25th January 2026
Date
Interviewee
Adam Boyd & Gagandeep Singh
On a Friday afternoon in Seattle, every attorney at Gibbs Houston Pauw is filing a federal court action. It is not a coordinated publicity stunt or a symbolic gesture. It is simply what this week demands. Immigrants who followed every rule, who extended their H-1B visas properly and pursued employment in good faith, are receiving notices to appear in immigration court. People who became naturalized citizens years ago are reaching out, anxious about traveling internationally. The fear permeating the immigration system has reached such intensity that even those with no legal vulnerabilities are seeking reassurance from attorneys that they will be okay.
For Adam Boyd, the firm's managing attorney, and Gagandeep Singh, who leads the business immigration practice, this moment represents both the greatest challenge and clearest validation of the approach they have built together. Gibbs Houston Pauw has long been known as a powerhouse in complex immigration litigation, the kind of firm other attorneys call when cases go sideways. But in recent years, Boyd and Singh have expanded the firm's capabilities to serve clients across every dimension of immigration law, from asylum claims to employment-based green cards to family reunification. The result is a practice uniquely positioned to meet clients wherever their journey takes them, even when that journey suddenly veers into territory no one anticipated.
"In this day and age, everybody needs almost every service," Boyd explains. "A lot of our asylum seekers are asking about whether there are business immigration options for them. A lot of business immigration lawyers are referring clients to us that get sent to immigration court. We're kind of uniquely positioned where we can answer all of those questions in house."
Adam Boyd's Path to Immigration Law: From Utah to the Frontlines
Boyd's journey to immigration law began with an unlikely starting point. Growing up in Utah, he developed an early interest in international human rights law, though he cannot quite pinpoint why. He studied responses to international violence and conflict as an undergraduate, always knowing he wanted to become a lawyer. The specifics of what kind of lawyer came into focus during law school, when he took an externship at an immigration law firm and handled his first asylum case.
The experience was transformative. Standing in immigration court, representing a client against the full weight of the Department of Homeland Security, Boyd felt something click into place. "It ticked a lot of boxes for me," he recalls. "It's really intellectually challenging. It's human stories. It's terrible and wonderful all at the same time."
That duality, the simultaneous presence of tragedy and hope, has defined his career ever since. Immigration law offered something rare: the chance to engage with complex legal questions while making tangible differences in individual lives. The field's breadth also appealed to him. From removal defense to business immigration to family-based petitions to federal litigation, the area contains what Boyd describes as "infinite depths that you can plumb in terms of your personal growth and knowledge."
He gravitated toward increasingly complex cases, developing expertise in the kind of matters where straightforward solutions do not exist. Before joining Gibbs Houston Pauw during the COVID-19 pandemic, he worked extensively in immigration detention, handling fast-paced cases with novel legal issues. When pandemic-era policies dramatically reduced the detained population, he sought a new platform for his litigation expertise and found it at a firm whose reputation preceded it.
"Bob Pauw wrote the book on federal litigation for immigration matters," Boyd says of one of the firm's founding partners. "I couldn't turn that down."
Gagandeep Singh Brings a Personal Lens to Immigration Practice
Singh's path to immigration law runs through far more personal territory. He grew up in a community that had experienced human rights violations, and his own family had been indirectly victimized by such infringements. That early exposure to injustice drew him toward law, and he pursued his undergraduate legal education in India with a deliberate focus on international law and international human rights.
During his studies, Singh spent time at The Hague in Europe, where he studied public and international law alongside attorneys from more than 80 countries. That exposure proved formative. "You get to know approaches from different attorneys, how they like to approach things and what is going on in the world," he explains.
When he eventually made his way to the United States as an immigrant himself, Singh brought a perspective that complements but differs fundamentally from that of colleagues born in America. He understands immigration not just as a legal process but as a lived experience, with all the uncertainty, hope, and vulnerability that entails. "Being an immigrant myself, it gives me a different lens to bring something separate further on the table for what immigrants feel," he says. He guides clients "gently on cross-border intricacies and what they're going through coming here to United States and getting settled in."
