EB5 Investors Magazine Volume 4 Issue 1 | Page 43

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