AILA Public Statements, Press Releases

AILA Elects New Officers for 2020-2021

6/18/20 AILA Doc. No. 20061805.
CONTACTS:
George Tzamaras
202-507-7649
gtzamaras@aila.org
Belle Woods
202-507-7675
bwoods@aila.org

WASHINGTON, DC - The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) today elected new officers to its Executive Committee for the 2020-2021 term. Jennifer Minear was installed as AILA’s President and the following officers were elected today: Allen Orr as President-Elect, Jeremy McKinney as First Vice President, Farshad Owji as Second Vice President, Kelli Stump as Treasurer, and Jeff Joseph as Secretary.

Jennifer Minear Installed as President of AILA

Jennifer Minear, an immigration lawyer from Richmond, VA, was installed as the association’s President for the 2020-2021 term. Ms. Minear is a director in the Immigration Practice Group at McCandlish Holton in Richmond, VA, where her practice focuses on employment-based immigration, with a particular emphasis on the healthcare sector, including J-1 waiver and green card processing for foreign medical graduates.

She is the 2014 recipient of the Susan D. Quarles AILA Service Excellence Award, in recognition of her outstanding service over a period of years in advancing the mission, development, and value of AILA for its members and the public it serves. Ms. Minear has served AILA as a volunteer in a wide range of capacities. She has been a member of, or chaired, liaison committees and conference program committees, spoken at numerous AILA conferences, and written for AILA publications. She was an elected member of the AILA Board of Governors from 2012 – 2015.

Ms. Minear received her B.A. from the University of Maryland and graduated cum laude from Cornell Law School. Her Twitter handle is @jenniferminear.

Allen Orr Named President-Elect of AILA

Allen Orr, an immigration attorney from Washington, DC, was named the association’s President-Elect for the 2020-2021 term. Mr. Orr is the founder of Orr Immigration Law Firm PC, a minority-owned law firm based in Washington, D.C., focusing on U.S. corporate compliance as well as global corporate representation and assistance on immigration issues. He previously assisted in building one of the leading global immigration practices at a large global law firm, where he developed an international network of immigration practitioners, government officials and business leaders. Mr. Orr managed an I-9 compliance audit for a Fortune 10 company, which involved review and analysis of all immigration records relating to 250,000 employees. He met with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regarding the implementation of proposed immigration laws, such as the current U.S. labor certification system.

The recipient of the 2009 Joseph Minsky Young Lawyer Award for contributions made in the immigration law field from AILA, Mr. Orr is listed in The International Who’s Who of Corporate Immigration Lawyers and The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers. He has served as the Immigration Section Chair for the National Bar Association and as an elected member of the AILA Board of Governors.

Mr. Orr has appeared on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), FOX News, Russian TV (RT) and Deustsche Welle (DW), and is a frequent national and international speaker on US immigration and policy.

Mr. Orr received a BA in Philosophy from Morehouse College and a JD from Howard University’s School of Law. He is an active member of the D.C., Virginia, and National Bar Associations. His Twitter handle is @allenorresq.

Jeremy McKinney Elected First Vice President of AILA

Jeremy McKinney, an immigration lawyer from Greensboro, NC, was elected as the association’s First Vice President for the 2020-2021 term.

Mr. McKinney has lived and worked in Greensboro for over twenty years, having founded McKinney Immigration Law firm, with offices in Greensboro and Wilmington. He is a North Carolina Board Certified Immigration Law Specialist and is admitted to practice law in North Carolina, the Middle, Eastern, and Western District Courts of North Carolina, along with the Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

He has proudly been an AILA member since 1997. During that time, Mr. McKinney has served various leadership roles including Second Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, Elected Director, Chair of AILA’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) and Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) liaison committees, and Chair of the AILA Carolinas Chapter. Mr. McKinney graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1993 and later received his Juris Doctorate from Campbell University School of Law in 1996. He previously taught Immigration Law at Elon University School of Law as an Adjunct Professor, and served on the North Carolina State Bar’s Specialization Committee.

