Access to Justice: Ten Tips & Resources to Assist Immigration Attorneys

Ryan Richman is a highly experienced litigator, valued by clients for his deep knowledge of New Jersey state and federal courts, his pragmatic and sound business advice, and his proven ability to favorably resolve high-stakes complex commercial, products liability, personal injury and construction related litigations.

Ryan Richman is a trial lawyer who focuses his practice on product liability, toxic tort, environmental liability, complex commercial litigation, and catastrophic personal injury cases.

Ryan’s products liability experience is substantial, involving both single-plaintiff and mass tort and class action claims against manufacturers and service providers in a variety of industries, ranging from pharmaceutical companies to construction materials and equipment manufacturers. Ryan has experience defending industrial machinery (i.e. aerial work platforms, cranes, fork lift attachments and paving machines), consumer products (i.e. lamps, motorcycle gloves, roofing shingles, tables, toilets and water supply connectors), pharmaceutical products (i.e. anti-depressant medications and talcum powder) and asbestos (flooring materials, pool heaters, ships, and valves).

He is equally skilled in defending high-value personal injury, wrongful death claims, premises liability and dram-shop actions, experience which includes defending corporate and public entity clients. Based on his ability to secure favorable outcomes at every stage of litigation, both in the trial court and at the appellate levels, Ryan is a sought-after defense counsel for clients involved in these types of disputes. In addition to his work in the courtroom, Ryan regularly counsels clients on risk avoidance and warranty compliance issues.

In his complex commercial practice, Ryan has successfully handled a wide variety of disputes, including on behalf of commercial developers, appraisal providers and investment funds.

The New Jersey Defense Association elected Ryan to serve on the 2018-2020 Rules term for the Model Civil Jury Charge Committee, a standing committee of the New Jersey Supreme Court which prepares and updates model civil jury charges to be useful to trial judges and litigants to instruct juries.

Ryan has served as an NJDA Board Member since 2015, and is the current chair of the Public Relations/Social Media committee, and is also Co-Vice Chair to the NJDA Appellate Division Committee. He is also currently serving as the NJDA’s President-Elect for the 2020-2021 term.

Committed to public service and a leader in the community, Ryan is involved in complex guardianship and estate matters in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Chancery Division, Probate Part, as a court-appointed attorney representing the interests of allegedly incapacitated persons. He additionally represents individuals seeking citizenship in the United States from KIND (Kids in Need of Defense) and abused women in domestic violence and family matters seeking protection from Partners for Women and Justice. Ryan’s extensive pro bono work has been nationally recognized by KIND twice – Ryan was named pro bono attorney of the month in 2017, and he was presented with the 2018 pro bono award.

Outside the office, Ryan serves as a Board member of the Franklin Lakes School District Board of Education. He is also a Board member of CASA for Children of Essex County, which promotes the welfare of children who have been removed from their homes because of abuse, neglect or abandonment by providing a safety net of support, advocacy, and mentorship by training and supervising volunteers to advocate on their behalf in court.

Ms. Edmondson-Cooper, a bilingual federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Office of the Solicitor (SOL), litigates labor & employment enforcement matters focusing on cases involving violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the “H” provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act—provisions regulating the working conditions of guest workers who enter the U.S. via temporary work visas, a significant number of whom are limited English proficient —, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, Mine Safety and Health Act & other federal labor laws. Additionally, Ms. Edmondson-Cooper counsels the Southeast Region DOL Wage and Hour Division on U and T Visa certifications for victims of labor trafficking and other qualifying criminal activities and serves as an in-house subject-matter expert on language access/limited English proficiency issues within SOL as well as its several client-agencies, including but not limited to the Wage and Hour Division, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. A former legal interpreter and legal aid attorney, Ms. Edmondson-Cooper also spends a significant amount of time working to alleviate language access as an access to justice (A2J) and due process issue. With over a decade of language access experience, Ms. Edmondson-Cooper is the President and Chief A2J Officer of Edmondson Consulting, LLC which seeks to improve access, promote equity, and preserve justice by providing A2J/language access consultation services to stakeholders nationwide.

Ms. Edmondson-Cooper has contributed to the development of local, state, and federal language access policies and the development of state and national curricula for training attorneys and judges on language access as an A2J issue.* In 2013 Ms. Edmondson-Cooper co-founded the Eliminating Barriers to Justice (EBJ) continuing legal education series, Georgia’s first and only comprehensive access to justice/language access-centered training for attorneys, judges, court personnel, interpreters, and other A2J stakeholders. EBJ examines access, equity, and justice from multiple perspectives including cultural competency, poverty, and an annual emphasis on ethics and professionalism. EBJ has garnered support through the years from statewide and national entities including the Georgia Judicial Council/Administrative Office of the Courts, Supreme Court of Georgia, State Bar of Georgia, the National Center for State Courts, and the U.S. Department of Justice. Additional information about EBJ may be found here.

