The 2025 Lawdragon 100 Leading Immigration Lawyers

We’re honored to introduce The 2025 Lawdragon 100 Leading Immigration Lawyers.

They bring vital knowledge to transform the hope of immigration into reality. Perhaps never has that skill been more important.

They help individuals and businesses seeking opportunity, a chance to build a life, a career. And, increasingly, to preserve lives already established against very real threats of denial or deportation.

These lawyers represent employers as well as individuals and families. Their stories mirror those of their clients in the hopes they pursued for a better life, whether from the Philippines, Kenya – or Cleveland.

Sarah C. Flannery had no exposure to the legal world until she attended Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. After graduation, she joined Thompson Hine as a labor and employment lawyer, but felt herself drawn to practice Immigration Law.

“I have the privilege of being in a practice area where I continuously see individuals achieving big dreams, and it is exciting to witness,” she said in a recent interview with her alumni magazine.

Flannery heads Thompson Hine's Immigration practice. She has provided visa solutions for Fortune 500 IT companies, helped secure visas for foreign national golfers invited to the PGA or LPGA Tour, sent green card approvals to researchers and scientists who are changing how we live, and helped foreign national students launch careers in the U.S.

Otieno B. Ombok co-heads Jackson Lewis’ Immigration practice. A native of Kenya, he earned his law degree there and worked in nonprofits in Africa focused on education, democracy and governance before immigrating to the U.S. and joining Jackson Lewis. Practicing from the firm’s White Plains, N.Y., office he specializes in issues related to employment-based immigration into the U.S. He helps employers structure their immigration programs and develop long-term visa strategies for key manufacturing, telecommunications, Big Pharma and healthcare employees. He also helps obtain non-immigration work and employment-based visas for professional and specialized skill employees, especially researchers, scientists and medical professionals. As an anchor of the firm’s Immigration Blog, Ombok provides ongoing updates of immigration developments.

Foster partner Avalyn Castillo Langemeier came to her interest in Immigration Law naturally. Her Mexican-American mother met her father in the Philippines, where he was serving as one of the first U.S. Peace Corps volunteers under President Kennedy. Growing up in Texas, her life was a mix of people, cultures, languages and foods.

Working from the Houston office of the powerhouse Immigration law firm, Langemeier represents employers and individuals in service, academia and healthcare, on employment-based immigration processes. She has extensive experience with corporate compliance and immigration policy; nonimmigrant visas including H-1Bs, Ls, TNs and R-1s; J-1 waivers; specialty visas like O-1 nonimmigrant visas; employment-based permanent residency, including based on PERM labor certification, EB-1, and EB-2 national interest waiver; naturalization and citizenship, and Form I-9 compliance.

In addition to our journalistic research we rely on nominations as well as vetting by peers to select those included. Those denoted with as asterisk are members of our Hall of Fame. Lawdragon has reported on and recognized leaders in Immigration Law since 2007.