WAFA J. HOBALLAH, ESQ., LL.M.

WAFA J. HOBALLAH, ESQ., LL.M.

Wafa J. Hoballah, attorney at law, has over twenty years of experience representing clients across the globe in business, commercial and corporate law. She has developed a unique practice in which she tailors her services to the clients need in branching to the United States. She has worked with clients from Europe, the Middle East, West Africa, and Vietnam, focusing on major aspects of international business transactions, negotiations, due diligence investigations, development, financing, and joint ventures. Ms. Hoballah’s practice focuses on international investments and investment and employment based immigration.

Ms. Hoballah is an expert on U.S. Lebanese Comparative laws including religious laws as applied by the Lebanese courts. Her domestic practice focuses on assisting Lebanese Nationals with family, probate and estate matters particularly as it relates to religious and civil laws and its compatibility with local United State laws.

Ms. Hoballah also has an expertise in US Immigration and Nationality Law. Combining her personal and legal experience with her cultural background, she provides legal services sensitive to the ethnic, business and cultural needs of the community including, U.S Permanent Residency based on business and investments specifically EB-5, Political Asylum and Violence against Women Act petitions (VAWA).

Wafa Hoballah has been a keynote speaker and featured panelist on a broad range of topics at conferences, organizational meetings and special delegations, including The NGO Committee on the Status of Women, U.N., Human Trafficking, Kazakhstan Delegation, Comparative Law at the Ministry of Justice, Oman, Department of State’s International Information Programs, Developing Marketing and Business Plans, Pskov, Russia, A Platform for Business and Investment, Annual Africa Growth Conference at UCLA Anderson. Ms. Hoballah has also authored The Visa Processing Guild & Consular Posts Handbook Chapter on Lebanon in 2006/2007 and 2007/2008.

Ms. Hoballah is admitted to practice law in New York, District of Columbia and Lebanon. She received her LL.M. from the University of The Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law of California, a diploma in International Private Law from the University of Salzburg, School of Law, a License en Droit (JD) from the Lebanese University Faculty of Law, and her B.A. from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon.

Education

University of The Pacific’s McGeorge, School of Law of California, L.L.M.
University of Salzburg, School of Law, Diploma, International Private Law
Lebanese University, Faculty of Law, J.D.
American University of Beirut, Lebanon, B.A.

Bar Admissions

New York, Appellate Divisions of the Supreme Courts, Attorney at Law Admitted January 1998
District of Columbia Bar, Admitted 2012
Beirut Bar, Lebanon, Attorney at Law Admitted February 1982

Professional Bar Associations

New York State Bar Association
Los Angeles County Bar Association, International & Immigration sections
American Immigration Lawyers Association
International Bar Association, Business, International Trade, Human Rights sections
Arab American Lawyers Association of Southern California

Organizations / Affiliations

Chair, Member, Board of Directors, Los Angeles Beirut Sister Cities Committee
Chair, Board of Directors, International Visitors Council of Los Angeles, Past President
Member, Board of Directors, Lebanese American Foundation, Los Angeles, California, 1999-Present, Secretary-Executive Committee
Member, Community Based Organizations Committee, a program sponsored by DHS/USCIS to promote better relations between local communities and the District Offices
Member, Advisory Board, Refugee Safe Haven Shelter for Victims of Human Trafficking and Domestic Violence, Los Angeles, California
Member, Board of Directors, Lebanese Ladies Cultural Society established to “Fulfill a Child’s Dream through Education”, Los Angeles, California
Member, Advisory Board, von Grunebaum Center for Near Center Eastern Studies, University of California, Los Angeles


Bassel Cheaib

Bassel Cheaib is Of-Counsel to the Law Offices of Wafa J. Hoballah in contentious and non-contentious matters related to Middle Eastern and European Law. Mr. Cheaib completed his university education in Beirut where he obtained his law degree (L.L.B.) from the Sagesse University (in collaboration with the University of Montpellier-France), with a specialization in business law. He also studied in France where he graduated with a D.E.A. (the equivalent of a US Masters Degree) in Commercial Contracts from the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin-En-Yvelines. Currently he is working on his Ph.D. thesis entitled “Concentration & Corporation” with the University of Paris II Pantheon-Assas. Mr. Cheaib began practicing law in 1999 when he registered before the Beirut Bar Association. Since then he has practiced in the areas of international business law and commercial law, with a focus on corporate law, finance law and mergers and acquisitions.


Leslie Mahley

Leslie Mahley

Since joining the firm in 2010, Leslie Mahley has successfully represented clients in all areas of U.S. immigration law, with a focus on Family-Based Permanent Residency, Non-Immigrant Employment Based Visas (E, H, L, J, O, TN), and humanitarian-based relief such as asylum, relief under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and T and U visas.

 

Ms. Mahley regularly represents couples in the complicated process of obtaining spousal petitions and adjustment of status applications.  She guides clients from the beginning, when filing petitions, through the green card interview, and subsequent removal of condition process. She has also assisted many same sex couples through this process since the US Supreme Court overturned DOMA.

 

In employment based immigration, Ms. Mahley specializes in representing small to mid-sized companies and growing startups in obtaining visas for highly qualified workers and executives.

 

Ms. Mahley has a strong record of giving back and in 2013-2014, served as a Pro Bono liaison with American Immigration Lawyers Association and currently serves as Chair of the Pro Bono Committee.  She often represents clients pro bono in their humanitarian based immigration cases.

 

Ms. Mahley was honored by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, for her work to provide pro bono legal services to individuals detained and placed in removal proceedings during Immigration and Customs Enforcement workplace raids.

 

Ms. Mahley obtained an undergraduate degree in Urban and Environmental Policy from Occidental College and her JD from UCLA School of Law. While attending UCLA, Ms. Mahley volunteered with the Los Angeles County Public Defenders Office, The California Appellate Project in San Francisco, and the HIV and AIDS Legal Services Alliance. Ms. Mahley was admitted to the California State Bar in 2009.

 

Education

University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, J.D. 2009

 

Occidental College, B.S., Urban & Environmental Policy

 

Bar Admissions

 

California

 

Organizations / Publications / Speaking Engagements

 

Los Angeles County Bar Immigration Legal Assistance Project

Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA) Immigration Section

LACBA Law Day 2014 Featured Speaker: “Immigration Petitions for Same Sex Bi-national Couples”

American Immigration Lawyers Association

Lesbian & Gay Lawyers Association of Los Angeles