Oct. 16, 2014
Wolfsdorf Rosenthal LLP
See more on Wolfsdorf Rosenthal LLPSanta Monica, New York | Immigration
The South African became in involved in the anti-apartheid movement after the Soweto Uprising in 1976, which was spurred after several student protesters were fatally shot down by police. While he says he was "not a hardcore radical," he refused to return to South Africa after a trip to visit his brother, a medical student, in Boston in 1979.
He applied for political asylum - "It was frightening," he said - and won his case. Since then, "I've lived the American Dream."
Today, Wolfsdorf is the managing partner of Wolfsdorf Rosenthal LLP, a 20-lawyer, 60-employee immigration boutique based in Santa Monica. The firm also has an office in New York.
"I try to understand the client's feelings, the client's anxiety in going through a very sensitive process," Wolfsdorf said.
The firm advises business executives, entertainers, and academics, and its clients include the University of California system. It has advised several prominent celebrities whom Wolfsdorf declined to name, though he said past clients include Elizabeth Taylor.
Wolfsdorf said the firm encourages excellence in everything it does. "A single mistake could ruin somebody's life," he said.
The firm has seen incredible growth in EB-5 "investor" visas, which require foreign nationals to invest at least $500,000 in the United States to spur job growth. The firm has secured visas for investors for several high-profile hotel and development projects, including the Metropolis Project in Los Angeles and SLS Hotel in Las Vegas.
"We are doing big deals that are helping LA and creating jobs," he said.
Retired U.S. immigration judge Bruce J. Einhorn is affiliated with the firm as of counsel. He is known for his work as special prosecutor for the Department of Justice's Office of Special Investigations who worked to find and deport World War II war criminals in the United States. The prosecutor in the 1989 movie The Music Box was based partly on him.
Wolfsdorf has been active in pushing for comprehensive immigration reform, and in a recent interview could not resist making a unprompted pitch for reform. He served as president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, a national legal trade group, from 2009 to 2010.
While the firm has been in merger negotiations with other medium-sized firms twice, at 60 employees, "I think we are kind of a little too big to swallow," Wolfsdorf said.
The firm has also resisted merger because about half its work comes from referrals from other firms, which could dry up if the firm were absorbed into a competitor, he said.
"The nice thing about the boutique label is I am not a threat" to other firms, Wolfsdorf said. "I am not going to take work away."
The young lawyer who represented Wolfsdorf when he applied for asylum was Deborah Anker, who is now the director of the prestigious Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic.
Wolfsdorf said he recently spoke at the clinic's 30th anniversary, and he marveled at how his life had come full circle.
Immigration lawyers, Wolfsdorf said, "hold the key to opening the door to coming to America."
- Brandon Ortiz
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