TOP 25
Carolyn Lee
Miller Mayer LLP
Carolyn Lee is the Managing Partner
of Miller Mayer’s EB-5 Group. Miller
Mayer has counseled EB-5 project clients
in successfully raising over $3 billion
in EB-5 capital. Lee’s practice focuses
on EB-5 Regional Centers, developers,
funds, and investors. She has been
practicing immigration law at Miller
Mayer for 14 years, developing her EB-5
Nelson K. H. Lee
Lee & Lee PS
Nelson Lee did not intend to be an
EB-5 immigration attorney. In 2010,
Lee left a 17-year career as a senior deputy prosecutor with the King County,
Washington prosecuting attorney’s
office to start his own law firm, Lee
& Lee, PS, in Seattle, Washington.
Like Lee, many of the attorneys at his
firm had backgrounds in prosecution,
IMMIGR ATION AT TORNE YS
practice for the past 10 years. Prior to
joining Miller Mayer, Lee practiced
corporate law in New York City.
Lee is currently the co-chair of
American Immigration Lawyers (AILA)
national EB-5 Committee, and has previously served as Chair and Vice-Chair.
She has served as industry leader in EB-5
legislation and policy advocacy, authoring and editing key commentary of AILA
and Invest in the USA (IIUSA), the EB-5
regional center trade association. Lee
speaks nationally and internationally on
EB-5 and is the author of leading EB-5
publications, including EB-5 Regional
Center Program Reauthorization:
2015 (PLI, December 2015), Material
Change: Managing the Inevitable During
EB-5 Visa Retrogression (PLI, December
2014), State Designations of EB-5
Targeted Employment Areas (IIUSA,
March 2014), and Effect of Material
Change Doctrine in EB-5 Deference
Policy (AILA 2012).
Lee believes the most significant
change in the EB-5 industry is its rapid
growth as a significant source of capital.
Regulators and Congress are playing
catch-up, and she said the next step
in the program’s evolution – greater
regulation and oversight – could be
achieved more efficiently if focus shifted
to improving the program.
Lee is listed in the International Who’s
Who of Corporate Immigration Lawyers
and in The Best Lawyers in America in
the practice area of Immigration Law.
She is a recipient of AILA’s Presidential
Commendation (2015) and the Joseph
Minsky Young Lawyer’s Award. Lee is a
native of Seoul, Korea and grew up in
Brooklyn. She graduated cum laude from
Williams and earned her Juris Doctorate
degree at Cornell Law School where she
served as Chancellor of the Moot Court
Board. She has been a visiting scholar at
Exeter College at Oxford University.
without extensive interest in EB-5.
Lee also admits that he was aware of a
certain stigma surrounding EB-5 at the
time, and was wary of getting involved
in the program.
Just a few months later, he began
working with several clients who had
invested in failed EB-5 projects, and
whose cases had been mishandled. Lee’s
prosecutorial instinct caused him to ask
how such problems could be prevented
on a larger-scale. And thus his commitment to EB-5 was sealed, catalyzed
by the goal to empower investors by
providing them with the tools to make
informed and careful decisions, and
guide them through the EB-5 process.
Now Lee leads the dedicated EB-5
team at Lee & Lee, PS, which focuses
on representing investor clients. As a
Chinese-American himself, Lee wants
to ensure that the EB-5 investor’s first
experience in the United States is a
positive and successful one. And the
success is clear in the results: although
Lee & Lee, PS, is relatively new to the
EB-5 arena, the practice has already
submitted nearly 400 I-526 petitions.
When not representing clients, Lee
spends his time trying to educate the
local government and municipalities
on the benefits of EB-5. He also serves
as judge pro tem for the City of Lake
Forest Park, is president of the Hong
Kong Association of Washington,
and is the legal advisor and a board
member for Seniors in Action. He was
voted as a Top 40 Lawyer Under 40 by
the National Asian Pacific American
Bar Association, along with being
recognized as a Rising Star by Super
Lawyers Magazine. This is Lee’s second
consecutive selection as one of the Top
25 EB-5 Immigration Attorneys.
Continued to page 42
WWW.EB5INVESTORS.COM
41