ARTICLES

Spring 2006

Dear Friends:

We are pleased to announce the expansion of our office space for the better provision of services to our clients, having doubled the office space our staff previously occupied. This is an additional step in the continued growth of our Firm which celebrates its third anniversary this May. Also, we are pleased to advise that our Office Manger, Yvonne Aviles, organized a coat drive on behalf of the Firm at the end of 2005 for the Holidays, by which we were able to accumulate many coats, jackets and overcoats for donation.

Attorney Isabel Siedband, the former Interim Director of the Catholic Immigration Law Project, a non for-profit organization providing legal services to low-income individuals with immigration needs, and head of our Firm’s Immigration Department, attended the Conference of the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Chicago, Illinois on March 9-10. She has likewise procured favorable results for her clients since our last newsletter. She won a work permit for a client who is a student based on financial hardship, in spite of the fact that foreign students are normally ineligible for work authorization. Additionally, she was able to save the Temporary Protective Status of a client with a penal record in spite of the client being under investigation by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, resulting in a favorable outcome to the immigration investigation. She was able to achieve legal residency for a Cuban client through deportation proceedings pursuant to the Cuban National Adjustment Act. Finally, she has been helping many clients who, in their estimation, have received inadequate attention from other attorneys regarding their cases, taking the time to explain their cases better, and in other cases, to find closure for the clients.

International Law Firms (www.ilflaw.com), the international cooperative organization consisting of highly respected lawyers and law firms with affiliates in 70 cities and 40 countries world-wide, of which our Firm is a proud member, celebrated its Regional Meeting of the Americas in Miami, Florida in December 2005, and will have its World Meeting in Istanbul, Turkey in May 2006. Attorney Hein represented Missouri and the United States at the Meeting in Miami, and will be present as a member of the Marketing Committee in Istanbul in May. Our membership in this organization opens the doors to a network of colleagues throughout the world for our clients with legal needs outside the U.S.

Attorney Hein will be presenting the seminar “Legal Aspects of Starting a Business in Missouri” in St. Louis on May 2, 2006 sponsored by the Service Corps of Retired Executives (“SCORE”). SCORE is known as “the Advisors to America’s Small Businesses” and is part of the Federal Small Business Agency. SCORE is a non for-profit organization sponsored by the SBA, with more than 10,500 volunteer members, and since 1964 has placed its advisors in contact with clients in need of expert advice. Attorney Hein will present the seminar in the Spanish language for the benefit of those in attendance, who will represent a portion of the growing number of Hispanic entrepreneurs in Missouri.

Our Firm is one of the few, if not the only, fully bilingual, full service law firms in the State of Missouri, and was founded in May, 2003. Mr. Hein earned his law degree from Saint Louis University School of Law in 1994. He also received his undergraduate degree in History, cum laude, from Saint Louis University in 1991. Mr. Hein was born and raised in St. Louis, and graduated from the St. Louis Priory High School. While in law school, Mr. Hein studied at Madrid’s Centro de Estudios Universitarios at the Colegio de San Pablo, and served as a law clerk to one of the leading law firms in Europe, J. & B. Cremades & Associates, also in Madrid. He is a member of the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, the Eighth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court of Missouri and the United States Supreme Court.

Our Firm’s Isabel J. Siedband (neé Fernández) heads up our Firm’s Immigration Department. She is the former interim head attorney for the Catholic Immigration Law Project (CILP), a non-profit legal service for low-income individuals who require immigration legal assistance. Mrs. Siedband earned her law degree (Licenciatura) from the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (Spain). Mrs. Siedband thereafter received her LL.M. degree (Master of Laws) from Washington University in St. Louis. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, and the Supreme Court of Missouri. A St. Louis native and alumna of Nerinx High School, Mrs. Siedband grew up speaking French, Spanish, and English as her mother was from Cherbourg, France and her father was from Madrid, Spain. She has American, Spanish and French citizenship. As a daughter of immigrants, Mrs. Siedband is much attuned to the needs of the immigrant community and provides an invaluable service to our Firm’s diverse and international clients. While the Firm has always prided itself on being a full service, bilingual law firm (Spanish/English), Mrs. Siedband has opened our doors even wider to include French-speaking clients. Please feel free to call us for all of your immigration needs.

IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED THIS IN ERROR, PLEASE CONTACT MRS. YVONNE AVILES AT 314.961.1800.