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DALLAS, Dec, 9, 2021 – Tech-forward immigration law firm Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP’s Chief Information & Technology Officer Vince DiMascio has published groundbreaking research that will be presented at the IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM), this week in Auckland, New Zealand. DiMascio and his co-authors built an innovative tool that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate and improve a mundane but critical step in the immigration process.
The tool uses natural language processing to “read” a job description and determine the standard occupational classification (SOC) code that best matches the job description on employment-based immigration petitions. The tool reduces turnaround time and ensures consistency in the selection of codes, especially across volumes of petitions where more than one code fits the description.
“This research sets BAL apart in an area of AI and legal tech that no one has explored, and could revolutionize the immigration application process,” said DiMascio. “We are able to train the tool to learn new job terminology and map job descriptions to SOC codes, with the aim of improving accuracy, efficiency, quality of work and client experience.”
As a trailblazer in the legal technology space, BAL continues to push the envelope on innovations that improve the immigration process. The U.S. Labor Department categorizes jobs into 867 occupational categories, each with a unique SOC code. Searching and selecting the code can be a tedious process and any problems in code selection can lead to delays or denials in immigration processing.
In this extremely competitive labor market, compounded by immigration backlogs and ongoing travel restrictions, employers depend on accurate and efficient immigration filings to fill critical job openings. DiMascio’s technology improves the process by training predictive models to determine the best-fitting SOC code based on the employee’s job description, benefiting both foreign national employees and their employers.
The published research is DiMascio’s latest achievement, following award-winning enhancements to BAL’s proprietary case management system, Cobalt®, and the use of AI to improve data migration during client onboarding. DiMascio previously co-authored a peer-reviewed paper on combining text and image readers to categorize RFEs and automating response templates. This impressive suite of technology gives BAL’s legal teams “extra hands” to respond to unpredictable surges in immigration filings caused by rapid policy changes, and enable our clients’ employees to take advantage of every opportunity to pursue their dreams.
“BAL is leading the industry in presenting peer-reviewed papers at world-class conferences like IEEE,” said BAL Partner Edward Rios, who heads the firm’s Innovation & Strategy Group. “BAL’s tech innovations are more than just academic—they are ultimately about serving people. Combining our technical and legal expertise, we design innovative solutions that create a smoother immigration experience for clients around the world. Our relentless pursuit of next-generation technologies also makes us an employer of choice for elite immigration professionals who want to lead in the industry.”
About BAL Established in 1980, BAL powers human achievement through immigration expertise, people-centered client services and innovative technology. BAL, with 13 offices across the United States and global coverage in more than 185 countries around the world, operates as a single entity through its oneBAL culture — a uniquely holistic approach, intentionally structured as one team, one brand, one P&L, one standard of excellence and one unifying technology. This united approach enables the firm to deliver the highest level of knowledge, insights and resources from across the entire organization.
At BAL, we pursue the exceptional. To learn more visit bal.com.
Media Contact: Emily Albrecht Senior Director — Marketing & Communications ealbrecht@bal.com 469-559-0174
Dallas, Nov. 12, 2021 – Eight BAL attorneys are named to the elite Lawdragon® ranking of corporate employment lawyers, leading all other corporate immigration firms.
In the newly released 2022 Lawdragon rankings, which recognize only 500 of the nation’s top employment attorneys, BAL is the most cited firm for immigration, representing 12% of the 65 ranked attorneys in corporate immigration. The BAL Partners singled out by Lawdragon are: David Berry, Rob Caballero, Jeremy Fudge, Frieda Garcia, Kortney Gibson, Lynden Melmed, and Carla Tarazi. Additionally, Jeff Appleman, emeritus, is inducted into the Immigration Hall of Fame.
During the unprecedented immigration conditions of recent years, BAL has achieved extraordinary victories for clients stuck all over the world, mobilizing clients’ employees despite travel bans and visa delays, and helping some of the largest companies in the world navigate sudden work-from-home compliance issues for thousands of employees.
