EB5 Investors Magazine is pleased to announce the Top 10 Rising Stars of 2023. To be eligible, distinguished attorneys needed to be increasing their footprint in the EB-5 industry.

For more information or to contact any of these professionals, we invite you to view their listings at www.EB5Investors.com/directories.

George Ganey

Ganey Law Group

George Ganey is the founding partner at Ganey Law Group, an immigration law firm based in the heart of Washington, D.C. and focused on private client immigration matters. He is a passionate advocate for his clients and has significant experience advising individuals and businesses on all types of immigration matters, including EB-5, E-2, and L-1A petitions, in addition to complex inadmissibility matters. Ganey’s firm has a robust EB-5 practice that is informed by the needs of its HNWI clients and their family members. 

Marjan Kasra

Lawmaks

Marjan Kasra is the founder and managing attorney of Lawmaks with offices in New York, Stamford, Dubai and Istanbul, where she and her team of experts specialize in EB-5 practice, with a focus in the MENA region. Lawmaks provides creative solutions to individuals and corporations, in helping them navigate through the complex issues they face with U.S. immigration. Kasra is a board member in IABA’s NY Chapter, an active member of AILA, and a committee member of New York City Bar’s MENA committee. She is a frequent speaker on Immigration venues related to investment visa categories.

Carolina Kripinski

Carrasquillo Law Group

Carolina Kripinski is a business immigration and compliance attorney at Carrasquillo Law Group. She represents clients on a wide range of employment-based immigrant and non-immigrant visa matters, including students, trainees, professionals, executives, artists, entertainers, treaty investors, persons of extraordinary ability, and immigrant investors. She also represents regional centers and individual investors in the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. Kripinski studied at Externado University of Colombia, University of Panthèon-Assas (Paris), University Complutense of Madrid, Instituto de Empresa and Barry University, School of Law. As an immigrant, she identifies with her clients and enjoys providing them with legal advice.

Rafael Lamberti

SG Law LLP

Rafael Lamberti is a partner at SG Law LLP where he manages the firm’s corporate and investment-based immigration practice group. Lamberti represents both individual and corporate clients on a wide variety of immigration matters. He has substantial knowledge in employment and investment based nonimmigrant visas, as well as permanent residency applications. He has advised clients in structuring direct and pooled EB-5 investments, as well as investments in various regional centers. Lamberti was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and he began his life in the United States as an immigrant. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Boston University, and his J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law, where he received the Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic.

Phuong Le

KLD LLP

Phuong Le is a founding member and partner with KLD LLP. He has over 15 years of experience and helps lead a global EB-5 practice group. He draws upon an extensive background advising parties on all sides of EB-5 transactions, including regional centers and direct EB-5 investments, project developers, agents, and investors. His clients span the globe and he has advised on over 5,000 investor petitions and over $2.5 billion in EB-5 financing for projects across the U.S., including commercial real estate, multifamily, charter schools, hotels, and publicly-traded franchises. He frequently travels and shares his knowledge regarding complex EB-5 matters as a lecturer, author, and EB-5 expert witness for other firms and the EB-5 industry.

Claudia Rea Jimenez

David Hirson & Partners LLP

Claudia Rea Jimenez, an associate attorney at David Hirson & Partners, brings a unique blend of legal expertise, community engagement, and deep-rooted empathy to the forefront of the EB-5 industry. With dual licensure as an attorney in the United States and Mexico, in her practice, Rea represents individuals and corporate clients across different areas of immigration, including employment, family, and investment-based petitions, alien-related criminal matters, and waivers of ineligibility. Beyond her professional achievements, she is deeply involved in the Latino community, leveraging her legal expertise to advocate for immigrant rights and empower individuals seeking to navigate the legal system.

Wilka Toppins

Womble Bond Dickinson

Wilka Toppins is a partner in the corporate securities section of Womble Bond Dickinson – US, LP. She is also the firm’s our EB lead partner. Toppins is part of the firm’s global team with an emphasis in representing clients from Latin America and Southeast Asia.  She has over 30 years of experience representing clients with corporate and investment immigration matters. She combines her corporate and securities legal experience with EB-5 immigration and investment matters, which allows her clients to benefit from the two perspectives she offers. Toppins received her JD with honors from Tulane University Law School in 1990 and is licensed in Texas.

Dennis Tristani

Tristani Law

Dennis Tristani is the managing attorney at Tristani Law, LLC. His primary areas of concentration include U.S. immigration petition filings for investors, entrepreneurs, executives, managers, and high-skilled professionals. Tristani has counseled thousands of EB-5 clients on company organization and corporate structure strategy, business plan preparation, complex source of funds issues and documentation requirements, redeployment and at-risk rules, and TEA designation. He has moderated and presented at numerous immigration conferences and seminars in the U.S. and around the world. Tristani received his BA from Yale University in 2007, and his JD from American University Washington College of Law in 2012.

Kripa Upadhyay

Karr Tuttle Campbell

Kripa Upadhyay is a shareholder at Karr Tuttle Campbell who specializes in EB-5. She represents immigrant investors seeking permanent residency through regional centers and direct EB-5 businesses, as well as U.S. developers and regional centers to prepare EB-5 exemplar applications. Upadhyay has worked in the EB-5 industry since 2011 and has successfully challenged USCIS adjudications through administrative appeals and federal writ of mandamus lawsuits in both I-526 and I-829 delay matters. She is a prominent speaker on EB-5 and investor-based immigration options to the U.S. with frequent speaking engagements in Asia, South Asia, Middle East and within the U.S. Upadhyay is fluent in English, Nepali, Hindi, Urdu and Spanish.

Catharine Yen

Jackson Walker LLP

Catharine Yen is a business immigration attorney at Jackson Walker LLP. She is involved in every aspect of the EB-5 process, including filing I-526E petitions, I-829 petitions, and I-956 regional center applications. Yen corresponds with individual investors, regional centers, agents, securities attorneys, economists, and business plan writers to help investor clients and regional center clients accomplish their goals. She has filed hundreds of successful I-526E and I-829 petitions for clients all around the world.

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