Alexa Forte
Director
412.297.4611
aforte@cohenlaw.com
With more than 20 years of experience in the field of immigration law, Alexa focuses on employment-based immigration, advising domestic and international companies regarding temporary and permanent visas for their foreign national employees. She also assists employers with federal compliance issues in the contexts of corporate restructuring and government audits. She is a Director in the Immigration Practice Group.
Experience
Prior to joining Cohen & Grigsby in 2009, Alexa served in an Of Counsel capacity at Fragomen, Del Rey Bernsen & Loewy in Chicago. She served as team leader, managing immigration matters for individual clients and multinational corporations, supervising a staff of associate attorneys, paralegals and legal assistants. She also counseled clients on issues pertaining to U.S. immigration law with an emphasis on corporate compliance; conducted training for in-house and outsourced human resource representatives on immigration-related matters.
Prior to joining Fragomen, she was a partner at Mandel, Lipton and Stevenson Limited in Chicago in 2006-2007. As a partner in the immigration group,she represented corporate immigration clients on nonimmigrant and immigrant visa petitions, adjustment of status applications and consular processing. In addition, she conducted internal audits for corporate clients on I-9 documentation, H-1B and LCA compliance to minimize employer liability.
From 1999 to 2006, Alexa was the founding partner of BTI International Law Offices in Portland, Oregon, one of Portland’s only law firms specializing in international law. She was head of the firm’s Business Immigration Department.
She was a sole practitioner in Oregon from 1994-1999. Her practice was limited to employment and family-based immigration matters.
Alexa was an associate attorney in 1993 and 1994 at McEwen, Gisvold, et al. in Oregon. She was also an associate attorney in the Labor and Employment Law Department and Immigration Group at Lane Powell in Oregon from 1991-1993.
Additional Roles
Alexa is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the American Bar Association, where she has served on the Executive Committee and as a member of the International Law Section. She chaired the Oregon Immigration Lawyers Association in 1997 and has served as a supervising attorney for Sponsors Organized to Assist Refugees. She was a speaker for the Northwest Regional Immigration Seminar in 1995 and 1996.
Education
- J.D., University of Wisconsin Madison
- B.A., dual major in Economics and Anthropology, Emory University, 1987
Bar/Court Admissions
- Oregon
- Wisconsin
- U.S. District Court of Oregon
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit