Lisa Atkins, Immigration Partner at Clark Hill | Insights on US Immigration and Global Mobility Trends
19th October 2025
Date
Interviewee
Lisa Atkins
Navigating Uncertainty: Lisa Atkins on Immigration Law, Global Mobility, and the Power of Collaboration
When immigration lawyers across the country received a confusing H-1B proclamation late one Friday evening in October 2025, they did what they've learned to do best in uncertain times: they came together. By Sunday, the government was calling them fake lawyers for their interpretation. The language still hasn't been clarified. For Lisa Atkins, Immigration Partner at Clark Hill, this moment crystallizes the current state of immigration practice and why the legal community's collaborative spirit matters more than ever.
"It's all hands on deck, not just within each individual firm, but as an immigration bar," Atkins explains. "We're all trying to do the best for our clients. Our goal is to get successful outcomes for all of the individuals that we represent."
From Southern California Classrooms to Immigration Advocacy
Atkins' path to immigration law began in an unexpected place: the homes of domestic and agricultural workers in Southern California's Inland Empire. As a Spanish and government major in college, she enrolled in an immersive Spanish course that sent students into predominantly Mexican and Latino neighborhoods.
"We would be invited into their homes and just talk to them in Spanish about some of their challenges, issues that they were facing," Atkins recalls. What started as language practice became something more profound. Immigration emerged as a recurring theme in these conversations, revealing the human face of policy debates she would later help shape.
The experience proved formative. Atkins knew she wanted to attend law school, and these encounters pointed her toward immigration law. After graduation, she headed to Miami, deliberately choosing a location that would expose her to diverse migrant populations beyond the Mexican immigration she'd seen in California.
"In Miami, you have a lot of different immigration," she notes. "You have Cubans, you have all of LatAm, you have European migration, some African, North African migration as well."
Inside the System: Lessons from Government Service
Atkins' career took an unusual turn when she joined the Department of Homeland Security, working at ICE's trial court in Miami. This experience provided invaluable insight into the mechanics of immigration enforcement and court proceedings.
"I got to see a lot of how things worked at the court, (with the legal system in terms of the court), and learned about deportation, defense, removal, avenues of relief …how the process worked," she explains. She handled complex cases during her tenure, including Haitian TPS applications following a major hurricane.
After moving to Washington, DC in 2010 during a challenging job market for young lawyers, Atkins landed at DHS headquarters working on narcotics policy, which overlapped with border immigration issues. But it was her next role that would prove transformative.
Shaping Policy at the US Chamber of Commerce
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce offered Atkins a position, representing the business community where she would advocate for commonsense reforms to federal immigration policy.
"It was amazing and really dynamic and interesting and…taught me a ton about how our immigration policies work, how Congress is involved, how the agencies are involved, just how difficult immigration reform is and how complicated it is," Atkins reflects.
The role put her at the intersection of major industry players and local chambers of commerce, exposing her to the full spectrum of American attitudes toward immigration. Large corporations and many small businesses recognized the value immigrants bring through entrepreneurship and innovation. However, smaller state and local chambers, particularly in Southern states, often held starkly different views.
"There was a lot of pushback, just kind of differences in opinion," Atkins acknowledges. "I think it gave me a…good picture on kind of people's attitudes on immigration and where people were in favor, against, and…gave me a better overall viewpoint on just the state of immigration in the country."
The work culminated in a historic achievement: helping pass comprehensive immigration reform through the Senate in 2013-2014, the first such bill to clear that chamber in two decades. Though it ultimately failed in the House, the effort demonstrated what a broad coalition-building effort could accomplish.
Returning to Practice: Building a Global Immigration Platform
After her policy experience, Atkins felt pulled back to the technical practice of immigration law. She wanted to understand the nitty-gritty of the detailed requirements behind the policies she'd helped advocate for. But she had a broader vision: combining U.S. immigration with global immigration and mobility.
"I still do see it as the future of immigration, being able to not only bring people to the US but to move people all around the world and to really learn about other countries' systems and understand where you can place people and understand talent management for companies in that way," Atkins explains.
