United States | AILA elects new officers, including BAL’s Jeff Joseph as president-elect

The American Immigration Lawyers Association announced its newly elected officers at the 2024 AILA Annual Conference and installed Kelli Stump as AILA president and BAL’s Jeff Joseph as president-elect.

Key Points:

• Kelli Stump is the association’s 78th president. She will serve for the 2024-25 term and has been recognized on several occasion as “Lawyer of the Year” in immigration law in Oklahoma City.
• President-elect Jeff Joseph is a partner with BAL managing its Denver office, a past elected director of AILA’s board of governors and adjunct professor at the University of Denver College of Law.
• Other officers elected for the 2024-25 term include:
  • Alexis S. Axelrad, first vice president, is AILA’s first elected vice president, a partner with Barst & Mukamal LLP, a past chair of the New York Chapter of AILA and a past elected director of AILA’s board of governors.
  • Jacqueline Watson, second vice president, is a partner with JLW Immigration Law Group, a former AILA Texas Chapter chair and elected director of AILA’s national board of directors.
  • Rekha Sharma-Crawford, treasurer, is a partner with Sharma-Crawford Attorneys-at-Law, was the first South Asian American secretary of AILA and a past elected director of AILA’s board of governors.
  • Michelle Saenz-Rodriguez, secretary, is the co-founder and senior partner at Saenz-Rodriguez & Associates, a former chair for the Texas Chapter of AILA and a past elected director of AILA’s board of governors.

Additional Information: Founded in 1946, AILA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, voluntary bar association that provides continuing legal education, professional services, information and expertise to more than 16,000 attorneys who practice and teach immigration law.

Its mission is 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 AILA members.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

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