Qualifications
Ms. Shea started Immigrants First, PLLC in 2007 at the start of rigorous immigration enforcement in Prince William County and Manassas, Virginia. Prince William County had just passed regulations allowing the police to racially profile immigrants and turn them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Ms. Shea became an outspoken advocate to protect the constitutional rights of immigrants by conducting Know Your Rights seminars to thousands of immigrants; testifying before human and civil rights commissions; and advocating for fair enforcement of immigration laws before the Prince William County Board of Supervisors. Ms. Shea was instrumental in ridding Prince William County Adult Detention Center of the 287(g) agreement with ICE that allowed the detention center to hold immigrants for pick up by ICE.
From its inception, Immigrants First, PLLC has been about zealously protecting the rights of immigrants and providing excellent legal representation. Ms. Shea has personally won hundreds of cases concerning many areas of immigration: waivers, asylum, cancellation of removal, bond, Violence Against Women Act petitions, U and T visas, TPS, DACA, adjustment of status, naturalization and many more. She handles complex immigration litigation including cases concerning immigration consequences of crime, one of her cases has now been petitioned for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ms. Shea is an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center where she teaches on gender-based immigration relief. She has taught at George Mason University and Randolph Macon College on immigration and international law. Ms. Shea authored the book, Immigration Law Essentials for Virginia Practitioners, for Virginia CLE Publications in 2021. Ms. Shea has presented to and trained thousands of people on immigration, women’s human rights and constitutional law issues.
Ms. Shea currently serves on the following non-profit boards: Virginia Women Attorney Association State Board; Centreville Labor Resource Center/Immigration Forum as its Co-Chair; and the Monroe Institute, a leading education center for the study of human consciousness, as well as being the Immigration Committee Chair for the Prince William Bar Association. She has previously served on the Boards of BEACON, an ESL nonprofit; and ACTS/Turning Points, one of Virginia’s largest domestic violence shelter agency.
As a result of Ms. Shea’s excellence in law and leadership, she has received several awards and recognitions. In 2023 Ms. Shea was awarded Prince William Living Magazine Influential Women Award. In 2021, she won the Prince William County Universal Human Rights Award, and in 2015 the Virginia Women Attorney Association Justicia Award, as well as numerous other awards and recognitions.
Ms. Shea accomplished her B.A. undergraduate degree at Allegheny College in Meadville, PA; her LL.B. from the University of Sheffield School of Law in Sheffield, England; and her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, MA. She earned a certificate in nonprofit management from Georgetown University. Before becoming an immigration lawyer, Ms. Shea was an international corporate and intellectual property lawyer at top U.S. and U.K. law firms. Ms. Shea is barred in MA, DC, England and Wales, as well as the Virgina Women Attorney Association, Prince William Bar and American Immigration Lawyers Association.
In addition to vigorously pursuing justice in the world, Ms. Shea’s other passion is in the realm of intuitive and healing arts, developed as a result of being an immigration lawyer and working with severely traumatized clients. Over a period of 20 years Ms. Shea has become a healer in Energy Medicine, a Reiki Master, Remote Viewer and Shamanic Practitioner, for which she holds over 20 certifications. She developed her intuitive skills with some of the best trainers in the world, including through courses at the Monroe Institute near Charlottesville, Virginia. Ms. Shea has also extensively trained in how to recognize and work with trauma survivors. Her background allows greater facilitation of her client’s testimony and preparation of their cases, which, combined with her thorough legal preparation of cases, creates a very high record of success in her representation.*
Ms. Shea is holistic in her approach with clients and views the immigration experience as both a way to accomplish legal status in the United States, and, for some clients and heal past traumas. Ms. Shea is a frequent speaker and trainer for lawyers on trauma and the soft-skills of being a lawyer.
Background
Ms. Shea grew up in Northwestern, PA, where her adopted father was a small-town lawyer. She spent much of her spare time in his law office and “absorbed” the law. When she was ten years old, in a debate with her father about a constitutional law issue, Ms. Shea knew she wanted to be a lawyer and since that time strove to preserve justice, freedom and equality for all persons, especially those disadvantaged by their immigration status.
During her years of practicing corporate law, Ms. Shea engaged in representing pro bono immigration cases. Through her subsequent work and study, she became an expert on women’s human rights issues, including cases involving female genital mutilation (cutting), rape, honor killings, incest, domestic violence and other forms of violence and discrimination against women. In 2001, after winning a novel asylum case for a young mother from Turkey who was horribly abused by her husband and faced death if she was deported, she decided she wanted to work full-time in immigration law.