Appointed by the Supreme Court of Georgia, Ms. Edmondson-Cooper is a member of the Court’s Commission on Interpreters. Currently she is leading the development of a model administrative protocol (MAP)– the first of its kind in Georgia – which will assist the state’s judiciary (a non-unified court system) with the provision of quality language services for LEP persons and persons with disabilities. In February 2019, the Judicial Council of Georgia unanimously approved the MAP as a model guide for all Georgia Courts. In addition to judicial entities, Ms. Edmondson-Cooper has worked successfully with school districts, law enforcement agencies, and other entities to develop and implement efficient, comprehensive, written A2J/language access policies.

Ms. Edmondson-Cooper has authored several publications on language access, including “Chapter 11: Appointing Qualified Interpreters” in the 2016 Georgia State Court Benchbook which has been adopted by the majority of Georgia’s other classes of court. The chapter was revised in December 2018. As a member of the Judicial Council of Georgia’s Access to Justice Committee (formerly Access, Fairness, Public Trust, and Confidence Committee “AFPTCC”), Ms. Edmondson-Cooper contributed to the development of the Access to Justice Committee’s 2017 ADA Judicial Handbook, a comprehensive judicial guide to court access for persons with disabilities. Currently, she serves on the Committee’s sub-committee charged with improving access to Georgia’s courts for persons who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing.

Ms. Edmondson-Cooper is a seasoned consultant and has been invited by several national and state organizations to discuss access to justice and language access challenges and solutions. Those entities include the American Bar Association, National Association of Judicial Interpreters and Translators, National Consortium of Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts, National Legal Aid and Defender Association, National Center for State Courts Council of Language Access Coordinators, U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Trustee’s Office, U.S. Department of Education, Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc., Georgia Legal Services Program, Georgia Institute of Continuing Judicial Education, Georgia Commission on Family Violence, the Supreme Court of Georgia Commission on Interpreters, and the Supreme Court of Georgia Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism. In 2019, Ms. Edmondson-Cooper was 1 of approximately 25 attorneys nationwide selected to become a faculty member with the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA). NITA is widely considered to be the nation's leading provider of legal training for attorneys both in the private and public sectors for nearly 50 years.

Ms. Edmondson-Cooper’s advocacy and commitment to access, equity, and justice have been acknowledged widely including recognition by the Daily Report (Georgia’s leading legal publication) as one of “40 Under 40” rising legal stars to watch, recognition by former Governor Nathan Deal and the Georgia Commission on Equal Opportunity, selection as an American Bar Foundation Fellow, and recognition by the National Bar Association and the American Bar Association as one of the nation’s top lawyers who exemplify a broad range of high achievement in innovation, vision, leadership and legal and community involvement. Ms. Edmondson-Cooper is a graduate of Spelman College and Mississippi College School of Law.

Dorna Moini is the CEO of Documate, a no-code software platform for turning templates and forms into intelligent workflows. Documate empowers lawyers to create powerful document automation, collect client data and build full-fledged legal applications.

Documate was born out of necessity in the legal aid community. Moini and her co-founder first helped nonprofits and pro bono attorneys at law firms build client-facing workflows for domestic violence survivors, asylum applicants and low-income tenants. They quickly realized that the software could be used by anyone in the legal community to help them build legal apps without learning how to code.

Prior to starting Documate, Moini was an associate at Sidley Austin, where she litigated retaliation and trade secret cases. Moini holds a BA in economics from NYU, magna cum laude, and a JD from the USC Gould School of Law where she was an editor on the Southern California Review of Law and Social Justice.

Moini was named to the Fastcase 50 list and chosen as a "Legal Rebel" by the American Bar Association for her work in using technology to improve access to legal services.

Bindhu joined Beyond Legal Aid as Senior Immigration Attorney in November of 2017. Bindhu comes to beyond with over a decade of experience in the area of immigration law. Bindhu's experiences span across both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. After law school, she joined private practices specializing in immigration law. She gained invaluable experience in family-based immigration matters, citizenship and naturalization, employment matters, as well as defending individuals in removal or deportation proceedings before the Immigration Courts throughout the United States. During law Bindhu was affiliated with her law school's Poverty Law Clinic and interned with the Illinois Attorney General's Office, New York Legal Assistance Group, and Legal Services of New York - Legal Support Unit.

Bindhu obtained a JD from New York law School in 2006 and Bachelor of Science form Loyola University of Chicago in 2003. She was NYLS Public Interest Fellow, Joseph Solomon Public Service Fellow, was a recipient of the Dean's Merit Scholarship and Alumni Association Scholarship, and president of the South Asian Law Student Association at NYLS.

Kai Medeiros is a Staff Attorney at the ABA Immigration Justice Project.

Trisha received her J.D. and A.B. from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Immediately prior to joining NYU Langone Health, she was a Partner in the Immigration practice group at Gibney, Anthony & Flaherty, LLP where she managed immigration programs for corporate clients. Previously, Trisha was an Associate at Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP.

Trisha is admitted to practice in New York and New Jersey.