Being a quietly spoken, modest-sounding soul, immigration lawyer Mark Ivener, of the California-based law practice Ivener & Holt, may not like the following revelation. But the fact is he gives a good part of his professional time for free by giving immigration lectures and seminars.
In line with his philosophy to give back to society at least as much as he takes, he will be contributing to his fourth seminar at the Tokyo American Club on Tuesday under the title "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Visas and Immigration and Associated Business Issues -- Japan and the United States."
"The last time we did this, in 1997, we had 100-150 people attending throughout the day," he said, speaking over the phone from Los Angeles early last week. "With lectures by Japanese immigration and American Embassy officials, and specialist lawyers such as myself, followed by a question-and-answer session in the afternoon, we are hoping the professional business community takes an even greater advantage of such a unique opportunity this time around."