How Immigration Can Solve Talent Shortages
HR professionals and employers continue to face challenges recruiting workers with the skills necessary to succeed on the job. While travel restrictions are easing, economic recovery has increased global competition for workers. Join former senior administration officials and policy experts for a discussion on the need for immigration in all elements of the U.S. workforce and policy solutions to modernize the U.S. employment-based immigration system.
Lynden Melmed
Lynden Melmed is a partner with Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP and oversees the firm’s compliance and government affairs practices. He counsels corporate clients on complex immigration matters, assists businesses in establishing and managing global immigration programs, and represents businesses in connection with audits and investigations by the federal government. He has served as immigration counsel in connection with several of the largest immigration investigations ever pursued by the federal government.
Before joining BAL, Lynden served as Chief Counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), where he was a key advisor to senior leadership within USCIS, DHS, the White House, and other federal agencies on all aspects of immigration law. Lynden also served as Special Counsel to Senator John Cornyn, who was Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship; in that role, Lynden played a leading role in drafting and managing comprehensive immigration legislation.
Christopher Richardson
Christopher Richardson is an immigration attorney, consultant, and former U.S. Diplomat. As a U.S. diplomat, Richardson served in Nigeria, Nicaragua, Pakistan, and Spain. He won numerous State Department awards including Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards. He is a native of Charleston, South Carolina.
Richardson is currently the General Counsel and COO of BDV Solutions, a Greenville-based consulting company specializing in legal immigration solutions to help resolve labor shortages in industries across the United States. His company works with hundreds of companies including Chick-Fil-A, McDonalds, Wendy’s, and thousands of foreign nationals from around the world. He also the founder of Argo, LLC, a consulting firm of former U.S. diplomats who provide advice on the immigration process. Richardson also manages his own immigration law practice - Cooper Richardson, PA.
Richardson is a thought leader on race and immigration. He has been featured in Mother Jones, Slate Magazine, Reuters, NPR, Embedded, All Things Considered, SCOTUS Blog, BBC, Georgia Public Radio, ProPublica, Intercept, and the Atlanta Constitution Journal. He has also been interviewed on MSNBC, CNN and CBS. Richardson has written several well-received opinion columns for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Slate Magazine, Chicago Sun-Times, The Hill, and the Nation about immigration policy and race under Presidents Trump and Obama. His New York Times op-ed on diversity at the State Department spurred a Congressional bill on diversity which Richardson helped write. In addition, the Biden Administration, based on that op-ed, created the first ever Chief Diversity Officer for the State Department.
He has advised U.S. Senators and House members on a wide range of immigration and State Department issues including the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act, the various travel bans, and diversity. He chaired the team that Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s immigration policy proposals and worked on immigration policy for Joe Biden’s campaign.
He is a graduate of Duke University School of Law and graduated summa cum laude from Emory University in 2003. He is also the co-author of the Historical Dictionary of the Civil Rights Movement (2014).
Leon Rodriguez
As former federal prosecutor and leader of multiple federal and local agencies, clients look to Leon to give them direct advice on the risks related to investigations, to give them guidance on responding to investigations, to advocate for an optimal resolution, or to aggressively litigate their matters to positive outcomes.
Leon is a founding member of the firm's Immigration and Compliance specialty team. He has helped clients understand this rapidly changing and increasingly risk-laden area. Leon has assisted a number of clients with I-9 audits, training on best I-9 practices, and negotiating with government authorities when enforcement events arise. When clients have difficulties obtaining visas to travel to or remain in the US, he assists them either by negotiating with government authorities or by bringing litigation to secure a positive outcome to their case.
In his practice, Leon draws upon his foundational training and experience as a litigator and investigator, primarily gained as a federal and state prosecutor, along with his wide variety of substantive experiences secured through high-level government leaderships posts. From 2014 to 2017, Leon served as the Director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), following a more than two decade career as a prosecutor, law firm partner, and government agency leader. From 2011 to 2014, Leon served as the Director of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights. This diverse range of experiences make him most effective for multidisciplinary matters involving multiple and serious risk vectors for clients.
Leon serves as chair of Seyfarth Government Relations Policy Group and works with clients to develop multifaceted strategies to achieve desired public policy outcomes. A veteran of many congressional hearings, he also assists clients who either have been summoned to testify or provide documents before congressional committees. Leon has also handled interdisciplinary problems requiring an attorney with extensive and diverse experience in litigation and investigations, in interacting with the government at all levels, and interacting with media and external stakeholders.
Leon is also chair of the firm's Health Care Regulatory and Compliance group, and a co-chair of the Health Care Privacy, Security and HIPAA group. He assists firm clients with complex and novel HIPAA questions. Leon also counsels and assists clients who have experienced data breaches or otherwise under investigation by the Department of Health and Human Service Office for Civil Rights.
Leon enjoys Seyfarth's collegial environment across its international services, and the firm's commitment to using innovative delivery and pricing approaches to deliver consistently positive outcomes for clients.