Cohen named National Law Journal 2020 Immigration Trailblazer
Porter Wright's Rob Cohen was recognized by the National Law Journal as an 2020 Immigration Trailblazer. The honor recognizes movers and shakers in the legal industry who have made an impact in immigration through new strategies and innovative court cases.
Cohen was recognized for his work on Residential Finance Corporation v. USCIS, where he represented an employer in addressing H-1B visa requirements after it sought H-1B visa classification for a foreign national in the specialty occupation of market research analyst. In the profile from the National Law Journal, Cohen explained the impact of the case even eight years later.
“(The USCIS) denied the petition with a lot of nonsense in their analysis. I was able to educate the judge, who was not an expert on immigration law, but quickly saw the absurdity of the government’s position. There have been more cases in the past few months that have expanded on this opinion, providing some tools to fight back on unreasonable restrictions.”
The award comes on the heels of another immigration victory for Cohen that made national headlines. In August 2020, Porter Wright announced Cohen had reached a settlement with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) that immediately impacted thousands of foreign workers. Cohen filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of its client and as many as 75,000 of other foreign nationals who had been approved by the USCIS to work in the U.S. but had not received their printed Employment Authorization Documents (EADs), which they were required by law to have in order to continue working. The judge in United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio ordered the USCIS to permit those waiting for their EADs to work before receiving their documents and for the USCIS to produce the EADs by October 2020.
Cohen received the 2013 Jack Wasserman Memorial Award from the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) for excellence in immigration litigation for his work on Residential Finance Corporation v. USCIS and has been recognized by Best Lawyers®, the American Lawyers Association, the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the Ohio Chapter of American Immigration Lawyers Association for his work in immigration law.
