ARTICLES
Spring 2007
Dear Friends:
We continue growing! Congratulations to Mrs. Isabel Siedband and Mrs. Lorena Santa Cruz who have announced they are expecting, and to Mrs. Bonnie Robinson, who has announced she is expecting twins! We wish them and their families well. In Mrs. Siedband´s absence, Mr. Hein will be undertaking Immigration consultations. We are also pleased to welcome Norka Carr to our team of professionals as our Receptionist. Norka is originally from Colombia, South America, but moved with her family to Porlamar, Venezuela in third grade. She remained in Venezuela until she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Accounting at the University Institute of Maritime Technology in Punta de Piedras, Venezuela in 1991. She moved to the United States in 1992, and married her husband, Eddie, that same year. She has two young children. She was previously a Spanish teacher for the Adult Education Program at St. Louis Community College, as well as at MICDS High School. Norka is fluent in English and Spanish, and is an active member of the local Arts community. She is the Co-Director of the Colombian Folklore Dance Group, Grupo Atlántico, for which she choreographs and performs Latin American folk dances on a volunteer basis. She has also been a member of the Missouri Folk Arts Program since 1999. Norka became a U.S. Citizen on January 5, 2007.
Since our last newsletter, Mr. Hein attended The International Law Firms (http://ilflaw.com) Regional Meeting of the Americas in San José, Costa Rica on December 2, 2006, representing Missouri and the United States at the Conference. International Law Firms is an international cooperative organization consisting of highly respected lawyers and law firms with affiliates in 70 cities and 40 countries world-wide. Our membership in this organization opens the doors to a network of colleagues throughout the world for our clients with legal needs outside the U.S.
Likewise, we are pleased to announce the ILF Member Firm from Quito, Ecuador, ForumAbogados is organizing three conferences later this year in the cities of Quito, Guayaquil, and Cuenca, and has invited Mr. Hein to provide insight on topics related to US immigration law. Finally, Mr. Hein lectured on March 21, 2007 at Renaissance Financial Corporation´s Seminar entitled "What You Should Know about Your Financial and Legal Strategy", providing insight into the world of Wills and Trusts.
We continue to successfully defend people injured in car wrecks and on the job. In October, we recovered over $50,000.00 for a client who suffered a separated shoulder in an automobile accident. In December, we recovered $60,000.00 for a client who suffered a fractured vertebra in an automobile accident, which was about twice the insurance company´s initial offer. In February, we recovered over $50,000.00 for a client whose arm was caught in a combine and left severely damaged; this after the insurance company had initially denied the claim. And in March, we recovered over $125,000.00 for a client who suffered a fractured femur and forehead scar in a head-on automobile collision. We also won several other injury cases involving lesser amounts
Our Firm is one of the few, if not the only, fully bilingual, full service law firms in the State of Missouri, and was founded in May, 2003. Mr. Hein earned his law degree from Saint Louis University School of Law in 1994. He also received his undergraduate degree in History, cum laude, from Saint Louis University in 1991. Mr. Hein was born and raised in St. Louis, and graduated from the St. Louis Priory High School. While in law school, Mr. Hein studied at Madrid´s Centro de Estudios Universitarios at the Colegio de San Pablo, and served as a law clerk to one of the leading law firms in Europe, J. & B. Cremades & Associates, also in Madrid. He is a member of the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, the Eighth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court of Missouri and the United States Supreme Court. Our Firm´s Isabel J. Siedband (neé Fernández) heads up our Firm´s Immigration Department. She is the former interim head attorney for the Catholic Immigration Law Project (CILP), a non-profit legal service for low-income individuals who require immigration legal assistance. Mrs. Siedband earned her law degree (Licenciatura) from the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (Spain). Mrs. Siedband thereafter received her LL.M. degree (Master of Laws) from Washington University in St. Louis. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, and the Supreme Court of Missouri. A St. Louis native and alumna of Nerinx High School, Mrs. Siedband grew up speaking French, Spanish, and English as her mother was from Cherbourg, France and her father was from Madrid, Spain. She has American, Spanish and French citizenship. As a daughter of immigrants, Mrs. Siedband is much attuned to the needs of the immigrant community and provides an invaluable service to our Firm´s diverse and international clients. While the Firm has always prided itself on being a full service, bilingual law firm (Spanish/English), Mrs. Siedband has opened our doors even wider to include French-speaking clients. Please feel free to call us for all of your legal and immigration needs.