JIA LAW GROUP P.C. - Key Persons
Carlton Chen is Of Counsel of Jia Law Group. He is highly skilled in business and corporate transactions, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property protection, technology transfer, litigation and risk management, financing, and antitrust and trade regulations. He is experienced in export/import control, government contracts, international sales, corporate governance, and employment and labor relations. He is productive, versatile and proficient in negotiations and dispute resolution. He is a highly rated business lawyer on avvo.com.
During his legal career, Mr. Chen has represented a wide variety of businesses from global companies in highly regulated industries to startups in advanced technology. He is the outside general counsel and data privacy officer for a digital health company and previously was vice president, general counsel & secretary at a major defense company as well as in-house legal counsel at Fortune 500 companies in the food & beverage and chemical industries. He was a senior associate at a large Connecticut law firm and serves as of counsel at Kurien Ouellette LLC, a six-lawyer firm based in West Hartford, CT. He began his legal career at the Federal Trade Commission.
Mr. Chen also has been doing business in China, including business development consulting and ventures with American and Chinese partners in healthcare. He has served as Connecticut counsel for the China Import-Export Bank and liaisons with Chinese law firms.
In 2015, he was recognized by his peers with the Connecticut Law Tribune's inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a past recipient of the Association of Corporate Counsel's Excellence in Corporate Practice Award.
In addition to practicing law, he serves on the Board of Directors of Connecticut China Council and the Advisory Board of the Connecticut Asian Pacific Bar Association. He also is an angel investor in medical technology and life sciences companies.
Daniella Anastasio is an associate at Jia Law Group with a focus on employment-based immigration, especially J-1, H-1B and PERM applications.
Job Titles:
- of Counsel
- Senior Trial Attorney
Mr. De Luca joined the Jia Law Group as an Of Counsel, working on immigration, international trade matters and other high-stakes litigation. He started his career as a Law Clerk for a United States Judge for the Court of International Trade and working on international trade and civil litigation matters for the law firm Ross & Hardies, now McGuire Woods. He returned to school to get his LL.M. with Distinction from Tulane Law School and became the first applicant in three years to be admitted to Tulane's S.J.D. program. While writing his dissertation, he taught the International Law Seminar as an Adjunct Professor at Pace Law School, worked for a bankruptcy firm in Parsippany, NJ, served in the Office Chief Counsel for Import Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, and practiced international trade law for a boutique firm in Washington, DC.
James Berger, a partner in JLG's New York office, delivers nearly twenty years' legal experience specializing in cross-border representations, complex transactions, internal/governmental investigations, white collar defense, and high-stakes corporate litigation - in addition to foreign policy, politics and public relations. By combining skills honed at top global law firms; in government; as a senior executive/counsel for one of DC's leading public affairs companies; during hard-fought national elections and from numerous years working in China, Europe and Latin America, Mr. Berger helps JLG clients overcome and avoid a wide variety of interdisciplinary challenges. He also functions as a de facto in-house counsel for US and international companies with a specific focus on the alternative investment sector, emerging technologies and regulatory management.
Jason Jia is the Managing Partner of Jia Law Group. Prior to founding Jia Law Group, Mr. Jia was a named partner at a wall street boutique firm. Mr. Jia's practice focuses primarily on advising small to midsize businesses throughout all growth stages including corporate transactions, immigration matters as well as labor and employment issues. Mr. Jia represents clients from a wide-range of sectors including publicly traded hospitality groups, international franchise brands, developers, hotel groups, investment and banking institutions, technology firms and startups.
He has significant experience in advising international corporations acquiring assets and companies in the U.S and providing guidance on managing and employing professionals on a temporary and permanent basis in the United States. Mr. Jia has a reputation for treating his clients as if he were an in-house lawyer, focusing on their best interests and zealously representing them in negotiations.
Mr. Jia is admitted in the State of New York. He is a member of the New York City Bar Association, New York State Bar Association, American Immigration Lawyers Association, and Asian American Bar Association. He previously served on the Board of Advisors for International Leadership Foundation's New York Chapter. He is a frequent speaker on cross-border legal issues and has been interviewed by major media outlets such as CCTV Securities, China Press, The Shanghai Daily, and Bloomberg Media.
