[ IMMIGRATION ATTORNEYS ]
Martin Lawler has devoted 30 years of legal practice
to immigration law, helping individuals build lives in the
United States. Working in the firm that his father started,
Lawler & Lawler Law Offices, Martin first began working
with E-2 investment visas, which paved the way for his
entrance into the EB-5 sphere in 1991. Since that first
case, he has continued to represent individual investors
and regional centers because he believes in the viability of
the EB-5 program and its positive effects on the American
economy. Martin practices in San Francisco.
Martin sees EB-5 as an opportunity for people to change
their lives and their business career paths, especially in times
when immigration to the United States is difficult and
the capital markets are still recovering. Visiting completed
projects—and actually seeing people working the jobs he has
helped create—is deeply satisfying for Martin.
An educator in the immigration community, Martin is highlyliterate in the Gordian knot that EB-5 can be; he understands
that the program is a marriage between immigration laws,
business development concepts, economic models, and more—
all grounded in ever-changing governmental policy. Martin
is also constantly and proactively seeking more information
about the EB-5 program. For example, when he attended the
most recent USCIS EB-5 stakeholder engagement, he received
answers to all three questions he put forth. He is a frequent
Nelson Lee did not intend to be an EB-5 immigration
attorney. In 2010, Nelson left a 17-year career as a senior
deputy prosecutor with the King County prosecuting
attorney’s office to start his own law firm, Lee & Lee, PS, in
Seattle, Washington. Like Nelson, many of the attorneys at
his firm had backgrounds in prosecution, without extensive
interest in EB-5. Nelson 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, Nelson began working with
several clients who had invested in failed EB-5 projects,
and whose cases had been mishandled by others. Nelson’s
prosecutorial instinct caused him to ask how such problems
could be prevented on a larger-scale. And thus Nelson’s
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 to subsequently guide
them through the EB-5 process.
Now Nelson leads the dedicated EB-5 team at Lee &
Lee, PS, which focuses on representing investor clients. As
a Chinese-American himself, Nelson wants to ensure that
the EB-5 investor’s first experience in the United States is a
positive and successful one. And indeed, the success is clear
in the results: although Lee & Lee, PS, is relatively new to the
EB-5 arena, the practice has already submitted close to 250
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Martin Lawler
speaker at EB-5 conferences
and in the past year alone
has traveled to engagements
in China, Vietnam, Korea, and
throughout the United States.
In the past year, Martin was
also published by The Wall Street
Journal, marking his third appearance
in the publication. Additionally, he wrote,
and regularly updates, Professionals: A Matter of Degree,
a treatise on employment-based green cards. In October,
Martin also served as co-chair of IIUSA’s 4th Annual EB-5
Market Exchange in San Francisco. It is Martin’s extensive
knowledge and expertise in all areas of immigration law
that makes him an authority in the field and an extremely
effective EB-5 attorney.
Nelson Lee
I-526 petitions, with more
than 50 in the pipeline.
When not representing clients,
Nelson spends his time trying
to educate the local government and
municipalities on the benefits of EB-5. He also currently
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 has been 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.
EB5 INVESTORS MAGAZINE