Boyd recognized the value Singh could bring to Gibbs Houston Pauw from the start. Beyond his unique perspective and community connections, Singh offered the chance to expand the firm's business immigration capabilities in a way that aligned with its broader mission. The firm had always handled business immigration matters on the litigation side, challenging unfair denials and taking cases to federal court when adjudications went wrong. But it had not historically provided direct client services for employment-based petitions. Singh has built out that practice, creating a natural pipeline between the transactional work of filing petitions and the litigation expertise that kicks in when those petitions face obstacles.
How Gibbs Houston Pauw Attorneys Serve Clients Across All Immigration Needs
The expansion has changed how the firm operates in ways that might seem counterintuitive. Adding more specialized practice areas could have siloed attorneys into their respective domains. Instead, the opposite occurred. Because so many clients need help that spans multiple areas, collaboration has become essential to the firm's daily work.
"It's also brought our attorney team together a lot more," Boyd observes. "You wouldn't think that. You would think that it would almost drive us into our own islands. But because there's so much cross-collaboration on various projects, we're all much more on the same page and working together."
A typical example illustrates the point. A client comes to the firm with a border crossing issue that needs resolution. In the course of addressing that problem, it becomes clear the client might also benefit from an L-1 intracompany transfer visa. Rather than referring the client elsewhere, an attorney like Boyd can identify the opportunity and bring in Singh to explore it. "Let me go and get Gagandeep to talk to you about your L-1 transfer, because I think that's going to be something that we need to address after we get this border crossing issue resolved," Boyd might say.
The firm's litigation expertise has become particularly valuable as policy shifts have created new categories of vulnerability. Employment-based immigrants who previously would never have expected to face removal proceedings are now receiving notices to appear in immigration court. Someone laid off from a major tech company who properly filed a change of status to a visitor visa, doing exactly what the law allows, might still find themselves fighting deportation. For these clients, the combination of business immigration knowledge and removal defense expertise is not a luxury. It is a necessity.
"I have a solution for you," Boyd recalls telling one such client recently. "You would be a typical business immigration client. We're looking at what other business options are available to you in this period of time. But in the meantime, we got to get rid of these removal proceedings, which is something we would never really see before. It's just not something that would happen."
Current Immigration Trends: What Gibbs Houston Pauw Attorneys Are Seeing
The current environment has pushed federal court litigation from a specialized tool into something approaching a standard offering. Boyd reports being asked to handle habeas corpus cases, petitions challenging unlawful detention, almost daily by other lawyers. The volume exceeds what the firm can accept. "We can't even handle the volume of what people are asking us to do," he acknowledges.
The shift reflects changes in how immigration enforcement operates. Bond hearings, traditionally the mechanism for securing release from immigration detention, have become what Boyd characterizes as "toxic and difficult." The adversarial nature of those proceedings and the climate in which they occur have pushed attorneys to seek alternatives. Federal court offers one such alternative, and firms with the expertise to navigate that terrain find themselves in high demand.
Yet for all the intensity of the litigation landscape, Singh notes that adjudication trends at USCIS for business immigration have not shifted as dramatically as the fear pervading the immigrant community might suggest. The anxiety is real, but it stems as much from policy proposals and enforcement postures as from changes in how individual petitions get decided. The challenge for attorneys is managing that anxiety while providing honest assessments of actual risk.
"I have to console, reassure a lot of clients that, okay, we won't leave your hand and we will ride or die," Singh explains. "And we have this last resort that we hold your hand to, so you're not alone. And they have been actively expecting it."
Clients who once would have approached routine petitions with confidence now ask about worst-case scenarios from the outset. They want to know that their attorneys can handle whatever comes, even if what comes seems unlikely. The Gibbs Houston Pauw model, with its integration of transactional and litigation capabilities, provides that assurance.
How Immigration Attorneys at Gibbs Houston Pauw Stay Resilient
Sustaining this work over time requires deliberate attention to mental health and professional sustainability. Both attorneys have developed practices that help them maintain equilibrium in a field characterized by constant crisis.
Boyd emphasizes the importance of celebrating victories, however routine they might seem in the aggregate. When a client's EB-1A extraordinary ability petition gets approved, their life changes fundamentally. The attorney who handles such matters regularly might be tempted to move immediately to the next file. Boyd counsels against that impulse.
