AILA Elects New Officers

LAS VEGAS, NV - The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) today elected new officers to its Executive Committee for the 2016-2017 term. The election results were announced at the official membership meeting during AILA’s Annual Conference in Las Vegas, NV. William A. Stock was installed as AILA’s President and the following officers were elected today: Annaluisa Padilla as President-Elect, Anastasia Tonello as First Vice President, Marketa Lindt as Second Vice President, Jennifer Minear as Treasurer, and Allen Orr as Secretary.

William A. Stock Installed as New President of AILA
 
AILA installed William A. Stock, an immigration lawyer from Philadelphia, PA, as the association’s President for the 2016-2017 term. Mr. Stock was installed during AILA’s Annual Conference currently being held in Las Vegas, NV. 
 
William A. Stock is a founding partner of Klasko Immigration Law Partners, LLP, where he leads the Corporate Immigration team from the firm’s Philadelphia headquarters. With more than 23 years of experience practicing immigration law, Mr. Stock focuses his practice on employment-based immigration for some of the largest companies, health care systems and universities in the country, as well as individual investors, researchers and physicians. In addition, Mr. Stock also handles complex family-based, citizenship, and naturalization matters, as well as defends clients in removal and Department of Labor enforcement proceedings. He has an impressive track record of litigating against the government in the federal courts to obtain immigration benefits unlawfully withheld.
 
Long active in AILA on both national and local levels, Mr. Stock has served several terms on the association’s Board of Governors and received the organization’s Joseph Minsky Young Lawyer Award for outstanding accomplishments in immigration law in 2000. A frequent speaker and author on immigration law topics, Mr. Stock has taught immigration law at Villanova University School of Law. He has served on the editorial board of Bender’s Immigration Bulletin and was a senior editor of AILA’s annual Immigration Practice Pointers. 
 
Raised in northern Wisconsin, Mr. Stock received a scholarship from the German Bundestag in 1985 to spend his senior year of high school in Lübeck, Germany. He returned to the United States for college, graduating summa cum laude from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN and magna cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1993. In law school, Mr. Stock was a student director of the Immigration and Human Rights Law Clinic, and worked as a foreign student advisor for the University’s Office of International Education.
 
Mr. Stock lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife of 25 years, Mary Stock. They have three children: Ben, Katie, and Maggie. He is a supporter of the arts, including the Philadelphia Opera as well as community orchestras and dance groups. Mr. Stock is an avid reader and hockey fan as well as an active member and elder at Abington Presbyterian Church.
 
Mr. Stock is engaged on social media; his Twitter handle is @wstock215.
 
Annaluisa Padilla Named President-Elect of AILA
 
AILA elected Annaluisa Padilla, an immigration lawyer from La Habra, CA, as the association’s President-Elect for the 2016-2017 term. Ms. Padilla was elected during AILA’s Annual Conference currently being held in Las Vegas, NV.
 
Ms. Padilla was born in Guatemala and immigrated to the United States in 1983. She obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and her law degree from Whittier Law School. 
 
Ms. Padilla, a solo practitioner, served as Trustee of the Mexican American Bar Association (MABA) for six years and as Treasurer in 2010 and 2011. She served as Chair of the immigration section of Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA) and as Trustee to the LACBA Board in 2006-2008 and 2010-2012. She is currently serving a third two-year term for 2014-2016. She has volunteered with the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), the Domestic Violence Project, the HIV & AIDS Legal Services Alliance. Additionally, she serves as pro bono attorney for ProBar and Kids In Need of Defense (KIND) and sits on their Family Law Expert Panel for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status relief. She has been recognized as a Southern California Super Lawyer 2011-2016.
 
She is fluent in Spanish, and conversational in German and Portuguese. Ms. Padilla is active on social media; her Twitter handle is @apesq. 
 
Anastasia Tonello Named First Vice President of AILA
 
AILA elected Anastasia Tonello, an immigration attorney from New York, NY, as the association’s First Vice President for the 2016-2017 term. The election results were announced during AILA’s Annual Conference currently being held in Las Vegas, NV. 
 
Ms. Tonello is Managing Partner of Laura Devine Attorneys in New York and is also a Partner of Laura Devine Solicitors in London. She was a charter member and officer of AILA’s Rome District Chapter – Europe, Middle East, and Africa (RDC-EMEA) and served as the Chair of AILA’s Department of State Committee.
 
Having spent the first decade of her career practicing U.S. law as an immigrant in London, Ms. Tonello has experienced many of the issues and obstacles immigrants in this country encounter—both personally and professionally. 
 
Ms. Tonello joined AILA as a member in 1999. She is a frequent speaker on immigration issues having spoken at professional conferences, the world’s leading business schools in the U.S. and abroad and in the media. She has been recognized in Who’s Who Legal, Legal 500 UK Edition, Chambers (UK, Global and USA), SuperLawyers and Best Lawyers.
 
