How Personal Experience Impacts This Immigration Lawyer's Work with Karine Sokpoh - Episode 139

In this episode, Kathryn welcomes Karine Sokpoh, CEO of the Midlands African Chamber, to talk about the highs and the lows of focusing on immigration law. Karine reveals that she did not consider other career paths because she wanted to help people and had a goal to work for an international organization in war zones and help with peacekeeping and refugee resettlement efforts. She also recalls how she started from having a very limited budget when she established her own practice to building trust with clients and having her own clientele. On a day-to-day basis, she does consultations, reviews paperwork prepares applications, and may have to take clients to interviews or represent them in court. Karine believes that being an attorney requires both legal and interpersonal skills. Who's The Guest? Karine Sokpoh practices in the areas of immigration law, intellectual property law, and family law. She represents individuals and businesses in a variety of immigration matters including asylum and refugee petitions; family and marriage-based petitions; removal defense and waivers; H-1 and F-1 visas; and green card and citizenship applications. Karine also counsels clients on the protection of their U.S. and foreign intellectual property assets and provides services associated with such protection, including researching and providing opinions on the availability and/or registrability of trademarks; filing and prosecuting trademark and copyright registration applications; policing trademarks for infringing uses; and addressing actual or potential infringement of intellectual property through cease-and-desist letters and other dispute resolution mechanisms. Episode Resources https://402legal.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/karine-sokpoh-746aa313    Episode Highlights Why did Karine Sokpoh decide to go to law school? Life as an immigration lawyer: What it looks like on a day-to-day basis Challenges she faced when starting out in the legal field Developing soft skills in the legal profession Making sure that she's giving her all and her empathy to clients without burning herself out Comparing expectations and the reality of becoming an immigration attorney Accounting, entrepreneurship, and networking opportunities Importance of taking time to get to know yourself Creating opportunities for underserved entrepreneurs   Episode Sponsored By https://www.lexisnexis.com/lexisplus  Subscribe, Share, and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player. Subscribe with Apple Podcasts Follow on Spotify Leave a review on Apple Podcasts