"You have to take time to pat yourself on the back when you get a good win and hug the client that feels like their life has been changed by just getting that green card," he says. "It may seem like a small thing because you do it all the time, but taking a second to hug your client, look them in the eye and know that you made a difference really helps you go into that fight that maybe you're not going to win."
He also maintains activities outside law that allow for complete disconnection. For Boyd, that means racing sailboats. "When I'm out on the water and the wind is in my hair, I'm not thinking about the next Trump policy," he explains. "I'm just focused on where I am and that's my mental health time."
Singh has found similar grounding in community service. Despite the demands on his time, he makes it a habit to serve food at a regional community kitchen multiple times a week. The activity requires no legal analysis, no strategic thinking about immigration policy. It simply connects him to something meaningful outside his professional identity.
The attorneys also support each other, creating a firm culture where wins are celebrated collectively and obstacles are addressed communally. "If any of us wins, we all celebrate that win," Singh notes. "And we feel happy that, okay, there is something to motivate us too."
Boyd describes this approach through a sailing metaphor. He once took a friend who had served in the armed forces out for a sailboat race. The tight racing conditions, with large boats maneuvering in close proximity, seemed frightening to someone unfamiliar with the sport. But when the friend looked back at Boyd at the helm, he saw someone who was not worried. That calm gave him confidence that everything would be okay.
The same dynamic plays out with clients. They are navigating a process that feels chaotic and threatening. When they see their attorney maintaining composure, not panicking at each new development, it provides reassurance that can be hard to achieve through words alone. "They're looking for somebody to lead them through a difficult process," Boyd explains. "And so you have to be that, otherwise they're just going to continue to spin out."
The Value of Diverse Perspectives in Immigration Practice
One often-overlooked advantage Gibbs Houston Pauw brings to its clients is linguistic and cultural diversity. Although the firm is mid-sized, its team collectively speaks eight to ten languages without needing to outsource translation. Singh sees this as essential to serving a diverse client base.
"Language plays a very important role while serving immigrants," he explains. The ability to communicate in a client's native language does more than eliminate practical barriers. It signals understanding and builds trust.
That diversity also extends to professional backgrounds and perspectives. Boyd, with his American upbringing and litigation-focused career path, brings one set of insights. Singh, with his lived experience as an immigrant and his internationally-oriented legal education, brings another. The combination allows the firm to approach problems from multiple angles and to connect with clients who might feel more comfortable with someone who has walked a similar path.
Looking Forward: Gibbs Houston Pauw's Approach to an Uncertain Future
The uncertainty defining immigration law in the current moment shows no signs of abating. Policies change with little warning. Enforcement priorities shift. What attorneys tell clients one week may require revision the next.
Boyd's approach to this instability is straightforward honesty combined with adaptability. "This is what the answer is today," he tells clients, "and if it changes in the future, we have the expertise here to adjust our plan."
Sometimes that plan involves fighting cases the firm does not expect to win. Boyd is candid with clients about the odds when they are unfavorable. But he also believes there is value in the fight itself, in going down swinging rather than accepting an adverse outcome without resistance. For clients who share that view, he is ready to provide the representation they need.
"If you want to go down fighting," he tells them, "that's what we're going to do."
At the same time, Boyd counsels against being consumed by the fear and anxiety that have become endemic to immigration practice. "At the end of the day will be over," he says, paraphrasing a saying he shares with his wife. Bad days end. Good days come. The key is building in resilience through celebration of wins, connection to activities outside work, and recognition that the emotional difficulty of the work is part of the process, not a sign of failure.
For Boyd and Singh, the mission remains constant even as the landscape shifts: serve clients across the full spectrum of their immigration needs, fight for fair treatment in whatever forum offers the best chance of success, and never leave anyone to face the system alone. In an era when immigrants feel more vulnerable than they have in years, that commitment matters more than ever.
Adam Boyd is the Managing Attorney at Gibbs Houston Pauw in Seattle, where he focuses on complex immigration litigation and federal court actions. Gagandeep Singh leads the firm's business immigration practice, serving clients on employment-based petitions and related matters.
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