Dallas, Oct. 1, 2021 – Award-winning immigration firm BAL welcomes veteran immigration attorney and AILA luminary Jeff Joseph as its newest Partner. Joseph, who is located in Denver, will head up efforts to grow BAL’s presence and provide on-the-ground support to companies in Colorado and across the greater Rocky Mountain region. Joseph will join BAL starting Oct. 1.

“We are very excited to welcome Jeff to BAL,” said Partner Kortney Gibson, who is overseeing the firm’s Rocky Mountain expansion. “His expertise and stellar reputation will give BAL a quick path to establishing trust among the region’s corporate leaders as we help them meet immigration challenges and explore new opportunities.”

This is the fourth major talent grab by BAL in recent months. The firm welcomed Leslie Rohrbacker as a Partner and COO from Fragomen in June, followed by Partner Maggie Murphy who moved with her legal team to BAL’s Austin office from Jackson Lewis. BAL also nabbed Tiffany Derentz, a former State Department attorney, who joined BAL’s Government Strategies team as a Senior Counsel in Washington, D.C.

Joseph is a top-ranked attorney, immigration law professor, and is active in advocacy within the immigration legal community, having served in numerous roles with the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s (AILA) executive board and currently serving as its Treasurer. With more than two decades of experience in corporate immigration, Joseph has represented clients before the immigration agencies and in litigation in the federal courts. He has given more than 200 lectures to professional organizations on wide-ranging aspects of immigration law and is a recognized thought leader. His practice at BAL will focus on corporate immigration and finding strategic business solutions to the complexities of global mobility.

“Jeff’s practice will be instrumental as we continue to expand our legal service offerings to new locations,” explains BAL Managing Partner Jeremy Fudge. “We are helping businesses navigate a tight labor market and challenging immigration conditions to source the talent they need. Jeff will join our legal teams in combining cutting-edge technology tools and a people-centered culture that produces the highest level of service to our clients.”

BAL’s innovative culture appealed to Joseph, who is eager to take his next step in leading and improving the way legal services are delivered to clients in the Mile High City and beyond. “To compete globally, companies need an immigration provider that continually pushes the envelope,” says Joseph. “BAL offers clients a winning formula: the best lawyers in the business, innovative problem-solving, world-class tech, and customer service that values relationships and seeks to improve people’s lives. I’m excited to come on board and help revolutionize global talent acquisition for businesses in the region.”

About Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP (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

Media Contact:
Emily Albrecht
Senior Director — Marketing & Communications
ealbrecht@bal.com
469-559-0174

DALLAS, July 21, 2021 – Leading immigration firm BAL expands its operations in Austin, hiring Maggie Murphy away from Jackson Lewis, where she was a principal. Maggie will head up BAL’s rapidly growing presence in the Austin market—BAL Austin now has 15 legal team members and the office is expected to more than triple in size to 50 by the end of the year.

BAL, the award-winning global immigration law firm recognized for producing creative legal tech solutions, is ramping up its presence in the vibrant state capital at a time when tech companies and other innovative businesses are flocking to Texas.

“We are expanding purposefully in this exciting market,” explains BAL Managing Partner Jeremy Fudge. “We’re elevating our services by growing our offices and increasing our coverage, while attracting legal talent who want to work at a firm that represents the future—where they have access to cutting-edge technology tools combined with a unique culture that empowers them to provide exceptional services to their clients.”

Murphy, who joins BAL as a Partner, is a top-ranked attorney with more than a decade of experience working with Fortune 500 companies in all aspects of corporate immigration and advising on complex, creative immigration solutions. Murphy’s legal team from Jackson Lewis, including two Associate Attorneys, Blake Burch and Melle Fabian, and several paralegals and support staff, are following her in joining BAL, and will pave the way for aggressive future growth.

Murphy says that clients are expressing a demand for creative service offerings that are not being filled by traditional law firms in the region.

“In today’s market, businesses are looking for more than just solid immigration expertise,” says Murphy. “Clients need innovative strategies, world-class tech tools, and top-notch customer service that prepare them for the challenges of the future, while creating opportunities to turn their international talent acquisition and retention programs into a business advantage. BAL offers the whole package.”

With the Austin expansion, BAL continues its multi-year growth, having opened four new offices in the past four years. Most recently, the firm opened its doors in two new locations—Chicago and Santa Clara, California—and is expected to continue to grow at this pace for the foreseeable future, offering clients regional on-the-ground support and the exceptional service that has become synonymous with the BAL brand.

About Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP (BAL)
BAL, one of the world’s most recognized corporate immigration law firms, is the Best Lawyers® “Law Firm of the Year” in U.S. Immigration Law for 2019, the Most Diverse Law Firm in America (2020 and 2021) and the #1 Law Firm for Women three years in a row (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 won BAL the Most Innovative Law Firm Operations Team of the Year Award (2021) by Legalweek’s Leaders in Tech Awards. 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/.

Media Contact:
Emily Albrecht
Senior Director — Marketing & Communications
ealbrecht@bal.com
469-559-0174

DALLAS, July 14, 2021 – Tech-forward immigration law firm Berry Appleman & Leiden (BAL) won the Most Innovative Law Firm Operations Team of the Year Award, announced by Legalweek at the Leaders in Tech Law Awards ceremony Tuesday. The award recognizes BAL’s proprietary case management system, Cobalt®, for its speed and efficiency in serving clients worldwide.

Legalweek honored firms that developed innovative tech solutions during a year of “unprecedented uncertainty and needed flexibility.” With vision and foresight, BAL’s Operations began enhancements on Cobalt in mid-2019 and finished the project shortly after COVID lockdowns began. Cobalt’s lightning-fast search engine and document upload features surpassed all expectations in timing and effectiveness.

“I’m honored to work and innovate with an incredible team in a unique environment,” said Chanille Juneau, Head of Products. “At BAL we have forward-thinking tech people who work side-by-side with our legal teams, figuring out how to apply technology to the legal practice in ways that are most effective and beneficial to clients.”

The team optimized Cobalt to handle the growing number of users as BAL expanded its caseload. Juneau and her team improved search accuracy and enabled greater speed and document upload capability, so that users would have the same experience regardless of whether one person or 1,000 people were simultaneously searching or uploading a document.

The new system launched August 2020, six weeks before the government unexpectedly opened a filing window that led to the biggest wave of immigrant green-card filings in 15 years. With enhancements to Cobalt’s performance and scalability, BAL was able to successfully file more than 10,000 cases for clients in a four-week filing period, with Cobalt handling a record number of users, searches and document uploads, while experiencing zero down time or outages.

“This project was a significant win for our firm and our clients. Cobalt is already an industry-leading legal tech product, and our teams elevated its performance level and utility during a critical time,” said Chief Information & Technology Officer Vince DiMascio.

“During the massive surge in usage, Cobalt operated without a single misstep, and we filed all client applications without interruption,” added Partner Edward Rios, Head of Innovation. “Even during stressful caseload surges, our clients can sleep at night knowing that nothing will be dropped because we have the best people and tools in the industry.”

Rios and DiMascio also presented at Legalweek’s Driving Legal Forward virtual event on Tuesday, leading a speaker session on “Change Management, Successful Law Firm Transformation and How to Implement AI, RPA and Emerging Technologies Into Your Law Firm.”

In addition to representing BAL’s leadership in innovative legal operations, this award demonstrates the positive impact BAL is making in people’s lives. BAL’s sophisticated legal teams backed by groundbreaking tech enable the firm to help countless people through their immigrant journeys to pursue their American dreams.