Blog : lynda won-chung

Minami Tamaki Partners are ‘Super Lawyers’ for 7th Straight Year

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From left: Jack W. Lee; Minette Kwok, Dale Minami, Donald K. Tamaki, Lynda Won-Chung and Brad Yamauchi. Not pictured: Mark Fong and Derek G. Howard.

Each of the five partners at Minami Tamaki LLP has been named by Northern California Super Lawyers magazine as among the top attorneys for 2010 for the seventh straight year. All three of the senior counsel in the firm have also been named to the Super Lawyers distinction in 2010.

Only five percent of the lawyers in California are named by Super Lawyers. And few firms (if any) have the distinction of having all the partners of a firm named by Super Lawyers magazine for seven years in a row.

Partners Dale Minami (Personal Injury), Donald K. Tamaki (Corporate), Brad Yamauchi (Employment), Minette A. Kwok (Immigration), Jack W. Lee (Employment), and Senior Counsel Lynda Won-Chung (Immigration), Mark Fong (Personal Injury) and Derek G. Howard (Consumer Law) were selected based on voting conducted by ballots sent to more than 56,000 lawyers in the region, an extensive process involving peer nomination and a blue ribbon panel comprised of lawyers from appropriate practice areas who scrutinized the list of nominees.

Minami was also selected as one of the Top 100 Northern California Super Lawyers for the fifth year (2005, 2007-2010).

Northern California Super Lawyers is published annually in August in a special advertising section in San Francisco Magazine, which reaches more than 400,000 monthly readers. Northern California Super Lawyers magazine, featuring articles about the local legal community, is delivered to more than 64,000 readers, including Northern California lawyers, the lead corporate counsel of the Russell 3000 companies and the ABA-approved law school libraries.

The selections for Super Lawyers are made by Law & Politics, a division of Key Professional Media, Inc. of Minneapolis, Minn. Each year, Law & Politics undertakes a rigorous multi-phase selection process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, independent evaluation of candidates by the Law & Politics’ attorney-led research staff, a peer review of candidates by practice area, and a good-standing and disciplinary check.

Minette Kwok, Lynda Won-Chung Selected for Who’s Who Legal

Minami Tamaki partner Minette Kwok and senior counsel Lynda Won-Chung, both with the firm’s immigration practice group, have been selected by Who’s Who Legal, a site featuring more than 10,000 of the world’s leading private practice lawyers from over 100 national jurisdictions.

Nominees are selected based upon comprehensive, independent survey work with both general counsel and private practice lawyers worldwide. “Only specialists who have met independent international research criteria are listed,” says the site.

Who’s Who Legal does not accept paid entries into their listings.

Minami Tamaki Immigration Practice Group Helps Navigate Immigration Visa Maze, Ease Stress

ipgThe U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on April 8 announced that it was continuing to accept H-1B nonimmigrant petitions subject to the cap for this Federal fiscal year (2011).

USCIS received approximately 13,500 H-1B petitions counting towards the 65,000 cap. The agency has received approximately 5,600 petitions for individuals with advanced degrees.

U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in fields, such as scientists, engineers, or computer programmers.

Two and three years ago, in fiscal years 2008 and 2009, the USCIS H-1B caps were reached on the very first day that petitions were eligible to be accepted, said Minette Kwok (left top photo), Minami Tamaki’s partner leading the firm’s immigration practice group.

“The poor economy is clearly causing the low number of H-1B petitions,” said Kwok. “In previous years, the petition process was stressful for foreign nationals because they didn’t know whether there were other options for them to work and stay in the U.S. It ended up being a lottery system.”

To ensure a fair system, USCIS said that it might randomly select the number of petitions required to reach the numerical limit from the petitions received on the final receipt date, when the number of petitions is nearing the cap limitations. USCIS will reject cap subject petitions that are not selected, as well as those received after the final receipt date.

“We can’t control the numbers but at least we can do our best to get petitions submitted quickly and communicate with employees quickly on news,” senior counsel Lynda Won-Chung (left middle photo) pointed out. “The uncertainty of one’s future is dependent on the visa process can be nerve-wrecking. We recall one employee’s response when we advised him the H-1B petition on his behalf was selected: ‘Wow, thank you for the wonderful news! That was such a relief! It’s celebration time for me. Thanks again for your enormous efforts.’ ”

The Immigration Practice Group of Minami Tamaki offers expertise in a broad array of immigration services. Partner Minette Kwok, senior counsel Lynda Won-Chung and associate Olivia Serene Lee (left bottom photo) routinely assist employers and employees, nationwide, in obtaining temporary and permanent employment-based visas. And just as often, they help individual clients to secure family-based immigration status through marriage or other qualifying family relationships.

Immigration matters are very personal to clients and Kwok, Won-Chung and Lee take pride in providing a level of service that enables their clients to concentrate on their jobs or other matters, allowing Minami Tamaki immigration attorneys to best assist them in achieving their immigration goals.