GOLDEN AND JERNIGAN P.C. - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Founder and Senior Partner at Golden & Jernigan PC
Attorney Jonathan Golden is the founder and senior partner at Golden & Jernigan PC. He has been a lawyer since June of 1979 and has practiced in Grand Rapids since 1983. Jonathan specializes in immigration law (with an emphasis on defense of deportation cases), social security disability appeals, and criminal defense.
Jonathan graduated with high distinction from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1979. Before attending law school, he was a Pi Sigma Alpha political science honor student at Washington University in St. Louis, and graduated from the prestigious University of Chicago Laboratory School. He was also a U.S. congressional intern, and worked for Volunteers in Service to America, where he helped migrants understand their legal rights and responsibilities.
Jonathan spent four years as an Assistant Attorney General for the state of Iowa, representing the state in prison-related civil rights litigation. He and three other lawyers handled over twenty-five percent of the federal docket for the entire state of Iowa.
Jonathan came to Grand Rapids in 1983, where he lives with his wife Christine and their two sons, Simon and Nathan. He is active in his community, where he has recently served as President of his synagogue, and was previously a long-time member of the New Branches Charter Academy Board of Directors.
As an immigration, social security and criminal defense attorney today, Jonathan regularly argues before the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals, United States Immigration Court, Social Security Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, and numerous state circuit, district and appellate courts. He has been lead or sole counsel in published precedent-setting decisions by the U.S. Sixth and Eighth Circuit Courts of Appeals. He is proficient at Spanish, and, whether through negotiation, written application or trial, works to find the best solution for his client.
Attorney Loan Nguyen has served as an associate at Golden and Jernigan P.C. since November 2006. From May 2000 until November 2006, she worked for us as a law clerk. She principally practices business and family immigration law, encompassing employment and family-based applications, business type visas (L, H1B1, E, H3, & M), religious visas, extensions of student visas, naturalization, adjustments of visa categories while in the U.S., and deportation defense. Consular Processing represents a major focus of her practice, which includes visa processing at the National Visa Center stage, I-601 waivers, and appeals of visa denials. Ninety-eight percent of her I-601 waiver applications are approved. Her goal is to reunite families, help foreign nationals commence lawful employment in the U.S., seek visas for religious personnel to further their faith and teachings in the U.S., request and extend lawful and valid stays in the U.S., help lawful permanent residents obtain their citizenship, help lawfully-admitted personnel change visas or adjust to permanent status in the U.S., assist those in removal proceedings, and assist individuals who have either voluntary departed or been procedurally removed from the U.S. to return legally.
A native of Vietnam, Loan speaks fluent Vietnamese. She came to the United States with her family in 1980, after spending eight months in a refugee camp in Thailand. Her family was the first Vietnamese family to reside in the City of Norton Shores, Michigan in 1980. She graduated from the James Madison College at Michigan State University with a degree in international relations, and holds a J.D. from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School. Prior to working at Golden and Jernigan, she worked for Bethany Christian Services' Refugee Services Program, was twice a U.S. congressional intern, and interned at the Lansing Refugee Resettlement Center. As an active member of American Immigration Lawyers, a former refugee caseworker and former refugee herself, Loan empathizes with immigrants, and represents them both expertly and compassionately.
Loan lives in Grand Rapids, MI with her husband David, and three children, Madeline, Matthew, and Mason. She is active in the community as a volunteer English and citizenship tutor at a local Church.
Job Titles:
- Junior Partner and Co - Founder of Golden
Jody Jernigan is the junior partner and co-founder of Golden and Jernigan P.C. She has only worked with Attorney Jonathan Golden since her admission to the Michigan Bar in 2000 and was hired in as an associate attorney. She graduated from Grand Rapids Junior College in 1990, and then transferred to the University of Michigan where she earned a B.A. in Spanish with distinction. She also attended classes through Cornell University and the University of Sevilla. After graduating, she taught college and high school courses on a Native American reservation in Northern Arizona.
Jody earned her law degree cum laude from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 1999, achieving the Distinguished Student Award. As a student, she won places on the Moot Court team and Law Review, and practiced elder law for the Sixty Plus Clinic.
Today, Jody practices primarily in the areas of bankruptcy law and family law (which includes divorce, custody, parenting time, property issues, spousal support, child support, paternity, and step-parent adoptions). However, she also works in estate planning/probate, corporate and tax work, land-lord/tenant law, and the purchase/sale of local area businesses (hotels, gas stations, liquor stores, etc.) She is an active member of the Western Michigan Debtor's Bar, is licensed to practice in the Federal Court for the Western District of Michigan, and makes numerous court appearances in Kent, Ottawa, Allegan, Montcalm, Ionia, and Newaygo county circuit courts.
A Grand Rapids native, Jody graduated from West Catholic High School, and now lives in Rockford. As an active member of her community, Jody has participated in student exchange programs and has been a foster mother for the past several years. She speaks, reads and writes Spanish fluently.