“Staying at the top of our game during these challenging times has required our entire team to show unprecedented effort,” says BAL Managing Partner Jeremy Fudge. “I’m proud of the eight attorneys Lawdragon recognized and the 1,200 BAL employees who enable us to lead the corporate immigration field and deliver exceptional service to our clients.”
At a time when immigration challenges loomed large, on top of concerns over health, well-being and social justice, BAL’s nontraditional law firm culture has attracted the best and brightest legal talent.
“We continue to attract top talent in record numbers, despite an extraordinarily challenging job market, because we are the place to be in the immigration field,” says BAL’s Chief Operating Officer Leslie Rohrbacker. BAL leads the entire legal industry in workplace diversity, ranking as the #1 Most Diverse Law Firm in America for two years running by The American Lawyer, #1 on Law360’s Diversity Snapshot, and the #1 Law Firm for Women by the National Law Journal for the third year in a row. The firm leads the industry in both legal tech and client service, releasing a host of groundbreaking technology innovations and winning Legalweek’s Most Innovative Law Firm Operations Team of 2021.
“It has been remarkable to help lead our ever-growing teams through the immigration twists and turns of the past year,” says Partner Frieda Garcia. “While we all hope for more seamless global mobility in 2022, the pandemic forced our teams to dig deep to utilize BAL’s vast reservoirs of legal knowledge, creativity, and government insight to deliver results that other firms thought impossible. As always, these challenges brought out the best in us.”
About BAL
BAL, the world’s leading corporate immigration law firm, is the Best Lawyers® “Law Firm of the Year” in U.S. Immigration Law for 2019, ranks #1 on the Diversity Scorecard by The American Lawyer (2020 and 2021), #1 on Law360’s Diversity Snapshot (2020 and 2021), and the #1 Law Firm for Women according to the National Law Journal (2019, 2020 and 2021). BAL’s 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 is singularly focused on meeting the immigration challenges of corporate clients around the world in ways that make immigration more strategic and enable clients to be more successful. Established in 1980, BAL has consistently provided immigration expertise, top-notch information security and leading technology innovation. The firm entered into a strategic alliance with Deloitte UK to create the world’s first global immigration service delivery model. 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. See website for details: https://www.bal.com
The United States eased international entry requirements Monday for foreign nationals who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The country-based “physical presence” bans that had restricted air travelers from Brazil, China, Iran, South Africa, and most of Europe are now revoked.
Even with the new entry rules, however, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to present challenges for companies and their employees. The latest BAL White Paper, “Lifting the Travel Bans, Holiday Travel and Planning: What to Expect in the Coming Months,” provides details on the new U.S. entry requirements and highlights ongoing considerations for employers and employees as they plan to travel in the coming months.
Fill out the below form to receive your copy of the White Paper:
Dallas, Nov. 4, 2021 – Industry-leading immigration law firm BAL has once again been named a top-ranking law firm in the 2022 “Best Law Firms” rankings by the prestigious U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers® annual ranking of the best law firms in the country.
BAL was honored with the highest “Tier 1” category in the 2022 national rankings in immigration law and in regional office rankings for Houston, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. The firm also received regional rankings for its Boston and Dallas offices.
“We’re excited to receive this recognition for providing exceptional service to clients in challenging immigration conditions,” said BAL Partner Frieda Garcia. “To consistently rank at the top of the field by U.S. News- Best Lawyers® is a huge honor.”
BAL continues to innovate the practice of immigration law, leading the industry in technological advances—like its proprietary case-management system, Cobalt®, and its immigration knowledge portal Advisor—that allow a seamless client experience, the ability to scale to clients’ needs and an overall superior immigration journey for their employees.
The tech-forward firm is dedicated to personalized, on-the-ground client service and has launched a nationwide expansion—opening or expanding offices in Austin, Chicago, Denver and Santa Clara, Calif. in the past two years and initiating a hiring spree that nabbed well-connected attorneys such as AILA luminary Jeff Joseph and former State Department attorney Tiffany Derentz.