She received her B.A. from Indiana University and her J.D. from the University of Notre Dame. Ms. Tonello is active on social media; her Twitter handle is@anastasianylon.
 
Marketa Lindt Named Second Vice President of AILA
 
AILA elected Marketa Lindt, an immigration lawyer from Chicago, IL, as the association’s Second Vice President for the 2016-2017 term. The election results were announced during AILA’s Annual Conference currently being held in Las Vegas, NV. 
 
Ms. Lindt is a partner at the Chicago office of Sidley Austin LLP, where she works with U.S. and multinational corporations to manage their business immigration visa programs to best attract and retain foreign national talent. She also leads her firm’s I-9 compliance practice, where she assists employers with implementing best practices for worker verification, advises companies on immigration-related issues in mergers and acquisitions, and defends companies in administrative and criminal immigration-related proceedings. 
 
In addition to her work in representing U.S. companies, Ms. Lindt is actively engaged in AILA and other networks, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, to advocate for change in our immigration laws to better serve U.S. employers and immigrant communities. Ms. Lindt has also worked for a number of years in AILA’s government liaison efforts to advocate for reasonable interpretations of the immigration laws. 
 
Ms. Lindt has authored numerous articles for leading immigration texts, including AILA’s Guide to Worksite Enforcement and Compliance, the Guide to PERM Labor Certification, and numerous annual editions of the Immigration & Nationality Law Handbook. She is a primary author of the immigration law and practice treatise Business Immigration Law (for both the Strategies for Employing Foreign Nationals and Forms and Filings volumes), and has appeared a number of times on television, radio and in print regarding developments in immigration law.
 
Beyond her service to her clients and the immigration bar, Ms. Lindt is committed to pro bono work and providing access to counsel for underserved immigrants. For a number of years, she has served as a member of the Leadership Board of the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago and provides pro bono representation to refugees, asylees and immigrant survivors of domestic violence. She also serves in an advisory capacity to several Chicago-area cultural institutions and to organizations that provide assistance to underserved immigrant communities.
 
Ms. Lindt is engaged on social media; her Twitter handle is @marketalindt.
 
Jennifer Minear Named Treasurer of AILA
 
AILA elected Jennifer Minear, an immigration attorney from Richmond, VA, as the association’s Treasurer for the 2016-2017 term. The election results were announced during AILA’s Annual Conference currently being held in Las Vegas, NV.
 
Ms. Minear is a director in the Immigration Practice Group at McCandlish Holton in Richmond, VA, where her practice focuses on employment-based immigration with a particular emphasis on the healthcare sector, including J-1 waiver and green card processing for foreign medical graduates.
 
She is the 2014 recipient of the Susan D. Quarles AILA Service Excellence Award, in recognition of her outstanding service over a period of years in advancing the mission, development, and value of AILA for its members and the public it serves. Ms. Minear has served AILA as a volunteer in a wide range of capacities. She has been a member of, or chaired, liaison committees and conference program committees, spoken at numerous AILA conferences, and written for AILA publications. She was an elected member of the AILA Board of Governors from 2012 – 2015. 
 
Ms. Minear received her B.A. from the University of Maryland and graduated cum laude from Cornell Law School. Her Twitter handle is @jenniferminear.
 
Allen Orr Elected Secretary of AILA

AILA elected Allen Orr, an immigration attorney from Washington, D.C., as the association’s Secretary for the 2016 - 2017 term. The election results were announced during AILA’s Annual Conference currently being held in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Mr. Orr is the founder of Orr Immigration Law Firm PC, a minority-owned law firm based in Washington, D.C., focusing on U.S. corporate compliance as well as global corporate representation and assistance on immigration issues. He previously assisted in building one of the leading global immigration practices at a large global law firm, where he developed an international network of immigration practitioners, government officials and business leaders. Mr. Orr managed an I-9 compliance audit for a Fortune 10 company which involved review and analysis of all immigration records relating to 250,000 employees. He met with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regarding the implementation of proposed immigration laws, such as the current U.S. labor certification system. 

The recipient of the 2009 Joseph Minsky Young Lawyer Award for contributions made in the immigration law field from AILA, Mr. Orr is listed in The International Who’s Who of Corporate Immigration Lawyers and The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers. He has served as the Immigration Section Chair for the National Bar Association and as an elected member of the AILA Board of Governors.

Mr. Orr is a frequent speaker on U.S. and global emerging business immigration issues.  He is a Senior Editor of the Immigration and Nationality Law Handbookand an Associate Editor of AILA’s Global Immigration Guide: A Country-by-Country Survey, April 2005.  

Mr. Orr received a BA in Philosophy from Morehouse College and a JD from Howard University’s School of Law. He is an active member of the D.C., Virginia, and National Bar Associations; his Twitter handle is @allenorresq.