![]() Immigration Attorney Heather Poole Attorney Heather L. Poole is a private immigration lawyer exclusively devoted to complex family-based immigration, deportation defense, and U.S. citizenship law. She is a Certified Specialist in Immigration & Nationality Law.* She has been practicing only federal immigration law since 2000. She helps immigrants keep their green cards despite marital breakups and successfully reunites couples who would otherwise face a devastating long-term separation due to immigration imposed unlawful presence bars or other immigration barriers including criminal convictions, misrepresentations, prostitution, and drug use. She works one-on-one with individuals and families across the U.S. and the world. She also actively prepares clients for interviews and filings at consulates worldwide. Heather regularly travels outside of California to represent clients at CIS interviews and deportation court proceedings located throughout the U.S. to be by a client’s side. She can represent clients in every U.S. state as U.S. immigration is federal law. She also represents clients in federal court lawsuits against the government and is licensed in the Central District Court of California and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
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A PROVEN SUCCESS RATE.Heather has a 99% approval rate on all family-based immigration (including difficult conditional green card, VAWA, and NOIDs/RFE cases), I-601 & 212(h) waivers, and citizenship cases for the past 19 years and running.* She is often relied upon by business immigration attorneys who need a removal defense and waiver expert for their clients. Her success rate, including some of the most difficult cases that other attorneys refuse to take on, proves that clients can trust Heather’s experience and judgment when deciding to pursue a particular immigration option under Heather’s representation. Heather will tell it to you straight so you know your chances before starting your case.** ** Success rates are not meant to nor to they guarantee a successful outcome or result in your case. Every case is different. It is unethical and illegal for any Attorney to guarantee you a positive result. What the attorney can do is provide you with her legal opinion as to what the strengths and weaknesses of your case are and her belief on how successful you may be. She cannot nor will she ever “guarantee” a positive outcome or result. A RECOGNIZED EXPERT.Heather’s expertise in immigration law is widely recognized by her peers. She served on the National Board of Directors for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) for 5 years, the largest bar association of immigration attorneys in the U.S. She is former Chair of the American Immigration Lawyers Association Southern California Chapter, made up the third largest concentration of immigration lawyers in the U.S. She regularly trains other immigration attorneys on complex immigration topics for AILA (national & state conferences), Federal Bar Association, Los Angeles County & Orange County Bar Associations, Pasadena Bar Association, and national Continuing Legal Education companies. She is an internationally published author on family-based immigration and deportation defense issues, writing both to train other lawyers and to offer educational information to the media and individuals about key immigration concepts. co-authored the first article on the V visa and an article entitled, “Responding to Requests for Further Evidence & Notices of Intent to Deny in Family Immigration Cases”, both published in the AILA’s Immigration & Nationality Law Handbook. She also wrote on Conditional Green Card Waivers in AILA’s Immigration Forms and Fundamentals, another key reference guide for immigration attorneys throughout the U.S. as well as other publications. She is also published on the complex family immigration subjects in Los Angeles Lawyer Magazine (Los Angeles County Bar Association), The Orange County Lawyer (Orange County Bar Association), The Pasadena Bar Bulletin, The Alaska Bar Rag (Alaska State Bar Association), The Riverside Lawyer (Riverside Bar Association), and the State Bar of California’s International Law Journal among others. Other immigration attorneys consider her the expert. Heather has been named by other attorneys a “Super Lawyer” (Superlawyers.com, and appearing in SuperLawyers magazine), a designation for the top 5% of immigration attorneys over the age of 40 in Southern California, six years in a row. Before she turned 40, Heather was named “Super Lawyer: Rising Star” seven times for excellence in immigration law in Los Angeles Magazine and Law & Politics Magazine, an honor given to only 2.5% of Attorneys in Southern California each year. She was also listed in the “Top 40 Under 40” list of Immigration Lawyers in the entire State of California by the American Society of Legal Advocates. She has been repeatedly named one of the top women lawyers in Southern California in Los Angeles Magazine and a Pasadena Magazine “Top Attorneys” for many years. Visit Attorney Heather’s Profile on Superlawyers.com. Read Attorney Heather’s Latest Client Reviews on Avvo.com (Attorney rankings) * Certified as a Legal Specialist by the Board of Legal Specialization, State Bar of California |
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A COMMUNITY LAWYER.Heather’s expertise is recognized and sought by community organizations, schools, and the media. She is currently on Neighborhood Legal Services’ (NLS), Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA), and San Pedro Community Services Immigration Referral lists as a recommended private attorney.
