Across Contexts: How Gray Whale Law Founder Zaid Hydari Seeks to Bolster Human Rights and Rule of Law At Home and Abroad
28th October 2025
Date
Interviewee
Zaid Hydari
From Personal Journey to Professional Mission: Zaid Builds Gray Whale Law on a Lifetime of Global Experience
For immigration attorney Zaid Hydari, founder of Gray Whale Law, the path to establishing his own practice wasn't simply a career decision. It was the natural evolution of a life shaped by movement, borders, and the profound understanding that comes from living migration firsthand.
Migration isn't abstract to Zaid. It's woven into his family's history, stretching back to the partition of India and to his parents' journey to build a family across continents, from the United States to Canada to the Gulf and back again. And it continues in his own life, where he still navigates the complexities of a trans-national family.
"To this day I continue to experience the challenges, both practical and emotional, that are involved in being a part of a multi-national family," Zaid reflects. But with that experience comes perspective. "Despite the uncertainty and anxiety that it can bring, I also understand that my family is fortunate and recognize the privilege that I have in being able to move around the world with relative ease."
This duality, experiencing both the advantages and obstacles of migration, became the foundation for his work. Having witnessed the difficult processes that immigrants face, and understanding the universal desire for stability and optimal success for one’s family in a rapidly changing world, Zaid wanted to help others navigate what he describes as systems that involve "tedious procedures and opaque processes that are needlessly difficult to understand."
The Nonprofit Foundation
Before launching Gray Whale Law in late 2024, Zaid spent a decade building something equally ambitious: the Refugee Solidarity Network, a nonprofit organization he founded and led as executive director. That experience proved transformative, offering insights that would later shape his legal practice.
"It really gave me the opportunity to understand global migration flows, and how complex the drivers are motivating people’s choices to move, while at the same time the limited options available to them," Zaid explains. The work connected him with legal communities overseas, exposed him to strategic litigation in multiple countries, and provided crucial governmental contacts, including sustained engagement with the US State Department, one of the organization's primary funders for many years.
That decade taught Zaid to see migration from multiple angles: understanding what drives people to move, comprehending the policy-making apparatus, and recognizing the importance of fair and efficient immigration systems. "Bringing all of that experience to the practice has been really interesting because it allows me to connect with clients and the work in a different kind of way," he notes.
The nonprofit experience also revealed something fundamental about Zaid's professional DNA: he thrives on building from the ground up. "I guess I have a strong entrepreneurial spirit or a founder mentality ingrained in me," he acknowledges. "The idea of starting something and giving my all to it, right from conception through to implementation is something that I thoroughly enjoy."
The Gray Whale Difference: Finding Creative Pathways
Gray Whale Law distinguishes itself through a deliberate focus on finding creative pathways for individuals. This approach often involves identifying skillsets and accomplishments and moving beyond traditional statuses, including placements that extend beyond the US. This perspective stems directly from Zaid's nonprofit experience and his understanding of worldwide migration patterns.
"The asylum system is facing tremendous challenges. Sometimes individuals who have a protection concern or a fear of return to their home country also have abilities or qualifications that enable their eligibility for temporary and permanent statuses in the US or elsewhere. The US is not the only game in town," Zaid emphasizes. As US policies create new barriers, employers and individuals are increasingly interested in evaluating alternative destinations. Gray Whale is positioning itself to meet that need, scaling up connections with affiliates in other contexts where demand continues to grow.
This global approach proves particularly relevant given recent H-1B policy changes. While many see only challenges, Zaid recognizes opportunity in helping clients understand their full range of options. "Asylum aside, employers and corporates who are seeing new barriers being erected to legal immigration in the US are also interested in evaluating other options," he explains.
Navigating the AI Revolution
Like many in the legal profession, Zaid holds complex views about artificial intelligence's impact on immigration law. His perspective reflects both pragmatism and caution.
"I don't think I have that different of a perspective than many, which is to be partly concerned about the implications of AI," he admits candidly. When professional services that once came exclusively from attorneys become more accessible, questions about business viability naturally arise.
But Zaid has moved beyond worry to adaptation. "Getting over the concern and just knowing that you have to adapt and use it to your advantage and adjust to the realities. Balancing ethical use of technology to gain efficiency while maintaining a high-level of professional service is possible."