“As we continue to build the best team in the business, push the envelope with technology and deliver flawless service to clients, we’re proud to blaze the path forward for immigration law,” said Managing Partner Jeremy Fudge. “Even with great rankings like this, we’re not satisfied. We’ll keep amplifying our efforts to improve and grow, so we can help more people achieve their dreams.”
About Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP (BAL)
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In this tight labor market where companies cannot afford to lose talent, delays in immigration processing are preventing U.S. businesses from retaining high-skilled workers in key job roles, such as tech, that are fueling the economic recovery.
Delays by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in renewing work authorization for spouses of high skilled H-1B and L-1 workers are frustrating their ability to stay in the workplace. The delays have grown so long that it is now a common occurrence for these workers to see their employment authorization expire before their renewals are approved.
These ongoing delays are causing significant disruption for U.S. business who have been forced to take thousands of H-4 and L-2 employees off payroll and put projects on ice, while these employees wait for their employment authorization document (EAD) to be renewed. Employees whose work authorization lapses not only interrupt their careers; they may be unable to renew a driver’s license, obtain health insurance or travel. These spouses are highly educated and employed in high-skilled occupations, including in tech and other STEM fields.
H-4 spouses contribute an estimated $7.5 billion to the U.S. economy. In a lawsuit filed earlier this month, an H-4 spouse sued U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for causing him to lose his job as an analyst with one of the world’s leading tech companies because his work authorization expired while he waits for the government to process his renewal.
The watchdog Government Accountability Office has criticized the agency for failing to process immigration applications in a timely manner. While the number of annual petitions grew about 25% between 2015 and 2020, applications for employment authorization documents (EADs) surged by 80%, and the total number of pending cases jumped 85%, creating a growing backlog that is leaving many applicants indefinitely on hold. The GAO pointed to systemic USCIS flaws, including the lack of a sustainable workforce recruiting and retention plans, failure to request adequate resources and funding, and failure to track its caseload with a reliable case management process. “The growth in USCIS’s pending caseload and processing times impacts the individuals, families, and businesses who rely on the immigration system,” the report said.
So far, the agency has taken only incremental steps to address the backlogs and delays. The government could do much more to mitigate risks of current work authorization from expiring, such as providing automatic extensions of work authorization while renewal applications are pending and giving L-2 spouses automatic work authorization on the basis of their relationship to the L-1 visa holder, without needing to apply for an EAD. Under current policy, the earliest an applicant may file to renew their EAD is six months prior to the EAD expiration, but current processing times can take well over a year, leaving many H-1B and L-1 spouses out of work for months at a time. A class action lawsuit was filed last month seeking automatic extensions for spouses who have applied for EAD renewals.
U.S. companies have consistently advocated for H-4 spouses to be eligible for work authorization. These workers add depth of talent and skill to the U.S. economy: 90% of H-4 spouses hold a bachelor’s degree, nearly 60% have a master’s degree, and two-thirds of H-4 EAD-holders work in STEM fields. Moreover, H-4 spouses are eligible for work authorization only if they are already in line for permanent residency, so their contributions are not transitory.
While USCIS addresses its long-term workforce and funding issues in response to the GAO report, it should take immediate steps to mitigate the impact on employers and the economy when businesses lose valuable talent for no other reason than government processing delays.
Nassim Mahzoon is a Partner in the Santa Clara, Calif., office of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP where she counsels clients on all aspects of corporate immigration and compliance, and provides holistic and strategic guidance to businesses and their employees.
This article was originally published in the California Business Journal on Nov. 3, 2021.
The information contained here is meant to be informational, and while BAL has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information, it is not promised or guaranteed to be complete. Readers of this information should not act upon any information contained on this alert/blog without seeking professional counsel. This alert does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Any reference to prior results, does not imply or guarantee similar future outcomes.