Her work with immigrants has been commended by the National Domestic Violence Hotline, Haven House – the country’s oldest domestic violence shelter, and Project Sister, a rape crisis center serving the Inland Empire. She is a long-term volunteer helping survivors obtain restraining orders in family court for the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Barrister’s Project. She has received these recent awards for her community service:
Heather regularly volunteers her time representing detained asylum seekers and unaccompanied children in federal deportation court for KIND (Kids in Need of Defense) and Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project (Catholic Charities). Her cases have saved the lives of gay men, transgendered activists, domestic violence survivors and others who were tortured in their home country. She also mentors new immigration attorneys for AILA’s Immigrant Justice Program, who are representing detained asylum seekers in asylum and torture relief proceedings and facing deportation judges for the first time. Visit Attorney Heather’s YouTube Channel – Immigration Videos – Useful Tips and Warnings.![]() Visit Attorney Heather’s Immigration Video Channel today and Subscribe! More in-depth Info about complicated Immigration law… SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTSFor upcoming Immigration Talks, click here. To request that Attorney Heather speak at your event, please email us: info@humanrightsattorney.com. A sampling of Heather’s past speaking engagements:
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PUBLICATIONS/ARTICLES
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PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS
American Immigration Lawyers Association:
- Director, National Board of Governors (2012-2013, 2014-2018)
- Member, USCIS Field Operations National Liaison Committee (2015 – 2016, 2018 – present)
- Member, USCIS National Benefit Center Liaison Committee, American Immigration Lawyers Association (2013 – 2015)
- Chair, American Immigration Lawyers Association Southern Ca Chapter (2014 – 2015)
- Chair, National New Member Division Chair, American Immigration Lawyers Association (2012-2013)
- Board Member, AILA National Publications Board (2011-2012)
- Editor of NMD E-News and Vice Chair, National New Member Division, American Immigration Lawyers Association (2011/2012); At Large National Steering Committee Officer (2009 – 2011)
Other Associations:
- Board Member, National Immigration Committee – Solo & Small Firm Section, American Bar Association (2013-2014)
- Board Member, Los Angeles County Bar Association Immigration Section (2011/2012)
MEDIA ABOUT ATTORNEY HEATHER . . . . .
- American Immigration Lawyers Association – Quick Take Video – Interview with Attorney Heather Poole about Rocket Docket in Los Angeles Immigration Court
- “Proteccion a mujeres migrantes” published in La Prensa, a Nicaraguan newspaper, highlighting work with abused immigrants (2005) republished on www.latin.ru website.
- Panorama, Cal Poly Pomona’s Community Magazine (2006)
- “Attorneys Assist Victims of Domestic Violence” feature article on the front page of the Pasadena Star News, highlighting Heather’s work with abused immigrants (March 2003);
- “Cal Poly Holds Panel on Abuse“, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, May 2001, featuring Heather’s speech on the rights of abused immigrants
- Listed in Los Angeles County’s Family Violence Referral Directory
MORE STUFF ABOUT HEATHER . . .
- Collects all things Wonder Woman (her clients often add to her collection)
- Snowboards, Skis, Scuba Dives, Golfs (badly) and Plays Ice Hockey with the boys!
- Her favorite movie: Airplane! (loves all things slapstick),
- Favorite Genre: Sci Fi (dressed up as Princess Leia in first grade . .. for Halloween)
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Lobbying for Immigration Reform at House Representative Adam Schiff’s Office in Washington DC 2013
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Women’s Herstory Mo – Keynote Speaker, Moreno Valley College 2012 (above);
Los Angeles County Superior Court Volunteer of the Year Award (with LA County Bar’s Domestic Violence Project Chair)