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Directors
George A. Terezakis
Co-Chair
George A. Terezakis is the founder and principal attorney at the Terezakis Law Firm, located in Mineola, New York. He is a co-founder of the Association of Deportation Defense Attorneys, and currently serves as its Co-Chair. His practice is concentrated in the areas of criminal and removal defense, including the interplay between criminal and immigration law; family-based immigration; asylum; and appeals to the Board of Immigration Appeals.
Mr. Terezakis is presently the Chair of the Immigration Law Committee of the Nassau County Bar Association. He has served on the Board of Directors of both the Immigration Law Section of the Federal Bar Association and the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NYSACDL). He is also a past President of the Nassau County Criminal Courts Bar Association and has served on its Board of Directors. He is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), and regularly lectures at C.L.E. programs sponsored by these organizations, as well as the Nassau and Suffolk County Bar Associations.
He is the recipient of the Nassau County Criminal Courts Bar Association Practitioner of the Year Award for 2013; the Long Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s 2011 Community Advocate of the Year award; he is an honorary member of the Board of Directors of the Central American Refugee Center, and has been recognized by that organization for his pro bono work on behalf of Long Island’s immigrant community.
During the 1980’s, Mr. Terezakis was active in the Central American human rights movement, and volunteered with the Non-Governmental Human Rights Commission of El Salvador (CDH-NG). He is fluent in Spanish.
Linda Kenepaske
Co-Chair
Linda Kenepaske has been representing private and corporate clients in all aspects of immigration law in her New York City based practice for more than 25 years. Linda has served as chair and member of many local and national AILA committees, was previously Chair of the Immigration and Nationality Law Committee of the New York City Bar is currently Co-Chair of the Association of Deportation Defense Attorneys (ADDA) in New York City and serves on the Federal Bar Association Immigration Law Section Advisory Board. She lectures frequently on a variety of immigration topics. She is AV rated and has been selected as a “Super Lawyer” since 2009.
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Steven Klapisch
Director
Steven Klapisch was admitted to the bar in 1974. He received his bachelor's degree from Stony Brook University (magna cum laude) and his law degree from the University of Wisconsin. Mr. Klapisch worked as a trial attorney for the Immigration and Naturalization Service for over ten years. Upon leaving government service he joined the firm of Weisberg and Friedman and became a partner in 1990 when the firm was renamed Weisberg, Friedman & Klapisch, LLP. Mr. Klapisch is active in the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Mr. Klapisch has been very active in gay civil rights immigration work. He was the first attorney to get waivers for people with HIV during the legalization program. Mr. Klapisch has been an active member of Immigration Equality and was previously the Vice-President of the organization and was also on the Board of Directors.
Michael DiRaimondo
Director
After receiving his Juris Doctor from Antioch University School of Law, Michael P. DiRaimondo served as a Trial Attorney for the U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Services (INS), where he was awarded the Special Achievement Award from the Department of Justice. He also was a Special Assistant at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, New York. Currently, Michael is the President of DiRaimondo & Masi PC in Bohemia, New York. New York Magazine named his firm as one of the top 100 immigration firms in the country for the past 15 years. He has bar admissions to all New York State Courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, Third Circuit, Fourth Circuit, Fifth Circuit, Sixth Circuit, Seventh Circuit, Ninth Circuit, Eleventh Circuit, and the U.S District Courts, including EDNY, SDNY, MDPA, and NDNY. Michael serves as a Guest Speaker on numerous Bar Association Panels, such as the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) CLE Panels, and is one of the Directors of the Association of Deportation Defense Attorneys (ADDA).
Dawn Pipek Guidone
Director
Dawn Pipek Guidone is the founding attorney of Dawn Pipek Guidone & Associates. The firm practices solely in the area of immigration and Ms. Pipek Guidone has represented numerous clients from around the globe in various aspects of immigration, most recently with a concentration on refugee and asylum work from Central America. She received her Juris Doctorate from Touro College – Jacob D. Fuchsburg Law Center in 1997 and took her first case with the then Lawyer’s Committee for Human Rights, now known as Human Rights First, in which she represented a student activist from Belarus.
Ms. Pipek Guidone regularly represents clients before the Immigration Courts in various jurisdictions around the country. She has also represented clients in the U.S. District Court, both in the Eastern District and the Southern District of New York, as well as the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. She is also admitted to the Supreme Court of the United States. Ms. Pipek Guidone is a member of the Federal Bar Association and has served as the Vice Chair on the Board of the OPening Word, a literacy program for immigrant women. She participated in the Documentary “The Gang Crackdown” which aired on PBS Frontline and is cited in various publications for her work with Central American refugees.
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Jeffrey S. Chase
Director
Jeffrey S. Chase is an immigration lawyer in New York City. He is of counsel to the law firm of DiRaimondo & Masi, PC. Jeff is a former Immigration Judge and Senior Legal Advisor at the Board of Immigration Appeals. He is a past recipient of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) annual Pro Bono Award and is a member of AILA’s Asylum Litigation Working Group. Jeff organized a group of former immigration judges and BIA Members, the Round Table of Former Immigration Judges, in filing amicus briefs, issuing press statements, and submitting written testimony to Congress. The group was the recipient of AILA’s 2019 Advocacy Award. Jeff lectures frequently on immigration law topics and volunteers with the New Sanctuary Coalition in NYC. His immigration law blog can be found at jeffreyschase.com.
H. Raymond Fasano
Director
H. Raymond Fasano is a member of the Law Offices of Youman, Madeo & Fasano, LLP that is dedicated to immigration litigation. He is the counsel of record in several published Circuit Court and BIA decisions. He is the author of several published articles in the area of immigration litigation that have appeared in Interpreter Releases and other publications. Mr. Fasano speaks nationally on the topic of immigration litigation. He is a past Chair of the Federal Bar Association’s Immigration Law Section.
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Paul O'Dwyer
Director
Paul O’Dwyer has been practicing immigration law in New York for over twenty years, with a strong emphasis on deportation defense and asylum law. Mr. O’Dwyer is a graduate of the National University of Ireland and the Honorable Society of Kings’ Inns, Dublin. He was admitted to practice in New York State in 1990, and since then to numerous federal Courts of Appeals and District Courts nationwide. He writes and speaks regularly on immigration law, and is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association, and is a former Special Counsel on immigration matters to the Disciplinary Committee of the Appellate Division, Supreme Court, First Judicial Department.