Steve has been the “go to guy” on business immigration for several decades. As national president of the 15,000 member bar association of immigration lawyers (AILA) he successfully advocated for AC 21, the law which provided 60,000 additional H-1B visas per year and allows certain applicants for permanent residence to extend their H visa beyond the normal 6 year limit. He authored over 100 publications on immigration topics, including employment-based petitions, PERM, H, O, and L visas, and edited many as well. He was editor of the chapter on Labor Certification in the treatise Immigration Law and Practice (Lexis/Nexis) and has been listed as one of “The Best Lawyers in America” under the immigration heading since its inception over two decades ago and is rated “AV,” the highest rating conferred by Martindale-Hubbell, an authoritative, independent rating service. Steve is also a founding Fellow of ABIL, the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, and a founding member of IMMLAW®, the national consortium of preeminent immigration firms with over two centuries of combined immigration law experience.
Upon graduation from Harvard Law School, Steve Clark took the path less traveled. He volunteered as a lawyer helping coal miners in Harlan County, Kentucky seek black lung benefits and found himself involved in a host of related mine worker issues later portrayed in the Academy Award documentary, “Harlan County: USA.” In 1976 he returned to Massachusetts to open his practice with Joseph Flynn, a renown litigator who had worked with him in Kentucky. He was immediately drawn to immigration law because he could continue to enjoy the satisfaction of helping people realize their dreams while at the same time mastering a complex and challenging area of law.
Helping immigrants was a family tradition for Steve. His grandfather immigrated from Russia in 1902 and Steve remembered his grandfather sponsoring waves of family member holocaust survivors in his youth. Before long Steve was practicing solely immigration law. There were few resources back then to learn immigration law, other than fellow members of AILA. A number of members mentored him in the early days, and Steve devoted substantial time and effort in mentoring others, writing on immigration law issues, and advocating improvements in the law by government agencies and Congress. He emerged as President of AILA, the national association for immigration attorneys, which currently has 15,000 members worldwide. Steve was a mentor to countless colleagues nationwide.
