Immigration

Expert Analysis

• Series

  Pursuing Wellness: Steps Toward A Supportive Firm Culture

  

  As an early advocate of the American Bar Association's year-old well-being pledge, we launched an integrated program to create and sustain a supportive workplace culture with initiatives focused on raising mental health awareness, embracing creativity and giving back to the community, says Casey Ryan at Reed Smith.

• Series

  Pursuing Wellness: Mental Health Education As A Firm Priority

  

  Our firm drives a holistic concept of well-being through educational opportunities, such as a series of expert-led workshops intended to address mental health and substance abuse issues that we vowed to fight when we signed the American Bar Association's well-being pledge one year ago, says Krista Logelin at Morgan Lewis.

• New Visa Means 1 Less Problem For Offshore Wind Projects

  

  The U.S. State Department has updated the Foreign Affairs Manual to include a visa category for offshore wind projects, removing a regulatory hurdle that was causing significant logistical problems for the industry, say Jonathan Waldron and Stefanos Roulakis at Blank Rome.

• Series

  Pursuing Wellness: A Firm's Work With Mental Health Experts

  

  Signing the American Bar Association's well-being pledge last year was a natural progression of our firm's commitment to employee wellness, which has included developing partnerships with professionals in the mental health space to provide customized programming to firm attorneys and staff, say Annette Sciallo and Mark Goldberg at Latham.

• Steps Toward Ensuring B-1 Visa Compliance

  

  B-1 visas are perhaps the most widely used visa for foreign professionals entering the U.S. to participate in short-term business activities, but misuse of business visa rules is a common area of noncompliance and there are signs that this visa category is facing greater scrutiny, say Elena Nesch and Xavier Francis at Berry Appleman.

• Series

  Pursuing Wellness: When A Firm Brings Counseling On Site

  

  One year ago, our firm signed the American Bar Association's well-being pledge and embraced a commitment to providing on-site behavioral health resources, which has since become a key aspect of our well-being program, say Meg Meserole and Kimberly Merkel at Akin Gump.

• Series

  Pursuing Wellness: Inside A Firm Meditation Program

  

  After our firm signed the American Bar Association’s well-being pledge one year ago, we launched two key programs that included weekly meditation sessions and monthly on-site chair massages to help people address both the mental and physical aspects of working at a law firm, says Marci Eisenstein at Schiff Hardin.

• Early Sampling Of Electronic Info Is Underutilized In Discovery

  

  The early and prompt provision of samples from all electronically stored information sources as a part of ESI protocol search methodology is consistent with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and may allow for significant cost savings during discovery, says Zachary Caplan at Berger Montague.

• The Factors Courts Consider In Deposition Location Disputes

  

  In the absence of a federal rule governing deposition location, federal courts are frequently called on to resolve objections to out-of-state deposition notices. Recent decisions reveal what information is crucial to courts in making the determination, says Kevin O’Brien at Porter Wright.

• What To Consider Before Filing For A Rule 57 Speedy Hearing

  

  Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 57 and its state counterparts provide a method for expediting claims for declaratory judgment that warrants closer attention than it has historically received from litigants and courts, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

• Series

  Why I Became A Lawyer: Expanding The Meaning Of Diversity

  

  My conservative, Catholic parents never skipped a beat when accepting that I was gay, and encouraged me to follow my dreams wherever they might lead. But I did not expect they would lead to the law, until I met an inspiring college professor, says James Holmes of Clyde & Co.

• How The Wayback Machine Can Strengthen Your Case

  

  The Wayback Machine, which archives screenshots of websites at particular points in time, can be an invaluable tool in litigation, but attorneys need to follow a few simple steps early in the discovery process to increase the odds of being able to use materials obtained from the archive, says Timothy Freeman of Tanenbaum Keale.

• Takeaways From New H-1B Visa Registration Proposal

  

  On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released its proposed H-1B visa filing fee rule and registration procedures, which give sponsoring employers some new options but also leave open questions, says John Quill at Mintz.

• Opinion

  Draft Civil Procedure Jurisdictional Rule Needs A Tweak

  

  The Judicial Conference Advisory Committee’s proposed addition to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 7.1 needs to be amended slightly to prevent late-stage jurisdictional confusion in cases where the parties do not have attributed citizenship, says GianCarlo Canaparo at The Heritage Foundation.

• How DHS' Public Charge Rule Will Affect Immigrant Benefits

  

  Though the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's new public charge rule has limited direct impact related to benefits, it may deter immigrant families from enrolling in Medicaid and other public programs due to fear or confusion, say attorneys at Manatt Phelps.