Julie Pearl<br /><font size="2">Emeritus Member</font>

Julie Pearl
Emeritus Member

Pearl Law Group

Julie Pearl’s Story

People may know that Julie was the first woman named to HR Executive Magazine’s “Nation’s Top 10 Immigration Attorneys” list and that she’s won media acclaim and awards for pioneering immigration procedures and technology. What’s less known is that her desire to serve the international community is influenced by the fact that all four of her grandparents emigrated from Eastern Europe to build better and safer lives for themselves in the U.S. They all spoke broken English with thick accents, but they instilled a work ethic to the next generation that fueled a passion in Julie’s family regarding the power of education, hard work and perseverance. Julie and her colleagues feel privileged to work every day with international professionals and entrepreneurs who bravely cross national borders to bring their talents to light.

In 1995, Julie founded Pearl Law Group along with Alan Nelson, the former head of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, with the vision of focusing deeply on employment based immigration: global immigration, I-9 and compliance, and mobility management for companies. Her firm represents a range of industries, from entertainment and software to bio-technology, retail and manufacturing, and mainly global employers based in Silicon Valley.

Three years into practicing, Julie found herself constantly preoccupied with the numerous potential errors in completing immigration forms. She hired a software engineer to design a database that would allow her firm’s paralegals and attorneys to mitigate mistakes and manage cases. In 2000, other top law firms began asking to license the software, which became known as ImmigrationTracker. This is now the immigration management system now used by over 75% of top-ranked immigration law firms and many Fortune 1000 companies, hospitals and universities. For this work, Julie won a Cisco Systems Growing with Technology Award (Customer Service Category).

Pearl Law Group has been consistently listed as the #1 Woman-Owned Law Firm by the San Francisco Business Times (annual ranking of top women-owned businesses). The firm has made donations to over 100 charities, and has a policy of contributing to all organizations to which staff and clients donate their time.

Julie was profiled in the book, The Moral Advantage, Getting Ahead in Business by Doing the Right Thing (Stanford University Project on Good Works) for applying the “Golden Rule” to her clients’ needs. Like Julie’s grandparents, half of Pearl Law Group’s Management Team was born abroad, so they never lose sight of the need for individual care in working with those who relocate internationally.