He sees AI as a tool for efficiency and potential advantages, but also recognizes a more troubling dimension: how decision-makers and adjudicators might employ AI in concerning ways. "It's not just about the AI being used by attorneys, but it's AI being used by decision makers," he notes. As someone committed to ensuring due process and fairness, Zaid views vigilant oversight of governmental AI use as a serious professional responsibility.
Cutting Through the Noise
Recent immigration policy changes, particularly around H-1B visas, have generated enormous confusion and anxiety. Zaid sees a crucial role for immigration attorneys as trusted advisors who can separate signal from noise.
"Because these new policies are put forward without consultation or notice and are then rightfully challenged in terms of their legality, I think one of the key things is to be there to provide up to date accurate information to people," he explains. In an environment where reactions often lead to misunderstanding and misinformation, the ability to offer clarity becomes invaluable.
"It's about being there to be a trusted advisor and being able to sift through the noise and get through the storm, because the dust will settle and we'll have a more clear understanding of what the way forward is for skilled migration," Zaid says.
A Message of Measured Hope
For immigrants navigating current uncertainties, Zaid offers perspective grounded in his understanding of public sentiment versus political rhetoric.
"The overall sentiment to me doesn't feel anti-immigrant. I know there's a lot of anxiety because of some very disturbing rhetoric," he acknowledges. But he distinguishes between political opportunism and community reality. "I think that the public, by-and-large understand the tremendous value that immigrants add to the US and the benefits that we all experience as a result of vibrant immigration. It’s deeply embedded in the American storyline."
His advice centers on persistence and perspective: "In this period when political rhetoric is opportunistic and scapegoating immigrants, I think it will take persistence to get through this, knowing that it's not reflective of how all communities in the US are responding and feel about their immigrant neighbors."
Looking forward, Zaid expresses cautious optimism about potential policy improvements. He believes industry voices will grow louder as labor shortages in key sectors become impossible to ignore. "I think that the administration will have to be responsive to those realities and hopefully there'll be enough of a push on behalf of employers and different industry folks as well as the public in different ways," he suggests.
While acknowledging current enforcement priorities, Zaid doesn't believe they'll satisfy either public expectations or economic needs. "I hope I'm not sounding naive. There are also reasons to be very concerned, but I think that there could be an opportunity if we push back hard enough from different places."
The Missing Piece: An Entrepreneur Visa
Asked what single change he would make to the immigration system, Zaid doesn't hesitate: creating a proper entrepreneur visa category. "It's been talked about for so long, it almost happened under previous administrations. But really, it should be done," he argues. Given that approximately half of billion-dollar startups in the United States are founded by immigrants, the absence of a dedicated pathway for entrepreneurs represents a significant missed opportunity.
Separating the Conversations
Perhaps Zaid's most important message concerns how immigration itself is discussed. He argues forcefully that legal immigration, skilled migration, asylum, and border issues have been unhelpfully conflated in public discourse.
"The policy issues have been made impossible to discuss because there's been a conflation of regular and irregular immigration," he observes. His call is for deliberate, separate but interrelated discussions on distinct challenges: "When it comes to the border, or asylum, or when it comes to legal and skilled migration. These are things that need to be addressed and tackled with focus."
Looking Ahead
As Gray Whale Law approaches its first anniversary, Zaid continues balancing the demands of building a practice with staying current on rapidly evolving policy. The Refugee Solidarity Network, while now operating in a volunteer-led capacity, remains active. And Zaid himself maintains the global perspective that has always defined his approach to migration.
In an environment where it's easy to succumb to anxiety or polarization, Zaid offers something different: a balanced view informed by personal experience, professional expertise, and a decade of global work. He understands the challenges immigrants face because he's lived them. He recognizes the value they bring because he's seen it firsthand. And he believes in the possibility of better systems because he's spent his career working toward them.
For Gray Whale Law and its founder, the work continues: navigating complexity, providing clarity, and helping people secure their futures.
About Gray Whale Law
Gray Whale Law is an immigration and global mobility law firm founded by attorney Zaid Hydari in late 2024. The firm focuses on family, humanitarian and select areas of business immigration, helping individuals and corporations navigate US immigration while also providing guidance on international mobility options. With a foundation built on a decade of international migration work through the Refugee Solidarity Network, Gray Whale Law brings a uniquely global perspective to immigration challenges.
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