Making a Virtual Connection: Ensuring an Open and Productive Attorney/Client Relationship While Remote

E. Karina Ramos, Esq. is currently a Managing Attorney and former Staff Attorney in the Children’s Representation Project (CRP). She is based out of Immigrant Defenders Law Center’s DTLA office and oversees staff attorneys in their provision of representation to detained unaccompanied children and refugee minors. Before joining ImmDef, Karina provided pro bono legal support to the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project and the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. She graduated from Southwestern Law School and earned her B.A. in political science from University of California, Los Angeles. Immediately after graduating law school, she worked as a Deputy Public Defender in Orange County, California.

Michelle is a Partner in the Chicago office of Fragomen and has practiced immigration for nearly 20 years. With extensive experience in corporate immigration law, Michelle provides strategic immigration representation to multiple startup, multinational and Fortune 500 companies. She leads client teams in the establishment and modification of immigration compliance policies to ensure business compliance. Michelle is a trusted advisor to clients’ business, international mobility, HR, talent acquisition and legal teams, and helps them understand the impact of administrative decisions on their immigration programs and business continuity. She manages large teams to provide innovative success-driven solutions while managing risk and compliance-oriented strategies.
Michelle is an active member in the legal and broader community, and has a strong commitment to serving others and helping to advance those around her. She was appointed to the Advisory Committee of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Immigration. In this role, Michelle provides critical counsel to the Commission in its efforts to ensure fair treatment and full due process rights for immigrants and refugees within the United States, and helps to develop and implement immigration-related policy for the ABA. Michelle also serves as Diversity Officer to the American Bar Association’s International Law Section. She was also recently elected to the Board of Directors for the Chinese American Service League, an organization that has long dedicated its efforts to serving the Chicago community with essential services, including providing immigrants with pathways to citizenship.A strong advocate for pro bono work, Michelle assists with asylum, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) cases through the National Immigrant Justice Center. She routinely assists with DACA and citizenship workshops through The Resurrection Project. She also provides pro bono legal services to immigrant adults and children who are detained at the southern border in Texas.
Michelle is regularly recognized as a leading lawyer in well-regarded legal and business publications. Michelle speaks English, French and Spanish.

 

Sarah Burrows, Esq. is the Director, Pro Bono & Partnerships at HIAS. In this role, Sarah oversees HIAS’ pro bono attorney network, including through forging new partnerships and opportunities with major law firms and corporations. As the Director of the pro bono team, Sarah is responsible for the development of new projects and pro bono opportunities to serve refugees, asylum seekers, and forcibly displaced persons, which expand the capacity of HIAS staff attorneys and HIAS’ partner organizations to grow their work and their impact. Prior to joining HIAS in October 2018, she was Director, Pro Bono at the Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project. She was previously Pro Bono Coordinating Attorney and Interim Supervising Attorney at Kids in Need of Defense, where she mentored pro bono attorneys on complex cases involving children in removal proceedings in immigration court. Sarah began her career at the law firm Paul Hastings LLP, where she spent five years as an associate in the litigation department. While at Paul Hastings, Sarah participated in a number of pro bono programs, including representing clients in contested adoption proceedings and other family court matters, assisting undocumented victims of domestic violence file applications for U-visa nonimmigrant status, and representing asylum seekers. Sarah received her B.A. from the George Washington University and earned her J.D. from American University Washington College of Law. She is admitted to practice law in New York.