Joseph Hamel is an Associate Attorney at Jia Law Group where his practice focuses on Business Immigration visas including EB-1, EB-5 investor visas, H-1B and L-1 Intracompany Transferees. In addition to immigration law, he practices general business and corporations law including drafting documents for newly formed LLCs and Corporations. He has assisted numerous clients to negotiate and draft commercial lease agreements providing advice on legal risks and necessary precautions when starting new restaurants and retail operations located in the New York City real estate market.
Prior to working at Jia Law Group, Joseph spent five years working as an e-discovery attorney throughout New York City on a wide array of large-scale litigation matters. Joseph worked on many large commercial litigation matters concerning contract disputes, regulatory investigations into large corporate mergers, and general corporate litigation. He has also worked with large pharmaceutical organizations during federal regulatory compliance matters helping clients establish proof of compliance with federal and state marketing regulations. From 2012 through early 2014 he worked as part of a large legal team representing the government in its claims of fraud against 16 of the largest banks connected with the 2008 financial crisis.
Margaret Mayo's areas of specialty include accidents; family and matrimonial law; representation of licensed professional such as doctors before the state disciplinary boards; guardianship; wills, trust and estates; general civil litigation.
Margaret Mayo is a seasoned litigator, having successfully handled many litigated cases. Examples include high conflict custody cases; large asset divorce; complicated guardianships. She tried and won two landmark cases in federal court involving employment discrimination against members of the armed forces. She also handles non-litigation matters regularly. Examples include prenuptial agreements, uncontested divorces, wills and trusts. She serves on the guardianship committee of the Supreme Court, New York county and served on the Drugs and the Law Committee of the Association of the Bar of the city of New York.
As an experienced lawyer, Margaret Mayo is sensitive and responsive to the legal and emotional needs of clients who often come to her in crisis. Her primary goal is to help them out of their difficulties.
She is fluent in French and represents clients whose primary language is French.
Margaret H. Mayo has practiced law since 1978. She is a graduate of Barnard College (Magna Cum Laude) and George Washington University Law School. She is admitted to practice in the New York State and Federal Courts.
Job Titles:
- Senior Immigration Litigation Associate
- Senior Litigation Associate
Marilia G. Richards is a Senior Immigration Litigation Associate at Jia Law Group. Her practice focuses on a wide array of complex immigration matters, including family-based immigration, naturalization, religious and political asylum, removal defense, and special immigrant juvenile visas. Marilia has successfully conducted immigration trials in US Immigration Courts. She has appeared before various Immigration Courts and Administrative agencies throughout the United States. She has also appeared before various Family Courts in the state of New York. As an immigrant herself, Marilia knows the struggle immigrants face when trying to legalize their status, and deeply believes in fighting for immigrants and their rights.
Prior to joining Jia Law Group, Marilia's practice focused on housing law where she represented low income and undocumented tenants in Brooklyn, New York. Her anti-harassment litigation, coalition advocacy, and eviction defense helped longstanding residents remain in their homes. This work was extremely meaningful to her, especially with the enactment of the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (HSTPA) and the housing issues as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Marilia graduated from Florida International University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 2011. She obtained her J.D. from New York Law School in 2017 where she served on the executive board of the Latin American Law Student Association. Marilia is admitted to practice law in the State of New York; the United States District Court for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the United States District Court for the District of Colorado; the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia; and Immigration Courts nationwide.