She joined Baker McKenzie, a large global firm with offices in 150 locations at the time, to gain experience with integrated U.S. and global immigration practice acting as both a U.S. immigration attorney and a trusted global immigration advisor. After building expertise at a mid-sized immigration boutique, she eventually brought this hybrid approach to Clark Hill, where she has established their global immigration practice alongside her US practice.
Current Landscape: Heightened Enforcement and Changing Dynamics
Today's immigration environment presents distinct challenges. Atkins observes increased resources flowing to ICE. The administration is pursuing expedited removals and working around court backlogs to accelerate deportations.
"What we're seeing now is they're kind of maneuvering around that backlog [at the courts] in a lot of ways," she notes. This includes raids, audits, and site visits by both ICE and the Fraud Detection and National Security division of USCIS.
On the USCIS side, attorneys are seeing more Requests for Evidence (RFEs) and denials on technical issues, matters that haven't been clearly addressed in published policy or FAQs by the Administration. Atkins expects the scrutiny to intensify, drawing parallels to the first Trump administration's focus on wage levels and specialty occupation requirements.
Global Mobility in a Post-COVID World
The global mobility landscape has transformed significantly since COVID-19. Pre-pandemic, Atkins' global practice was thriving with numerous assignments and business travel. The pandemic brought travel bans and remote work, fundamentally changing how companies manage international talent.
"Remote work became much more prevalent," Atkins observes. When the world began reopening, companies discovered employees working from unauthorized locations, with IP addresses flagging their presence in countries where they lacked work authorization.
While long-term assignment budgets haven't fully recovered to pre-COVID levels, business travel has surged. This creates new compliance challenges, especially as countries implement more sophisticated tracking systems.
"In 2025 and going into 2026, a lot of countries outside the U.S. are putting systems in place like the new ETIAS system that's starting to be kicked off in October of this year in the EU," Atkins explains. "There are a lot of countries that are actually starting to track this at a more biometric level."
These systems will catch frequent business travelers who previously flew under the radar. Atkins spends considerable time advising corporate clients on best practices, emphasizing that immigration compliance isn't just about time in a country but the quality of activities performed.
As an example, she explains, "If you're managing a full team of 25 engineers in [a] country, just going in for two weeks and saying you're going in for meetings, it's not necessarily going to be seen as that. It's more likely to be seen as productive work," she cautions.
The AI Revolution: Promise and Pitfalls
Artificial intelligence is reshaping immigration practice on both sides of the equation. Governments are using AI to review and adjudicate applications, with mixed results. Canada, for instance, has deployed AI to address backlogs, but Atkins reports receiving questionable decisions.
Countries with longer-running electronic filing systems and AI, like Australia, tend to produce smoother outcomes. For immigration attorneys, AI presents both opportunities and limitations. Atkins encourages using AI for efficiency, particularly for volume practices facing market pricing pressures driven by large companies.
"Utilizing AI where you can for efficiency is really important right now," she advises. "Being able to use AI as part of your immigration case management system, as part of your intake process flow wherever you can... and then vet it with the human eye and train it, I think is really helpful."
However, she's emphatic about AI's limitations in immigration practice.
"Do I think AI should be used fully to do all forms and there shouldn't be a human looking at it? No, my job would be obsolete and I don't think my job's going to be obsolete anytime soon because when something goes wrong, no one's calling AI. They're calling your lawyer."
The Human Element: Why Personal Connection Matters
Even in corporate immigration, the human element remains paramount. Clients are dealing with life-altering decisions, moving to unfamiliar countries, and navigating anxiety about their families and livelihoods.
"People want to talk to a human," Atkins emphasizes. "Even [with] corporate immigration, you're dealing with someone's life, their family, their livelihood, they’re moving to a new place or they're in a new place and they're very scared and nervous."
Her current clients in the US are understandably anxious given the enforcement climate. Those embarking on global assignments face uncertainty about relocating to countries where they may not speak the language or know the culture.
"There's only so much that AI can do. A lot of it is making sure that they're comfortable, they understand the process, and that's really only something that a human can do," Atkins explains.
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