Law360, New York (April 15, 2015, 12:49 PM ET) —
Tina M. Maiolo of Carr Maloney PC partners with clients to operate and grow their businesses. She focuses her legal practice in areas that help companies function, including employment and labor matters, business immigration, civil rights issues, contracts and all types of commercial litigation. Tina serves many clients as general counsel on employment matters. She also manages legal matters specific to nonprofit and charitable organizations as well as religious institutions.
Q: What is the most challenging case you have worked on and what made it challenging?
A: My very first Program Electronic Review Management case was the most challenging case I have worked on. My thought: “How hard can it be? There are forms to fill out and the government even provides instructions!” I went into it with the mistaken belief that the government forms and instructions would be clear and straightforward.
Not only was my assumption incorrect, but the more answers I sought the more questions I created. I learned from that case that every word, date and detail matters in business immigration law. There is no opportunity for error. One error not only gets the case sent back, but it could ruin the professional opportunities of the clients you represent. Luckily, I was able to recover from my errors on that case and obtain the status for the beneficiary, but I can guarantee those are errors that will never be made again!
Q: What aspects of your practice area are in need of reform and why?
A: The H-1B visa program is in desperate need of reform. Currently, there are only 85,000 total H-1B visas available per year across the country. That number includes the 65,000 available for individuals with specialized skill that have a bachelor’s degree plus the extra 20,000 available for individuals with a master’s degree or higher.
The available number of H-1B visas account for approximately 50 percent of the petitions the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services receives per year. Employers have only one day — April 1 — of each given year to file their H-1B petitions. Then, the petitions are placed in a random lottery for selection. The random lotter exists because the number of petitions so far exceeds the number of available visas. The individuals seeking H-1B status are the very foreign nationals who can help our economy and improve the job market in the U.S. The total number of H-1B visas, therefore, should be drastically increased.
Q: What is an important issue relevant to your practice area and why?
A: An important issue relevant to my practice area is the view Americans have on foreign workers. Many believe that foreign workers simply take work away from Americans. However, if the system is used as intended, foreign workers benefit our economy through innovative thought and global competition. Immigrants can be credited with the creation of a large percentage of startup companies, which results in hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue. We need to encourage highly skilled foreign workers to remain in the U.S. after completing their American education instead of them then taking that skill and knowledge and returning to their own country to develop there.
Q: Outside your firm, name an attorney in your field who has impressed you and explain why.
A: Mark Mancini, Esq. He is a well-respected attorney, both in and out of the immigration practice. He also took time out of his busy schedule to mentor me in areas of how to develop my practice. Many attorneys would have pushed me away as potential competition, but Mark did not. He was welcoming and treated me more as a colleague in the immigration law practice, than as a potential threat to his bottom line. I learned from him that when you are great at what you do — as he is — you are not intimidated by other good attorneys in your field. Instead, you grow your business and reputation by working with them, not against them.
Q: What is a mistake you made early in your career and what did you learn from it?
A: A mistake I made early in my career was to assume I understood the law and the process without double-checking the critical details involved in the immigration practice. I learned very quickly that the government will reject any filing if there is even the most minor of errors. I also learned that no matter how experienced I am, or how many petitions I file, to double-check the requirements for each part of any filing to make sure the documents are perfect the first time. As I mentioned before, there is no room for error in the immigration practice.
Please click here to read the article on Law360.