchise, and African-American civil rights. She regularly contributes to national and local media on school integration and funding inequities, the importance of an independent judiciary, and civil rights challenges in today’s post 9/11 security climate.

Prior to her position at the Lawyers’ Committee, Blanco served as the National Senior Counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. In that capacity she spent from 2001 to 2003 establishing MALDEF’s office in the Southeast Region of the United States and headed MALDEF legislative office in Sacramento, California where she was key in the passage of legislation that provided for in-state tuition for undocumented students attend state universities and colleges. After graduating from Boalt, Blanco served as staff attorney at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and then joined the non-profit firm of Equal Rights Advocates in San Francisco where she successfully litigated pivotal civil rights cases, such as Davis v. San Francisco, which brought women for the first time into the San Francisco Fire Department; and Castrejon v. Tortilleria La Mejor, which established that undocumented workers are covered by federal anti-discrimination laws.

She also was an advisor to the Obama campaign starting with the California primaries.”

In a radical departure from years of legal precedent, Attorney General Michael Mukasey is considering ending the practice of allowing immigrants to reopen cases that they lost because of their lawyers’ mistakes or incompetence. Mukasey announced that he was considering the issue late this summer and then imposed the unrealistic deadline of October 6 for interested parties to submit briefs, preventing organizations opposing the change, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Bar Association (ABA), from providing a meaningful response.

“It is remarkable that the attorney general would refuse to give the legal community sufficient time to respond to a change that would so dramatically break from fairness and due process,” said ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project Deputy Director Lee Gelernt. “There is absolutely no reason why the justice system should penalize anyone, including immigrants, for the harm done by incompetent or unscrupulous attorneys.”

On August 7, Mukasey instructed that any briefs responding to the proposed reversal of the “ineffective assistance” right be submitted by Sept. 15. After many organizations and lawyers protested that this provided insufficient time to respond to such major legal and policy issues, he extended the deadline a scant three more weeks.

Though the U.S. Department of Justice has also proposed new rules that would give the department more latitude to punish incompetent immigration lawyers, organizations from the entire range of the political spectrum say that penalizing attorneys is not a substitute for the right to competent counsel.

“It can never be considered a fair process when you lose your case because your lawyer missed a deadline or made some other egregious error,” said Gelernt. “Punishing your lawyer does nothing for you while you’re on your way to being deported.”

Mukasey’s orders as well as letters to Mukasey from the ACLU, ABA, the American Immigration Law Foundation and numerous partners at some of the country’s most prestigious law firms opposing the change or objecting to insufficient time allotted for submitting briefs are available online at:

Assemblywoman-select Annette Quijano will be sworn-in Thursday as the first woman and minority representing the 20th Legislative District in the General Assembly.

The swearing-in will be held 1 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 25 at the State House in the Assembly Chambers.

Quijano was appointed in August to fill a vacancy. She will represent the 20th Legislative District, which includes Elizabeth, Kenilworth, Roselle and Union Township – all in Union County.

Quijano is an attorney who recently served as assistant counsel to three governors. She also has extensive experience in the corporate arena, government and as a community activist.

“It will be a great privilege to serve the people of the 20th Legislative District and I look forward to working hard to improve the lives of my fellow New Jerseyans,” Quijano said.

She will serve on the Assembly Labor Committee and the Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee for the 2008-09 legislative session. “

Román D. Hernández, a shareholder with regional law firm Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, was recently elected to the prestigious position of president-elect of the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA). As president-elect, Hernández will help shape the legal landscape on a national level, and will work with the HNBA’s President, Ms. Ramona Romero, as the HNBA collaborates with other national bar associations, governmental leaders, and community groups to achieve greater involvement in the legal profession by Hispanics.

“This is an extraordinary opportunity for Román to further his work in the legal community,” said Mark Long, managing partner for Schwabe. “For more than 30 years the HNBA has worked hard to promote positive change within the legal profession, and we are proud that Román will now be a championing voice.”

The HNBA is a nonprofit national membership organization that represents the interests of the more than 100,000 attorneys, judges, law professors, legal assistants and law students of Hispanic descent in the United States and Puerto Rico. The HNBA promotes opportunities for Latinos in the legal profession through advocacy and substantive programs. The HNBA also advocates for the larger Latino community on important public policy issues such as access to justice, judicial diversity and independence, economic development, voter protection, and immigration.

“Roman Hernández is an experienced and principled leader, an extraordinary lawyer, and a true professional,” said Ramona Romero, recently inaugurated President of the HNBA. “I could not have asked for a better partner and successor. We will work together to ensure that the HNBA remains focused on its mission and continues to serves its members and the community effectively.”

