Server: Netscape-Communications/1.1 Date: Wednesday, 31-Dec-97 21:09:54 GMT Last-modified: Sunday, 28-Sep-97 21:45:37 GMT Content-length: 8040 Content-type: text/html Biographies of the Attorneys, U.S. Immigration, (Law Offices of Carl Shusterman) Law 
Offices of Carl Shusterman - US Immigration Law 
Offices of Carl Shusterman - US Immigration

LAW FIRM BIOGRAPHY

Law Offices of Carl Shusterman

En Espanol

When you have an immigration problem, how do you choose the best law firm to represent you? Money is important, but so is quality. Winning means becoming a permanent resident while losing means a waste of time and resources. A good start is to examine the qualifications of the attorneys in the firm that you are considering.

There are four attorneys (and seven permanent staff members and a varying number of legal interns) who comprise the Law Offices of Carl Shusterman.

What follows is a brief resume of each of our attorneys:

CARL SHUSTERMAN

Mr. Shusterman is a native of Los Angeles and a 1973 graduate of the UCLA School of Law. He served as an attorney for the Los Angeles office of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) until 1982 when he entered the private practice of law. He is authorized to practice before the Supreme Court of California, the Federal District Court in the Central District of California, the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States.

Mr. Shusterman is a former chairman of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), Southern California Chapter and served as a member of AILA's national Board of Governors (1988-97). He has chaired numerous AILA Committees, spoken at dozens of AILA Conferences and has contributed a number of scholarly articles to AILA's publications.

Mr. Shusterman is a Certified Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law, State Bar of California. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Immigration Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and is a member of the American Bar Association.

Mr. Shusterman is a frequent writer and lecturer on immigration law. His articles, letters to the editor and quotes have appeared in such prestigious publications as the New York Times, Washington Post, Canada's Globe and Mail, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, National Law Journal, California Lawyer, Los Angeles Lawyer, Journal of the American Medical Association, Christian Science Monitor, Atlantic Monthly, Computer World, Information Week, Issues in Science and Technology, Variety, and numerous other publications. He has written for, and been quoted extensively in, leading periodicals specializing in immigration law including Interpreter Releases, Immigration Law and Procedure,Immigration Briefings, Inside Immigration, Immigration Journal and U.S. Immigrant Magazine. In addition, he has appeared on various television programs including NBC's Today Show, CNN's Headline News, the Nightly News with Peter Jennings and on a wide variety of nationally syndicated radio shows. Mr. Shusterman is featured as the Immigration Expert on the web pages of MCI Telecommunications, Inc.

ELAHE "ELLIE" NAJFABADI

Ms. Najfabadi is one of the leading corporate immigration attorneys in the United States. She recently lectured over 100 immigration attorneys regarding applications for employment-based permanent residence through labor certification.

Ms. Najfabadi is truly a citizen of the world. Born in Iran and educated in India, she is fluent in both Farsi and Hindi. Working for the United Nations in Spain, she honed her Spanish and served as a Spanish interpreter for the U.S. Immigration Court. Later, she worked as an immigration legal assistant while attending law school in the evening. She has over ten years of experience in immigration law.

She represents numerous Fortune 500 corporations, million dollar investors, international medical graduates, outstanding professors and researchers and persons in a wide variety of occupations.

She is an officer of the Immigration Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

ELIF KELES

Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Ms. Keles was raised in New York City. She earned her J.D. from New York Law School. Ms. Keles was awarded a Certificate for Outstanding Competition from the Moot Court Association. She competed against students from more than 20 law schools at the Gabielli Family Law Competition. Ms. Keles won the title of National Semifinalist and was chosen as the National Best Advocate.

Ms. Keles has practiced law with prominent New York City immigration firms. Among the Fortune 500 companies she has represented are Lehman Brothers and Smith Barney.

Ms. Keles is admitted to the New York State Bar and is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She is fluent in Turkish.

ELLEN MA LEE

Born in the Philippines, raised in Hong Kong, and educated in the U.S., Ms. Lee received her J.D. from Loyola University School of Law in 1974. She is admitted to practice in the Federal District Court, Central District of Calfornia and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

She has served as a Staff Attorney for Long Beach Legal Aid (1974-77), a Staff Attorney and the Acting Executive Director of One Stop Immigration Center (1977-81), and in the private practice of immigration law (1981 - present).

Ms. Lee is a member of the national Board of Governors of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the former Chairperson of AILA, Southern California Chapter, and is active in various AILA activities. She currently serves as the Leading Liaison Attorney between AILA and INS's California Service Center. She has organized innovative seminars including a three-day conference in which various U.S. Consuls from posts in Asia, Canada and Mexico made presentations and answered questions. She also organized a seminar on waivers of excludability and deportability, and another seminar which featured the U.S. Consul from Guangzhou, China and the Consul representing the People's Republic of China.

She has served as the Editor-in-Chief of a major AILA publication and has spoken at various AILA Conference on the national, state and local levels. She is a member of the national Board of Trustees of the American Immigration Law Foundation.

Ms. Lee has testified before the President's Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy; is a former member of the Executive Committee of the Immigration Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association; serves on numerous liaison committees with the Los Angeles District Office of INS; and is a volunteer legal advisor to the Chinatown Service Center.

Ms. Lee is fluent in various dialects of Chinese.

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