The Conflict of Interest No One Names Out Loud; And How Independent Immigration Counsel Resolves It

Here is something the employer-sponsored immigration industry handles by implication, and that most professionals absorb without ever articulating. When your employer retains an immigration attorney to manage your visa, a structural conflict of interest is built into the arrangement from the beginning. The attorney’s client is the company. The company’s interests and your interests will overlap most of the time; which is why the system functions. But they are not the same interests. And in the moments that matter most - restructuring, layoffs, mergers, salary negotiations, career transitions, green card decisions - the divergence between what is good for the employer and what is good for you can be significant. Independent immigration counsel exists because that divergence is real, it is structural, and it deserves a professional response.

“Non-Adversarial Parallel Representation” Sounds Like a Legal Theory. In Practice, It’s the Arrangement That Protects You.

IS Law Firm’s Independent Immigration Counsel practice is built on a specific model: non-adversarial parallel representation. That phrase requires unpacking because it is often misread. Independent counsel for a visa-holding professional is not adversarial to the employer or to the employer’s attorney. The employer’s immigration program continues. The employer’s attorney continues to file petitions, manage compliance, and advise the company. IS Law Firm works alongside that program, not in opposition to it, advising you on your personal interests, your rights, and your options in parallel with whatever your employer’s counsel is doing. The two representations do not conflict. They address different clients with different questions.

What non-adversarial parallel representation looks like in practice: an L-1B intracompany transferee whose company is managing a headquarters relocation engages IS Law Firm for independent counsel. The employer’s attorney is handling the business immigration logistics of the relocation. IS Law Firm reviews the L-1B specialized knowledge requirements, the professional’s options if the relocation disrupts their status, whether an EB-1C immigrant visa self-petition is viable given their executive function, and whether a career transition now versus in eighteen months produces meaningfully different immigration outcomes. The employer’s attorney is doing their job. IS Law Firm is doing a different job; and both jobs need to be done.

The Post-Layoff Emergency Planning service is where this architecture becomes most visible. When a company conducts a reduction in force that includes visa-holding professionals, the employer’s attorney’s role is to manage the company’s obligations: I-9 compliance, any WARN Act immigration dimensions, and coordination with HR on severance. What the employer’s attorney is not doing - cannot be doing - is advising the affected employee on their 60-day grace period, their options for bridging to a new employer or alternative status, whether their I-140 is portable without the sponsoring employer, and how to approach severance negotiations in a way that considers their immigration options. IS Law Firm’s independent counsel practice is structured to address all of that. It requires independent counsel because it serves a different client.

The reason IS Law Firm is explicitly structured around the employee’s interests rather than the employer’s compliance program is not a marketing position. It is a structural commitment. You cannot serve both the employer and the employee in the moments where their interests diverge. We chose the employee. If you are a visa-holding professional who has never had an attorney of your own, the Personal Immigration Status Review is where those changes. Schedule it today.

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Ismail Shahtakhtinski · Founder & Managing Attorney

IS Law Firm · Founder And Investor Immigration

No Obligation · One-on-One Strategy Review

P.: (703) 527-1779

E.: law@islawfirm.com

W.: islawfirm.com