Pearl Law Group

In January, when President Donald Trump issued an executive order temporarily banning travel to the U.S. by nationals of certain Muslim majority countries, partners at Pearl Law Group began to see new actions on the part of their corporate clients.

"Right after the first executive order some of the clients signed off on an amicus brief against the ban," said partner Christy Nguyen. "It's showing their support for their employees. The CEOs, the executives they're taking a very interested stance in immigration."

The administration's approach to immigration enforcement has created a lot of work for the firm, which focuses on securing visas and work authorization for the employees of its corporate clients, largely in the technology sector.

"It seems as if every few weeks... there is an immigration update and then we have to digest the information, disseminate it, share it and then figure out what the best practice and policy is," Nguyen said. Lawyers at the firm collaborate with companies to keep employees informed and to calm frayed nerves.

Founded in 1995, the firm is headquartered in San Francisco and has grown to include five partners and 25 other attorneys. The firm also has 90 staff and contractors around the world, according to partner Sameer Khedekar.

The firm's clients are in retail, manufacturing, telecommunications, mining, energy, finance and biotech, Khedekar said. In August 2016, the firm acquired the San Jose-based immigration firm Lipson & Pretorius LLP. But that was not an indication that the firm wanted to get large for the sake of growth.

Khedekar said that while there would always be larger immigration firms with on a high-volume business model, "we really want to make sure that every attorney and every paralegal is coming into work every day thinking about their main client."

The firm limits caseloads to focus on client service and quality of work, he said.

The firm uses technology developed a sister company that integrates with client travel and expense reporting systems to determine an employee's ability to travel to a given country, including what documents are needed.

The firm also has been affected by the Trump administration's decision to rescind Obama-era protections for immigrants brought to the U.S. as children without legal authorization.

"After Trump did away with DACA our clients wanted to suppport their employees as best as they could," Nguyen said.

The firm normally does not handle DACA cases but began to take them on at no cost, including advising participants in the program who are employed by corporate clients.

The firm has a humming pro bono practice, exemplified by a recent case Khedekar handled for a young Afghani woman who survived cancer and wanted to study in the U.S. to become an oncologist. Khedekar said after being initially denied a student visa on the grounds she would be unlikely to return to Afghanistan, he worked with a congressional office in New York to secure her a second interview at a U.S. consular post where she was granted a visa.

"I heard from our client that everyone in the embassy stood up and gave her a standing ovation," Khedekar said.

-- Chase DiFeliciantonio