Business Practitioner
Transcription
Business Practitioner
34 W 12 th Annual The omen’s Justice Awards Mira Mdivani is the entrepreneur behind a prominent immigration law firm. She fell into the niche practice because of the way certain English words roll off her tongue. “They hear the accent, and they presume you know something about international law,” Mdivani says. When she was 26, she moved to the United States from Russia to strengthen her career in business. She’s from a family of lawyers, and she eventually opted for law school at the University of MissouriKansas City. Afterward, she focused on corporate law with Kansas City attorney John Klamann. But she quickly found herself fielding countless inquiries on immigration law. It was a topic she knew little about, so she began studying the complex world of immigration regulation. In 2004, she started her own practice, The Mdivani Law Firm, in Overland Park, Kan. Today, she’s considered a go-to expert on the subject, serving as chairwoman of The Missouri Bar’s Immigration Law Committee. She also is an adjunct law professor at her alma mater. She designed her firm, which embraced technology and alternative revenue sources, to help corporations with their legal immigration needs. The firm also assists abused women and children with green cards and visas. “If you want to become edgy, which we are, you need to exhibit qualities that may be perceived as unladylike,” Mdivani says. “You have to be aggressive. You have to be willing to stick your neck out, willing to compete. … I’m OK with that.” And aggressive she is. As many law firms struggle for business, she has another problem: “We can only take so many people.” For employers with immigration concerns, Mdivani started I-9Seminars.com, a Web site that provides information on immigration law compliance and forms. She and her staff record frequent podcasts, updating listeners on happenings within Immigration Customs Enforcement. Through the site, employers — clients or not — can sign up for training and seminars that she travels the country to conduct. And they can buy books she’s authored, including her newly released “Employer Immigration Compliance, Plans, Policies and Procedures.” “She’s been very creative, very industrious in her work,” says Roger McCrummen, chairman of the Missouri/Kansas chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “She’s a master at marketing. That’s not really typical of most lawyers.” Mdivani grew even more creative when she combined her love of cooking with her day job. In her “Cooking with an Accent: An Immigration Lawyer’s Cookbook,” she paired each recipe with the real-life story of someone she represented. Below a recipe for Beef and Guinness Stew is the story of an Irish man and a Chinese woman falling in love. The couple’s courtship kicked into full gear when an expiring student visa threatened their romance. “I was so nervous I laughed throughout the entire ceremony,” Linh Trieu wrote of their marriage. “Mira took care of the legal aspects and says, ‘Don’t worry about anything. I will worry for you.’ ” — Alyson E. Raletz April 2010 Mira Mdivani Business Practitioner