Tag: Virginia Legal Elite

Legal Elite 2024 Q&A is sponsored content.

Title: Co-founders

Other legal specialties: Business and family immigration

Education: Seton Hall University School of Law

Family: We have three amazing daughters!

Career mentors: Jim Tom Haynes and Keith Kimball, and both of our dads, Conrado Mendoza and James Gardner

Hobbies: For Radlyn, travel & food; John: running, travel, reading

First legal job: For Radlyn, eat-what-you-kill at Stowe & Associates; John hung a shingle after law school.

Book you’d recommend to others: Radlyn: “10x is Easier Than 2x,” by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy; John: “The Fountainhead,” by Ayn Rand

Fan of: Go Bucks! 

Favorite place you’ve traveled: Zermatt, Switzerland (and hiking to see the Matterhorn), Galapagos Islands and Singapore to watch the F-1 Formula Race

What do you enjoy most about your legal specialty? To be a part of our clients’ immigration journey and watching their dreams materialize. And getting showered with gifts and foods from all over the world is a plus!

What case was your biggest win? We do many different types of immigration cases in business and family, but it’s always a big win when we help children who have entered the U.S., many of them unaccompanied, with the Special Immigrant Juvenile process. The knowledge that we’re setting them up for a far better future than they would’ve had in their countries feels pretty great. 

What are the most recent challenges you’re seeing in your legal specialty? Extremely long processing times for people applying for immigrant visas abroad and sometimes double and triple the processing times at United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for certain cases. 

Is there something in your past work or personal life that makes you a better attorney? We’re better attorneys because we’re married. We’ve cultivated our firm’s evolving vision over the past 25 years, and with our awesome, growing team, we are excited for the next 25 to be the go-to immigration law firm to help businesses and families in all 50 states.

Read all of the 2024 Virginia Legal Elite here.

Legal Elite 2024 Q&A is sponsored content.

Legal Elite 2024 Q&A is sponsored content.

Title: Owner

Other legal specialties: Family Law (Divorce, Custody, Support etc.) and serious personal injury cases and medical collections 

Education: Bachelor’s degree, Emory University; law degree, Western Michigan Law School

Family: Two children who attend Tulane University and Pace University in New York City

Career mentors: My father, Bernard Miller, was a seasoned trial lawyer with Moody McMurran and Miller, and then Miller Bondurant. He specialized in FELA trial law representing injured railroad employees. He believed that the most important aspect of practicing law was preparation.

Hobbies: Hiking, skiing, tennis, golf, and playing the drums 

First legal job: Worked for Michael I. Ashe PC as an associate attorney for three years before going out on my own

TV show, podcast or book you’ve enjoyed lately and would recommend to others: “In the Kingdom of Ice,” by Hampton Sides

Fan of: “The Sopranos” 

Favorite place you’ve traveled: Zermatt, Switzerland, and Glacier National Park

What do you enjoy most about your legal specialty? Making sure my clients are not defined by their one momentary lapse of reason

What are the most recent challenges you’re seeing in your legal specialty? Attorneys who believe they must be uncivil to zealously represent their clients. Also, there are fewer experienced paralegals in the workforce. As a result, we have hired less experienced employees and trained within.

What made you choose your specialty area of practice? I’m very empathetic and can easily place myself in the shoes of my clients.  

Is there something in your past work or personal life that makes you a better attorney? In between college and law school, I took seven years off to play music. During this time, I worked construction and warehouse jobs to make ends meet. I believe this experience helps me relate to juries, clients, and opposing counsel.

Read all of the 2024 Virginia Legal Elite here.

Legal Elite 2024 Q&A is sponsored content.

Legal Elite 2024 Q&A is sponsored content.

Title: Shareholder

Other legal specialties: Limited liability company disputes, shareholder disputes, fiduciary litigation, trusts and estates litigation and general commercial litigation

Education: Bachelor’s degree, Columbia University; law degree, University of Miami School of Law

Family: Wife, Rebecca Wyckoff Kim; four daughters, Mia, Lorelei, Alden and Finley

Career mentors: Robert E. Scully, John A.C. Keith

Most recent book read: “The Boys in the Boat,” by Daniel James Brown

What are your priorities as a board member of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Virginia? What does your role as chair of the association’s judicial screening committee entail? As a board member of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Virginia, my priorities are serving the needs of the Asian Pacific American community in Virginia, and particularly encouraging and promoting the professional growth and advancement of the Asian Pacific American legal community. As the chair of its judicial screening committee, we interview state and federal judicial candidates and recommend candidates to the Virginia legislature that the screening committee feels are deserving of elevation to the bench. As part of that mission, we actively seek out and encourage excellent and qualified Asian Pacific American lawyers to apply for judicial vacancies so that the makeup of the judiciary in Virginia is reflective of Virginia’s diverse community.

What has been your most memorable case? As a lawyer, I am privileged to represent my clients, who entrust me to represent them in matters that can potentially have personal and financial life-changing consequences. Developing relationships with my clients, learning about their goals and needs, and applying what I have learned to achieve the best legal outcome for my clients is what makes the practice of law memorable to me. I don’t think I can identify one case as being the most memorable. I think all of my cases are memorable, with interesting, and sometimes unique, facts and legal issues.

Read all of the 2024 Virginia Legal Elite here.

Legal Elite 2024 Q&A is sponsored content.