'Legally Blonde' (California version)

When my father Frank Mayor (who died on July 6) was confined at the Oncology Floor of the Fountain Valley Hospital in Fountain Valley City, California, for the last two months of his life, he was fortunate to have been cared for by Filipino nurses a lot of the time. The floor’s charge nurses were both Filipina — Carmen Franco and Cora Arabaca.

The other Pinoy and Pinay nurses who cared for my dad were affectionate, competent and sympathetic. I am certain they cared equally for all their other patients, but it helped a lot they could understand Dad’s arays and Mom’s insistence on always being around (usually, bantays are not allowed in US hospitals but they let Mom stay overnight by Dad’s side especially during his final days).

This empathy with patients and their sometimes overly concerned relatives is something Filipino nurses have an abundance of. My dad was cared for competently by other nurses as well, but the Pinoy touch was unmistakably soothing, even if we all knew Dad’s illness was terminal.

The gift that Filipino nurses are to humanity is not lost on American immigration lawyer Gali Koren, whose father runs a long-term care nursing home. She noticed the demand for Filipino nurses in her father’s facility, and that there was a need to process their papers. “Every health care worker who came across my father’s desk, he would send to me and word of mouth spread from hospital to hospital. So over the years I’ve had clients from over 40 countries.”

So Koren decided to specialize in helping nurses and entrepreneurs work legally and productively in the US.

“My first clients were Filipino nurses,” recalls Koren. “Most of our clients are still Filipinos, who have good academic backgrounds who are entrepreneurs, people who are savvy. They know what they want. And we help them get to the right direction. Both of us make the decision, we both figure out how we can make their dreams come true through immigration.”

Her law firm’s success rate in helping Filipino nurses work legally in the US is an impressive 99 percent.

According to Koren, herself an immigrant from Israel, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics has projected that demand for jobs in healthcare — from nurses and therapists to researchers and lab technicians — will be above average for all occupations through 2014.

Koren says there is a big demand for Filipino nurses because, aside from being competent, “they have the best language skills. English is not an issue with them.”

“Filipino nurses are also service-oriented, are extremely loyal and professional,” she adds.

The Law Offices of Koren and her professional staff, by providing innovative immigration solutions, have helped thousands of professionals pursue their career goals in the United States as well as helped family reunite and entrepreneurs achieve their business goals in the US. Koren also personally represents her clients in Immigration court, at immigration hearings and interview appointments.

The blonde and beautiful Koren belongs to a family of immigrants. This explains why she has a soft spot in her heart for immigrants to the United States. She graduated magna cum laude, from Western State University, where she received her Juris Doctor Degree. She obtained her LLM in International Law from the University of San Diego Law School, where she majored in Immigration Law. She then founded the Law Offices of Gali Koren in Anaheim, California, where she is the Managing Attorney.

“I first wanted to study Medicine, but I wanted something that would be an analytical challenge but still allow me to help people. So you could say I’m 50 percent lawyer and 50 percent social worker. Most of the time, what I’m doing is helping people find solutions for life. They come to me and say, I want a work visa. I ask them, what do you want to do with your life? Your family? What are your career goals? We try to make them match.”

“It’s not just finding a visa,” Koren tells me during a chat with her in Anaheim. “It’s finding a life solution for people, that when they come here (to the US), they can actually develop in their career, unite with their family. That’s the challenge, putting the pieces of the puzzle together.”

Her law office is a melting pot of different cultures and nationalities. “This law office was built by being attuned to both the clients’ needs, the changing immigration laws in the US, some of which changed daily,” Koren says proudly. Her professional staff is fluent in Tagalog, Spanish, Hebrew and Russian, encompassing various legal experiences and backgrounds in the US and abroad. A new staff member has recently joined the firm, Mary Mae Mayor, also an immigrant, who was employed with the American Embassy in Manila for more than 21 years. She brings with her extensive knowledge in US Immigration Laws and Regulations and Visa Processing. She has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of the Philippines.

Koren has conducted outreach programs in the Philippines within the last few years. She has given free lectures to thousands of Filipinos on US Immigration Law. These lectures were held not only in Manila, but also in Iloilo, Cebu, Bacolod and Davao. She plans to give a series of lectures in the Philippines towards the end of the year.

At the end of the day, Koren finds fulfillment in not just helping nurses find gainful jobs in the US, but also in helping these nurses’ families reunite with them.

“Keeping families together is important to me,” says Koren, herself the mother of a young daughter who wants to grow up to be just like her — helping put the pieces of the puzzle of a person’s life together, so that he could be whole, productive and happy.

(The Law Offices of Gali Koren are located at 1475 S. State College Blvd., Suite 110, Anaheim, CA 92806, corner of Cerritos, between Ball and Katella Roads. For a free initial consultation please call 1-714-300-0606/ 1-888-838-3818. Contact via e-mail at [email protected])

(You may e-mail me at [email protected])