ARTICLES
Summer 2006
Dear Friends:
We are pleased to announce the addition of Mrs. Marina Arnedo to our dynamic team of professionals. Marina is a Spanish attorney originally from Madrid, Spain, having moved to St. Louis from Madrid in 2005. She obtained her Law Degree and her Business Administration Degree from Madrid´s Autónoma University, where she graduated in the top ten of her class. She completed one third of her Business Administration degree abroad, sharing time between the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Missouri at St. Louis, and the London School of Economics. Prior to joining our Firm, she was an auditor for Deloitte, S.L. in Madrid. Marina is fluent in English, French and Spanish. Marina is an expert golfer and former member of the Spanish National Golf Team, on which she competed at the regional, national and international levels, and for which she placed first at the national level in 1993, 1995 and 1999. She plans to attend the Washington University in St. Louis Masters in Law Program for Foreign Attorneys in 2007.
Since our last newsletter several months ago, Attorney Hein was the invited speaker at the May 2, 2006 seminar in St. Louis entitled "Legal Aspects of Starting a Business in Missouri". The seminar was one in a series of seminars for entrepreneurs sponsored by the Service Corps of Retired Executives ("SCORE"). SCORE is known as "the Advisors to America´s Small Businesses" and is part of the Federal Small Business Agency. SCORE is a non for-profit organization sponsored by the SBA, with more than 10,500 volunteer members, and since 1964 has placed its advisors in contact with clients in need of expert advice. Attorney Hein presented the seminar in the Spanish language for the benefit of those in attendance, who represented a portion of the growing number of Hispanic entrepreneurs in Missouri.
The following day, May 3, 2006, Attorney Hein left for the World Meeting of the International Law Firms (http://www.ilflaw.com/) which was held in Istanbul, Turkey on May 6, 2006. 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, of which our Firm is a proud member. Attorney Hein represented Missouri and the United States at the Conference and presented the Marketing Committee´s Report to the Conference. The International Law Firms will celebrate its Regional Meeting of the Americas in San José, Costa Rica in November 2006, and will hold its next World Meeting in Washington, D.C. in May 2007. 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.
Further, since our last newsletter, we settled a case for a client for $50,000.00 who fell off a roof while working and suffered a horrible ankle fracture and compression fractures to several vertebrae after the case was initially denied by the employer. We were also able to procure a settlement of more than $121,000.00 for a client who was struck by a car as a pedestrian while working as a landscaper. Finally, we settled a case for $22,000.00 for a client who suffered a fractured wrist while working in a poultry plant.
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.
Attorney Isabel Siedband, the former Interim Director of the Catholic Immigration Law Project, a non for-profit organization providing legal services to low-income individuals with immigration needs, and head of our Firm´s Immigration Department, has been busy with consultations regarding the immigration proposals pending in Congress. She has likewise procured favorable results for her clients since our last newsletter. Finally, she has been helping many clients who, in their estimation, have received inadequate attention from other attorneys regarding their cases, taking the time to explain their cases better, and in other cases, to find closure for the clients.
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 Fernaández) 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 Educacioón 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 immigration needs.