One area of immigration law in which we have been doing a lot of work of late is in the area of getting Visas for performers, mostly singers from Cambodia, to come to America and perform. I have a number of clients who import such talent. In fact, here in Massachusetts, I do not believe that there is any other lawyer who is bringing over stars from Cambodia. All of the people who do these things in Massachusetts are now my clients. I want to say a special “thank you” to these people.
First, I want to say “thank you” for choosing me. Without exception, I am not the only lawyer they have ever had. Not all of them are from Lowell. They are worldly and know their way around. All of them did their homework, and did their research before coming to my office. These are very serious cases, and there are serious amounts of money at stake. I understand the scrutiny that I was put under before I was hired. These people were shopping around before they came to me. I appreciate the trust that they have put in me. I especially appreciate the determination that they obviously made that my office is the place to go if you have a serious immigration issue.
I want to tell them “thank you” for giving me this exciting opportunity. It can be a scary area of practice. After all, venues have to be booked and publicity has to begin even before the entertainers actually receive their visas. As a result, if you mess up, or even if something goes wrong that had nothing to do with the quality of the legal advice or legal documentation, every one will know about it. There is no place to hide. The flip side of that is when you succeed, everybody knows about that too. Immigration is a very cutthroat and competitive area of practice. The problem is not so much other lawyers, although they are certainly capable of playing rough too. The bigger problem is so-called “forms preparers”,”service centers” or notaries who do not play by any rules because they have no license, no qualifications, no training and no credentials. The mere fact that they exist means that they already are not playing by the rules. These people, their friends and family, will say anything, even if it is completely false, to hurt a competitor and help them. It was an exciting opportunity to work in an area where my work product and my performance will be so public. People can see for themselves whether or not I am doing a good job.
However, I want to say “thank you” for another reason as well. Being the lawyer to the stars is a lot of fun. I have met many interesting and exciting people. Anybody can go to a nightclub and watch a performer perform. It is a special feeling to walk into one and watch a performer perform knowing that in some small way, you helped to make it happen. But even better, they have allowed me to become friends with some of the biggest stars in Cambodia, and that is special too. I recently visited Cambodia and was amazed by the way these people took me in and treated me like I was a star too. I was very impressed by their humility and down to earth nature (two qualities I have been accused of lacking). It is fun to go to a country halfway around the world; go out to dinner, and have everybody staring at your table. I know that none of these people know who I am, and yet they are all staring. It has been a real honor to be accepted into the arts and entertainment community in the manner that I have been. I am looking forward to doing more of this kind of work in the future and to expanding it beyond Massachusetts and beyond Cambodia. One of the nice things about this particular type of work is that once you have perfected it in any area, it is very easy to expand it into other areas. Now that we have brought several performers over from Cambodia, it will be very easy to bring performers over from Thailand, from Laos, or from France for that matter. As immigration law is federal, it would be no problem to bring performers over for clients in California,Texas, or New York. To be involved in expanding artistic and cultural opportunities here in Massachusetts, and throughout the country, is something I also very much look forward to being a part of.