Ms. Shea was one of the first lawyers in the U.S. to help victims of human trafficking under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and she developed the Freedom Network’s trafficking victim protocol for handling T and U visas. As the Director of Legal Services at Tahirih Justice Center, a national nonprofit organization focusing on immigration relief for women and girls suffering gender-based violence, Ms. Shea represented an immigrant woman in her removal proceedings and won. The case became the foundation for the International Marriage Broker Act legislation, requiring U.S. consulates to provide criminal background information to K visa recipients entering the U.S. to marry a U.S. citizen man.
Ms. Shea represented on appeal one the first successful rape as torture cases for a Congolese woman, which became Amnesty International’s flagship case for their national Stop Violence Against Women Campaign. Ms. Shea was a frequent speaker for Amnesty International and Vital Voices, an organization started by Hillary Clinton and Madeline Albright, and Ms. Shea has testified before Congressional hearings on immigration and women’s human rights issues.
After working in the nonprofit world, Ms. Shea wanted greater autonomy to work on complex immigration cases in a holistic way. So, she started her firm, Immigrants First, PLLC, at the perfect time to help thousands of immigrants in the Washington, DC and Prince William County area access information and quality legal representation. Ms. Shea is married with two children and everyday feels grateful to serve her clients through work that she loves. In her spare time, Ms. Shea is a hiker, world-traveler, avid reader and golfer. She is currently writing a book about her life experiences.
* Even with Ms. Shea’s experience and successful record of wins, she never guarantees a result with clients, is direct in her approach, and warns clients that every case is different on the facts and in the system.
PRACTICE AREAS
Related
- Immigration Consequences of Crimes
- Employment Law
- Marijuana Law
- Corporate Law
ADMISSIONS
- Massachusetts
- Washington, D.C.
- England and Wales
- Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
- American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)
- Virginia Women Attorneys Association
- Prince William County Bar
EDUCATION
- Allegheny College, Meadville, PA, Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Communications
- University of Sheffield School of Law, England, Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.)
- Northeastern University School of Law, Boston, MA, Juris Doctorate (J.D.)
- Georgetown University Certificate Program in Nonprofit Management
AWARDS AND PUBLICATIONS
- Book: Immigration Law Essentials for Virginia Practitioners, published by the Virginia Bar 2021, and available for purchase.
- Awards:
- Prince William County Universal Human Rights Award 2021
- Justicia Award 2015 – Awarded to a Female Lawyer Progressing the Rights and Status of Women, Virginia Women Attorneys Association, Prince William Chapter.
- Special Recognition Award 2012 by Unitarian Universalists National Capital Region Committee on Social Justice for work on capital region immigration issues.
- Prince William Living Magazine Influential Women of the Year 2023
- Articles:
- “Holistic Lawyering,” Federal Bar, Immigration Section, Greencard, Summer 2015.
- Article: “State and Local Enforcement of Immigration Law and Community Responses to Find a Better Way,” AILA, Immigration and Nationality Law Handbook, 2009-2010, p. 1115.
- Wrote chapter on Legalities of Processing T Visas for Freedom Network’s Human Trafficking Training Manual, 2002
PROFESSIONAL AND COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP
- Virginia Women Attorneys Association
- Virginia State-wide Board Member
- Prince William County Chapter, Member
- Prince William County Chapter, President, 2015-2016
- Prince William County Bar Association, Member
- Chair of Immigration Law Committee
- BEACON, an ESL learning program, Manassas, VA, Advisor and Former Board Member
- Centreville Labor Resource Center, Centreville, VA, Co-Chair of Board
- Prevention Committee of the Greater Prince William Domestic and Sexual Violence Prevention Council, Prince William County, VA, Member
- American Immigration Lawyers Association
- Lawyer Wellness Committee
- Former member, Ice Liaison Committee, Washington Field Office, Virginia
- Unity in the Community, Prince William County, VA, Former Executive Board Member and Immigration Issues Advisor
- Acts/Turning Points, Domestic Violence, Prince William County, VA Former Board Member
- Prince William Leadership, Prince William County, VA, Class of 2009, Participant
- Amnesty International Stop Violence Against Women, Campaign Coordinator for VA, Washington, D.C. and Speaker
REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE FOR 20 YEARS
High record of success in cases involving:
- Complex Removal Defense, including Criminal Immigration Consequences, Asylum, Convention against Torture, Cancellation of Removal, Adjustment of Status, Denaturalization
- Waivers of all kinds
- Family and Employment-based petitions and Consular Processing
- Employment-based visas
- Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protected Status
- T and U visas, Violence Against Women Act Claims
- Parole, Bond and Humanitarian Relief
