As client demand for expertise in immigration continues to increase, international law firm Dorsey & Whitney has boosted its immigration practice with a group of 10 attorneys and legal professionals from the Edina, Minnesota office of Webber Law Firm, LLC. With the Trump Administration’s focus on enhanced immigration compliance and tougher standards for work visas and green cards, the merger of Webber’s and Dorsey’s immigration capabilities will allow Dorsey to provide employers a full-service law firm with the ability to advise on immigration compliance and applications, litigate issues and potentially lobby for highly targeted immigration reform.
Robert Webber has joined as a partner and Co-Chair of the Immigration Practice Group along with senior attorneys Candelario Arredondo and Penni Frank plus a team of six paralegals and an administrative specialist. The team from the Webber firm focuses on employment-based (EB) immigration and is well-known for securing green cards for medical professionals, researchers, scientists, and other highly skilled professionals across the country. With these newest additions, Dorsey’s immigration practice group will have grown to more than 18 lawyers and legal professionals.
“If you accept the fact that immigration law and policy today in the United States is very challenging and in some ways unprecedented, then those of us engaged in advising organizations and individuals on immigration law have to look at new ways of serving clients,” said Robert Webber, Principal Attorney of Webber Law Firm. “By joining Webber Law’s capabilities to the existing strengths at Dorsey, we are marrying the benefits and efficiency of a boutique practice with the depth of subject matter expertise and overall firepower of a bigger law firm. We want to be able to serve clients well in the ‘new normal’ and this combination creates benefits to existing Webber Law clients as well as for Dorsey clients.”
Robert (Bob) Webber is a successful and highly regarded immigration attorney, both in the Twin Cities market and nationwide. Bob has more than 20 years of experience handling employment-based immigration matters, including H-1B, TN, L-1, O-1, and other non-immigrant visa categories, as well as PERM labor certification and PERM-exempt processing for both large and small employers, including high volume petitioners, in a wide variety of industries. Bob is licensed to practice law by the Supreme Court of Minnesota and, because immigration law is federal law, he is permitted to represent clients throughout the United States and worldwide on U.S. immigration law matters. He is a member of the Minnesota State Bar Association (MSBA), American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), and National Asian and Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA). He currently serves as a co-chair of NAPABA’s immigration committee.
Candelario Arredondo advises organizations and individuals throughout the United States and at U.S. consulates abroad on U.S. immigration law matters with a particular focus on efficient and successful processing of immigrant and non-immigrant visas, adjustment of status applications, and naturalization matters. He has more than 10 years of experience handling a variety of employment-based and family-based immigration matters, including B, E, H, L, O, R, TN and other non-immigrant visa petitions, as well as I-130, I-129F, I-140, and I-360 immigrant visa petitions.
Penni Frank works with employers and self-petitioning individuals on EB-1 and EB-2 NIW filings and related adjustment of status and immigrant visa processing. Penni also works with hospitals and health systems on J-1 waiver (Conrad waiver) filings to waive the J-1 two-year home residence requirement and various issues that arise with Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs). She will be based in the firm’s Washington D.C. office.
In addition, Senior Paralegal Tom Oja and Paralegals Fletcher Warren, Erin Seckinger, Jillian Benson, Jacob McNeil, and Kelsie Close and Senior Billing Specialist Megan Kruger are part of this collaborative and integrated team.
“The timing of the Webber team joining Dorsey is perfect, given that immigration has become very complicated over the last few years and is only going to get more so,” noted Saiko McIvor, Of Counsel and Immigration Practice Group Chair of Dorsey & Whitney. “Their expertise, experience and efficient business model will complement Dorsey’s existing practice and allow the Firm to provide a full spectrum of immigration-related legal services to employers and individuals globally.” Bill Stoeri, Dorsey’s Managing Partner, added, “Dorsey’s focus on serving the international operations of clients, including the specific immigration needs of the industries we serve, makes the Webber team an excellent strategic fit for the Firm.”