Hernández focuses his practice in the areas of employment law and business litigation. Additionally, he provides general employment advice related to employment policies and practices to employers of all sizes. Hernández has been involved in international business matters and has conducted cross-border contract negotiations on behalf of firm clients.

“I am truly honored to serve as HNBA President-Elect this year, then as HNBA President next year. The HNBA, the national voice of the Hispanic legal community, will continue to advance the interests of Hispanic legal professionals on a national level under my leadership as it has under the leadership of many great leaders who have preceded me, like Ramona Romero. I look forward to working with her and other members of the HNBA Board of Governors,” said Román Hernández.

In 2005, Hernández was selected by the HNBA as “Regional President of the Year” out of the 19 regional presidents across the country. In addition to serving on the board of this national organization, he has also been active in many local organizations. Hernández served on The Board of Directors of the Portland Hispanic Chamber, including serving one year as its President. Additionally, he was one of the founding members of the Oregon Hispanic Bar Association and served as its first Vice-President. In 2004, he served on the Transition Steering Committee for Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, and then, in 2006, was appointed by the Governor to the 10-member board of directors for Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), Oregon’s only academic health center. As a Director, part of his responsibilities includes overseeing OHSU’s annual budget of $1.4 billion.

Hernández will assume the role of HNBA president in September 2009, and serve a one-year term.

Hernández graduated from Northwestern School of Law, Lewis & Clark College, with a juris doctor degree.

ABOUT SCHWABE, WILLIAMSON & WYATT

Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt is a multiservice law firm serving the needs of businesses in the Pacific Northwest, as well as U.S. and international clients. The firm has more than 170 attorneys in Portland, Bend, and Salem, Ore., and Seattle, Stevenson, and Vancouver, Wash., and in Washington, D.C. Schwabe attorneys provide a broad range of transaction and litigation services to many of the Pacific Northwest’s leading companies, from Fortune 500 industry leaders, to emerging and privately held businesses. Schwabe has ranked among Oregon Business magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For in Oregon” for the last four consecutive years, is ranked #1 among Portland corporate law firms by Corporate Board Member magazine, and was recently named one of “Oregon’s Most Admired Companies” in a survey completed by Oregon CEOs in The Business Journal of Portland. www.schwabe.com“

When a decision was handed down last week from the Supreme Court of Bermuda confirming long-standing allegations of tax fraud against the key owners of the Pollo Campero restaurant chain and other businesses, observers in the media likely were confused to read that the defendants were declaring the ruling a “victory.”

“For the defendants to celebrate their defeat like a victory just adds insult to injury — it’s difficult to think of many other businesses that would boast when one company escapes liability for fraud, while their core business division, in this case Corporacion Multi-Inversiones, is acknowledged to be the controlling mind behind such practices,” said Robert Amsterdam, lawyer to LISA, S.A., the plaintiff in a series of legal actions against companies controlled by Juan Luis Bosch and Dionisio Gutierrez Mayorga, two of Central America’s most wealthy and powerful businessmen. “It seems clear that even once their abusive practices were exposed before the law, they continue their pattern of deception in the public sphere with misleading and distorted statements to the media.”

For example, in a press release dated Sept. 10, 2008, the Bosch-Gutierrez team continued promoting factual inaccuracies intended to deflect attention away from enormously important issues of public interest not just in Guatemala, but for much of Latin America and in the United States. Some of the inaccuracies include the following:

– The defendants seek to minimize the court’s finding of liability for fraud by repeatedly emphasizing that the nearly $2 million in awarded damages is smaller than an initial offer in 1998 and a pre-trial settlement offer. This is incorrect. The fact is that the judge’s decision includes prejudgment interest penalties of approximately $1.8 million plus costs and attorneys fees (to be determined at a future hearing).

– The defense has spread misleading statements to media outlets in an attempt to argue that the plaintiff failed to prove that the Avicola Group used secret, off-the-book ledgers for sales of live chicken, manure and oranges. This is resolutely false. Judge Ian Kawaley writes in the ruling that executives representing Bosch-Gutierrez “clearly admitted in a meeting which was secretly recorded that a substantial portion of the income generated by the Avicola Group, in particular cash generated from the sale of live chickens, chicken manure and oranges was kept off the books and used to fund distributions to shareholders.”

– The clear goal of the defendant’s attempts to misinform the public about the Bermuda ruling is reflected by their repeated statements that the Court “rejects” allegations of fraud against Avicola Villalobos, one of the umbrella companies in the Avicola Group. At no point in the decision does the judge declare that fraud is not occurring at this company. The ruling addressed which company is the actual controlling mind of the scam. Judge Kawaley writes that “This constellation of facts not only illustrates why the best available evidence strongly points to Multi-Inversiones (and not AVSA) being viewed as the corporate entity which controlled Leamington.”

