Recap on ILW.COM’s EB-5 CLE Seminar Yesterday in Nashville

While most immigration lawyers finding themselves in Nashville today are waking up in the opulent Gaylord, ready to begin the 2012 American Immigration Lawyers’ Association (AILA) national gathering, I instead woke up at a friend’s home, somewhere in the lush suburbs of the Music City, being stared down by grinning 2 year old wearing a cowboy hat.

A combination of too many miles and too many CLE credits led me to forgo this year’s AILA National Convention, and my job ended at 6 pm yesterday, with the wrap up of Sam Udani’s (ILW.COM) EB-5 CLE seminar, and today is “catch up with the 800 emails from 24 time zones” day before heading back to Miami tomorrow.  After speaking at a number of ILW events, Sam asked me to be the moderator for the panel and, as usual, Sam delivered a line up of the best and brightest in this rapidly evolving field of EB-5.  Again,”as usual”, all of the presentations were invaluable for the mixed crowd of seasoned EB-5 practitioners and other immigration attorneys just dipping their respective toes into the EB-5 pool.  These were, for me, the highlights:

• Ryan Conway’s (Dominus Property Partners) candid, insightful presentation on the reality of being in the business of running an EB-5 Regional Center and the endless struggles to identify intelligent investments while worrying about an often-inconsistent USCIS adjudication process;
• Ignacio Donoso’s superb presentation on “perfecting the I-924 petition” (which, as I told him, made my own presentation on the same subject in NY last month seem pretty lame!)
• The brilliant Bob Gaffney’s energized, high-speed discussion on proving Source of Funds in EB-5 filings;
• Mona Shaw’s intriguing analysis on an emerging topic, “Removal issues in EB-5”.

As if all that wasn’t enough, AILA National Past Presidents Steven Yale-Loehr and Denyse Sabagh presented genuinely fascinating – that’s not hyperbole, honest — discussions on I-829 issues/solutions and legal ethics as relating to EB-5, respectively.  Having the attention span of a gnat, I can only tell you that ending a 9.5 hour day at 6 pm while still taking notes and enjoying the snappy Q&A is not the norm for me. (-:  You did it again, Sam, congrats and thanks for letting me be a part of a great event!

I have a lot stuff to tell you guys regarding the latest from Far Eastern markets (from which I just got back this past weekend), big changes at LatourLaw, and exciting new collaborations…I’ll get on that as soon as I can climb off the email mountain.   In the meantime, best wishes to my colleagues in Nashville for a successful AILA National Conference…look for me somewhere near the Wildhorse tonight, where I’ll be with my friend Jack Daniels, watching the Heat try to regain momentum.  Peace. J

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