Matthew Heerde is an experienced litigator serving businesses and individuals in New York and California. Mr. Heerde began his career as an environmental attorney, litigating on behalf of non-government organizations and individuals in complex multi-party court actions, and eventually representing governmental organizations in administrative proceedings and litigation. Mr. Heerde has transitioned his practice to helping individuals and entrepreneurs because of his desire to develop more direct and personal relationships with his clients.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Business Immigration Partner
Matthew Kolodziej has over 20 years of experience in international employee mobility, immigration compliance, and business- and family-based immigration. He advises companies and individuals on visas for investors (EB-5, E-2), skilled workers (H-1B, E-3, TN), extraordinary ability (O-1), and intra-company transferees (L-1), and provides high-level strategic planning for the modern international workforce. His clients have included tech startups, high-end Asian restaurants, a Spanish renewable energy company, a multinational Chinese biotech firm, fashion boutiques, a French music production studio, and other creative and innovative businesses. He has also advised leading technology companies, media organizations, hospitals, financial institutions, think tanks, and non-profits on their international employee mobility needs, and has litigated before the immigration agencies, the immigration courts, and the federal courts of appeals. Other areas of expertise include permanent residence based on investment, labor certification (PERM), outstanding research (EB-1B), extraordinary ability (EB-1A), and the national interest (NIW), in addition to family relationships and marriage. Prior to joining JLG he was Counsel at an international Am Law 100 firm where he assisted major corporations and investors with their global mobility needs. Before that he was a Legislative Fellow with the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington, DC, where he provided legal and policy analysis of immigration reform legislation proposed by the 113th Congress.
Matthew Kolodziej is honored to have been appointed to the Investment Committee of the American Immigration Lawyers Association for the 2021-2022 year.
He is fluent in Spanish and French.
Job Titles:
- Senior Litigation Associate
Richard Stern is a Senior Litigation Associate at Jia Law Group with areas of expertise in discrimination, retaliation, and hostile work environment claims. Before going into law school, Richard received a Bachelors of Arts with a minor in English from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. He then pursued law and graduated from Brooklyn Law School with his Juris Doctor degree in 2016. During his time there, Richard was a member of the Brooklyn Law Review as a Production Editor where he was responsible for reviewing and revising article submissions.
Before his time at JLG, Richard served as an Associate at Epstein Becker & Green. During his many years there, Richard has represented many clients in both federal and state courts on claims related to wrongful termination, sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. For these cases, Richard worked on drafting briefs, pleadings, memorandums, interrogatories, document requests and summary judgment motions.
During his legal career thus far, Richard has prepared position statements in response to charges filed with the EEOC and both New York state and city departments of human rights, drafted 50 state surveys on the status of state laws and memoranda of law. Aside from litigation, Richard is involved in counseling clients on employee policies, unfair labor practice proceedings and arbitrations.
Throughout the years before obtaining his law degree, Richard took the initiative to represent low income tenants in Brooklyn landlord tenant court as an intern at CAMBA Housing Legal Services. Here, he gained valuable experience drafting motion papers and supporting memorandum of law, proofreading and citing checked documents, researching landlord tenant NY administrative law and observing administrative meetings, pre-trial negotiations and motion hearings.
Stepping outside the realm of law, Richard has also dedicated his time working with disabled individuals living in the Western Massachusetts area as an outreach worker. He was responsible for assisting individuals with mental health diagnoses in the development of daily living skills, including securing employment and attending doctors' appointments. From this experience, Richard is certified in first aid and CPR.
Today, Richard is admitted to practice law in the state of New York and the U.S. District Courts for both Southern and Eastern Districts.
Job Titles:
- Human Resources / Specialist
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Commercial Litigation Partner
Thomas Kung is a partner with the firm's New York Office who focuses his practice in the areas of Labor and Employment Law and Commercial Litigation. Mr. Kung has extensive litigation experience representing clients through trial in state and federal courts, as well as administrative tribunals. Mr. Kung's practice has resulted in over 13 reported judicial opinions and case laws.
In Mr. Kung's Employment practice, he has successfully defended his clients against a broad range of claims, including claims of sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, as well as wage and hour actions, such as wage theft, misclassification, and collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Mr. Kung additionally manages a variety of commercial litigation matters ranging from individual contract disputes to multi-party claims involving complex issues of contractual indemnification. As the firm's litigation partner, Mr. Kung collaborates with litigation teams across every JLG's practice group to achieve exceptional and efficient results.
In addition to his litigation practice, Mr. Kung regularly provides training and counsels clients on a variety of employment law matters, such as wage and hour compliance, employee terminations, severance agreements, and sexual harassment prevention policy review and drafting.