Court Admissions. Ms. Ferguson is admitted to practice law in the states of Florida, New York, and the District of Columbia. She has been admitted to the United States District Court for the Southern and Northern Districts of Florida, the United States District Court for the District of Colombia, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and to the United States Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ratings and recognition. Ms. Ferguson is listed in Martindale Hubbell with an AV rating, the highest ratings for both legal ability and ethical standards. She has received recent recognition for her success in a suit filed in the Southern District of Florida against the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to force decisions on residency applications that had been unreasonably delayed for years. The District Court held that "no agency responsible for resolving matters of public interest should be free to let those matters pend in perpetuity." The Court remanded the plaintiffs’ cases to the USCIS for prompt adjudication of their applications. Jones v. Gonzales, June 21, 2007.

Publications. Ms. Ferguson recently wrote a guide on the most commonly used waivers. The book titled AILA’s Focus on Waivers was published by the American Immigration Lawyers Association in 2008.

Education. Ms. Ferguson holds a Bachelor’s degree from De Pauw University, in Greencastle, Indiana, a Juris Doctor degree from The American University, The Washington College of Law in Washington, DC and a Master’s degree in International Affairs from The American University in Washington, DC.

Affiliations. Ms. Ferguson is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), and The National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild. She is a panel member of Miami Dade County’s Independent Review Panel, which addresses serious complaints about Miami-Dade Police of other County employees or departments. She also volunteers for the Alternatives to Violence Project which is an international association of volunteer groups offering experiential workshops on non-violent conflict resolution in prisons and communities through the world.

Languages. Ms. Ferguson speaks English, Spanish and French and she has a working knowledge of Italian and Portuguese.

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Rowan Mac Donnell was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland. He completed High School in Freiburg, Germany, where he studied English and Modern History at the Albert-Ludwigs University. He undertook complementary studies in Southwest Germany in the area of International Business before immigrating to the U.S. in 1999, where he began working as a Financial Manager (pursuant to H-1B status) in a South Florida immigration and naturalization law firm. It was here he developed a passion for the field of immigration and naturalization law, and began assisting firm attorneys preparing employment-based nonimmigrant and immigrant petitions, primarily E, H, I, J, L, and O, Extraordinary Ability, NIW, Multinational Managers and Executives, Outstanding Professors and Researchers, PERM, P visas, R visas, K visas and F visas, and applications for naturalization and citizenship, VAWA, and residency.

Having personally experienced the process of coming to the U.S. as a nonimmigrant in B, F, and H status, and then applying for Labor Certification on the way to Permanent Residency and Citizenship, he is particularly aware of the situation of foreign nationals wishing to live, work and study in our country, and brings that unique level of understanding to our immigration law practice.

He is currently completing a Bachelor of Science Degree in Legal Studies at Barry University, Miami Shores, prior to applying for admission to law school in South Florida. A Florida Bar Registered Paralegal since 2008, Mr. Mac Donnell is fluent in English, German and Spanish.

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Valerie Vanni-Godoy was born in Santa Fe, Argentina and raised in Miami, Florida. She has extensive experience in immigration, criminal and family law matters having worked for the law office of Wilfredo Allen in Miami, Florida for more than 7 years. She has developed a special focus on labor certifications, employment-based residency petitions, marriage-based adjustment applications and VAWA petitions. Ms. Vanni-Godoy is fluent in English and Spanish.

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Christine joined Julie C. Ferguson, P.A. as a legal assistant in October 2009. In addition to her position as legal assistant, Christine plays an important support role in the administration of the firm, in marketing and in business development. She has more than ten years of business administration experience in varied business environments. She has extensive experience in managing, analyzing and reporting data in many different environments such as, Excel, Access, Visio, SAP and other proprietary databases. She is a certified Master User of the entire Microsoft Office Suite: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, Access, and Outlook. She is multi task oriented and has the ability to manage and prioritize multiple projects without sacrificing attention to detail, an invaluable characteristic in our fast paced, deadline driven industry.

Christine is currently studying at the University of Miami and in June of this year will graduate from their intensive executive paralegal program.

Christine is originally from Pepperell, MA, a small New England town just north and west of Boston, MA. She began her collegiate studies at Plymouth State College in Plymouth, NH and later, after moving to Florida, completed her studies at Steiner College in Doral, FL. Christine is fluent in English and has a working knowledge of Spanish. She is continually working to improve her Spanish speaking ability and encourages you to call in and habla Español.