To present the decision of an exoneration of any kind is outrageously misleading, say the lawyers for the plaintiff. The identification by the judge of Corporacion Multi-Inversiones as the controlling mind of the fraud is very important in terms of thrusting the corrupt, public face of this business conglomerate into the public eye.
“For almost ten years we have seen these defendants adroitly misdirect attention to escape the difficult questions regarding these serious allegations, such as why they refused to allow their expert witnesses to be cross-examined, why their admission of multiple accounting systems contradicts potentially manipulated audits from the Public Ministry, or even why they are twisting liability into innocence,” said Juan Rodriguez, counsel to the plaintiff. “They have one goal above all, which is to discourage media coverage at all costs. There is only one party in this dispute afraid of the facts. I welcome all interested to carefully review the documents to understand the duplicity of these immensely powerful men.”

For more information on this case, including copies of the court complaints and judgments, please at www.casogutierrez.com or email James Kimer at James.kimer@ksocialmedia.com, “

Adorno & Yoss, the nation’s largest minority-owned law firm with more than 270 attorneys and 18 offices, has launched a global immigration practice. Capitalizing on a national footprint, international experience and relationships, the depth and breadth of its immigration group as well as a long standing and successful track record serving national corporate clients, Adorno & Yoss has positioned itself as a viable competitor to other large scale immigration-only law firms.
“Immigration services at the corporate and individual level have long been in our strategic plan. When you have immigration attorneys who are bilingual in languages such as Spanish, Chinese, Farsi, Urdu and Hindi, among others, as well as bicultural, rendering global immigration services is a natural progression for us,” said Hank Adorno, chief executive officer of the firm. The co-chairs of the global immigration practice group are leading immigration attorneys Jacob Monty, partner and Fernando M. Socol, partner. The group, headquartered in Miami and Houston, with significant additional resources in Los Angeles and Seattle, includes approximately 40 attorneys and support staff.
“We expect to capitalize on our own resources as well as on long standing relationships with correspondent firms throughout the western hemisphere, Europe and trading and technology partners in south and far Asia in order to provide a comprehensive array of immigration services,” said Francisco J. Gonzalez, a partner in the Miami office of Adorno & Yoss and the firm’s chair of the international services group. According to Gonzalez, these services include sophisticated consular immigration services and a turn-key approach for inbound, outbound and pure international immigration services.
The launch of the global immigration practice was accelerated by the recent opening of the firm’s Houston office. Jacob Monty, the managing partner of the Houston office and a well-known labor and immigration specialist, leads the global immigration effort in Houston. Hispanic Business Magazine named Monty’s firm as one of the fastest growing Hispanic-owned firms.
“The increase in immigration enforcement and the unabated demand for skilled and unskilled labor and continued regulatory and compliance pressures are having an unprecedented effect on our corporate clients,” said Jacob Monty. “To meet this demand, we’ve added a significant number of resources and broadened the reach of the new global immigration practice”.
“Our resources, including language offerings and critical consular services, are second to none,” said Fernando Socol, a partner in the firm’s Miami office. “Our people have worked on immigration matters and have developed unique relationships with field offices in many languages and in multiple countries for a long time.”
ABOUT THE FIRM
Adorno & Yoss is the nation’s largest certified minority-owned law firm, with over 270 professionals in all major metropolitan centers. Adorno & Yoss provides a full range of legal services to corporations ranging from Fortune 500 and publicly traded companies to major insurance organizations as well as governments and individuals. In 2006, the National Law Journal ranked Adorno & Yoss the 169th largest firm in the country. The Firm received the prestigious 2007 Thomas L. Sager Award for the South/Southwest Region, presented annually by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) to the firm that has demonstrated an incessant commitment to improve the hiring, retention and promotion of minority attorneys. For more information, visit www.adorno.com . “

Cowles & Thompson, P.C., is proud to announce that Richard Barrett Cuetara has been promoted to shareholder in the business litigation section of the Dallas-based law firm.

Mr. Barrett Cuetara’s practice focuses on complex real estate litigation. He represents real estate developers, property management companies and retail brokerage companies. He serves as chair of the firm’s Hospitality practice group and represents independent hotel owners in franchise disputes, hotel occupancy tax matters and hotel management issues. As a member of the Real Estate and Hospitality practice groups, he also handles transactional work, negotiates documents and resolves complex commercial disputes.

“Rick is a true asset to our firm and an outstanding advocate for his clients,” says Cowles & Thompson Managing Shareholder Chuck Green. “We are proud to see him take on the responsibilities of this new position, and we look forward to many more years of working alongside of him.”

