By Alanna Berman
As an attorney solely practicing U.S. immigration law, and as an immigrant himself, Jacob Sapochnick has a personal connection to his work.
“I went through the process [that I am helping my clients with] as first a student and now a permanent resident, so I know what it can be like,” he says.
Sapochnick, who is from Israel, studied at California Western School of Law, decided to stay in the U.S. after graduation and began his practice in 2004.
Since then, the landscape of immigration law has changed, he says, with more focus on businesses and their employees than on individuals.
“Over the years, there has been less of a focus on people trying to stay here [in the U.S.], as opposed to people, or business owners, getting reprimanded [for hiring illegal immigrants],” he says of the change in his business. “We have a lot of employers trying to keep employees, but the [immigration] process is so long that the very qualified employees are leaving. Being in San Diego, we really feel all of it because we are here on the border.”
In fact, business immigration, especially in the hospitality sector, is one of the largest areas in which he and his small team of lawyers practice today. Even when employers are looking for only seasonal workers, Sapochnick and his team can help secure visas and all other appropriate documentation.
“Most of the people coming from other countries to work in the hotel industry do not stay permanently because they want to move on to grow their career, so we work closely with the hotels to ensure they get the best people,” he says.
To keep up with the change in focus, Sapochnick has also begun working with social media and other online tools to help his clients across the country.
He says the federal nature of his business allows him to work with clients from anywhere in the U.S., so he has been active on Facebook, Twitter, his own Web site and two blogs about immigration law.
“We do a lot of marketing online using social media, and we coach lawyers from other areas on how to use social media to update their practice,” Sapochnick says.
Prospective clients can even visit his Web site to fill out an online application, submit questions to his staff and view videos in which Sapochnick discusses pertinent legal topics.
Sapochnick and his team all come from different backgrounds and, combined, speak a eight languages, eiliminating problems stemming from language barriers for business owners and employees alike.
And though the Internet and business sides of the business are growing, Sapochnick still takes individual immigration cases as they come in and handles them with the personal experience only a lawyer like himself can have.
Law Offices of Jacob Sapochnick
U.S. Immigration Law
1552 Sixth Avenue, Suite 5
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 819-9204