He and his wife, Cynthia Ligon McKinney have been married 23 years, and are parents to Ethan, 19, and Sophia, 17. Mr. McKinney is active on Twitter; his handle is @McKJeremy.

Farshad Owji Named Second Vice President of AILA

Farshad Owji, an immigration attorney from San Francisco, CA, was elected as the association’s Second Vice President for the 2020-2021 term.

Mr. Owji is a San Francisco partner at Wolfsdorf Rosenthal LLP, an immigration firm focused on technology and excellence. Mr. Owji’s areas of expertise include investment visas, consular processing of family- and employment-based immigrant and non-immigrant visas, and business litigation. Specifically, he guides start-up companies to make intelligent immigration decisions for a firm’s establishment and successful growth in the U.S.

Born in Tehran, Iran, Mr. Owji received a law degree from Ankara University in 1994, and directly after law school, accepted an internship, and soon after a position, at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Branch Office in Ankara, Turkey. Later he obtained his J.D. and LL.M. from University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law in 2000. Mr. Owji held a position as Senior International Associate at Deloitte, LLP and in 2002, he opened his immigration practice in the Financial District of San Francisco.

Mr. Owji is a current member of the Florida, Minnesota, and District of Columbia bars, as well as the Istanbul Bar Association in Turkey. He is also admitted to practice before the Federal Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Federal Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Kelli J. Stump Named Treasurer of AILA

Kelli J. Stump, an immigration attorney whose practice is based in Oklahoma City, OK, was elected as the association’s Treasurer for the 2020 - 2021 term.

Ms. Stump possesses over 10 years of experience in a practice limited exclusively to immigration law. Her practice is focused primarily on family-based immigration, complex deportation with emphasis on “crimmigration” matters leading to inadmissibility and deportability, and federal litigation in the immigration context. To date, she has argued before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals on four occasions.

Ms. Stump is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) where she is a Past Chair of the Texas/Oklahoma/New Mexico Chapter. Additionally, she has served as an elected director of the AILA Board of Governors and was Chair of the 2019 Annual Conference. She is the immediate past Chair of the AILA Executive Office for Immigration Review Committee. She has served as a member of many National AILA Liaison committees including several years on the Immigration Customs Enforcement Committee, Executive Office for Immigration Review Committee, and the Conference Planning Committee.

The author of several articles on immigration law, she has also served as an editor for the AILA annual conference handbook and fundamentals book. Ms. Stump has also been recognized as a “Rising Star” for Super Lawyers in Oklahoma and she has been selected by her peers to be included in “Best Lawyers in America.”

Jeff Joseph Elected Secretary of AILA

AILA elected Jeff Joseph, an immigration attorney from Denver, CO, as the association’s Secretary for the 2020-2021 term. Jeff Joseph is a graduate of the University of Denver College of Law. He is a past Chapter Chair of the Colorado Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and a past elected director on the AILA National Board of Governors. Mr. Joseph currently serves as co-chair of the Administrative Litigation Task Force for AILA and has previously served on the many national liaison committees between AILA and the government. Mr. Joseph was on the Board of Trustees of the American Immigration Council from 2006-2012 and served as Chair of the Litigation Action Committee.

He has been qualified as an expert witness before the state and federal courts on employment-related and criminal-related immigration issues, and is a frequent local and national lecturer on various immigration topics.

In addition to his immigration experience, Mr. Joseph is a member of the Hispanic Bar Association, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, and the Colorado LGBTQ Bar Association.

Mr. Joseph has represented clients before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service, the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the Board of Immigration Appeals, the U.S. District Courts, and the Circuit Courts of Appeals, and has published several opinions in those courts. He speaks Spanish and is an adjunct professor of law at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.

Mr. Joseph is active on Twitter; his handle is @jeffjoseph

.

###

The American Immigration Lawyers Association is the national association of immigration lawyers established to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, advance the quality of immigration and nationality law and practice, and enhance the professional development of its members.