Mr. Barrett Cuetara is active in The Real Estate Council, Dallas Hispanic Bar Association, Texas Hotel & Lodging Association, Global Alliance of Hospitality Attorneys and Rotary International. A respected speaker at hotel industry events and an accomplished author, he has published 13 articles and delivered 21 speeches relating to commercial real estate and hospitality issues during the past five years alone. He also serves as chair of Cowles & Thompson’s Diversity Committee.

He earned his law degree from California Western School of Law and a LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Miami (Fla.) He has a bachelor’s degree, Cum Laude with Distinction, from San Diego State University.

Before practicing law, Mr. Barrett Cuetara worked in the Real Estate Investment Division of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in Dallas.

Cowles & Thompson, P.C., is a full-service law firm with offices in Dallas and Tyler, Texas. For more than 30 years, Cowles & Thompson has represented clients from across the nation in high-stakes litigation, providing effective, creative, and efficient solutions for clients’ most complex problems. “

Angelo Paparelli, Managing Partner of Paparelli & Partners LLP of New York, N.Y. and Irvine, Calif. was recently awarded two of the most prestigious honors any  immigration lawyer can receive. Receiving more nominations than any other practitioner, Paparelli was named the world’s most highly nominated lawyer for corporate immigration work according to the prestigious International Who’s Who of Corporate Immigration Lawyers for 2008. In addition, he received a band #1 ranking in California as an individual immigration lawyer, the highest tier recognized by Chambers USA.

Paparelli earns “nothing but praise from sources: interviewees applauded him as ‘a tremendously professional attorney who clearly understands the requirements of his client,’” according to Chambers. The publication awarded his firm, Paparelli & Partners a #2 ranking, praising it as “an excellent firm with a sophisticated immigration practice,” that “enjoys a strong reputation for its legal offerings to clients from a variety of business sectors, including IT and automotives, entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, artists, athletes and universities.”

“I am very proud to be recognized this way by both of these organizations,” said Paparelli. “Receiving this kind of vote of confidence from my peers is a great honor. We are very proud of the work we do here, and it is always gratifying to see that acknowledged.”

Chambers USA ranks law firms and individual attorneys on a scale of 1-6, with 1 as the best ranking.  The qualities on which rankings are assessed include technical legal ability, professional conduct, client service, commercial astuteness, diligence, commitment, and other qualities most valued by the client. For the 2008 directory, Chambers conducted over 14,000 interviews over six months. Forty full-time researchers questioned a range of lawyers and their clients (i.e. commercial users of legal services), with greater weight given to the views of the clients.

Nominees for Who’s Who are selected based on comprehensive, independent surveys of general counsel and business lawyers in practice worldwide. This is the third time Paparelli has received the honor, following his listings in the 2005 and 2006 issues.

Also in Who’s Who is a three-point immigration manifesto, authored by Paparelli, on what every corporate law office and outside corporate counsel should know. Immigration has been described by some observers as the “third rail” of American politics. Other pundits have compared immigration to a downed power line that snakes along the ground, electrocuting all within its reach. Paparelli’s article will help avoid immigration legal problems that could ruin an otherwise stellar legal career and offers a 3-point plan for enlightened immigration-related legal management.

“Ignore immigration at your peril,” Paparelli writes, “You have nothing to lose but your job and your freedom.”

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Kate Casey at (949) 723-0520 or email Kate@KateCasey.com.

Paparelli & Partners LLP is a multi-jurisdictional law firm with offices in Irvine, California and New York, New York, dedicated to the practice of all areas of U.S. immigration law. The firm represents Fortune 500 businesses, privately-held and emerging-growth companies in a wide array of industries, entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, artists, athletes, universities and national law firms. For more information, visit http://www.entertheusa.com/index.html.

Angelo Paparelli (http://www.entertheusa.com) is the Managing Partner of Paparelli & Partners LLP (www.entertheusa.com) in NY, NY and Irvine, CA. He serves as President of the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers (www.abil.com), a global network of 29 immigration law firms with over with over 200 attorneys vetted for practice excellence and client service operating in 21 major U.S. cities, and Brussels, Cologne, Hong Kong, London, Mexico City, Monterrey, Mumbai, Shanghai, Tokyo, Toronto and Vancouver. Named the world’s most highly nominated corporate immigration lawyer (2008, 2006 and 2005, International Who’s Who of Corporate Immigration Lawyers) and a first-tier business immigration lawyer (2008, Chambers USA), Paparelli co-authors the New York Law Journal’s “Immigration” column, writes a blog (www.nationofimmigrators.com), and serves as an expert witness/consultant on immigration to law firms and businesses.