Partner
Sophia Goring-Piard
Country / Territory
Get in touch
Languages
- English
Contact information
Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP
555 Montgomery St, 4th Floor
San Francisco CA 94111
United States
Sophia has served as a dedicated business immigration advisor to clients of every size and stripe for more than 20 years.
She has built her practice around three core principles:
- Proactive advice based on government and industry intelligence. Sophia helps clients forecast necessary changes to their immigration programs in response to shifts in government policy, geopolitical conflict and economic pressure. She helps clients adjust internal policy, program management and workforce communications to anticipate and take advantage of developments others might miss.
- Exceptional employee experience. Regardless of the size of their workforce or the volume of their caseload, clients rely on Sophia to maintain a responsive and respectful approach to individual employees. She partners with key stakeholders to understand employee culture through constant exchange of ideas and feedback. Sophia is especially attuned to the rapidly evolving communications tools used by employees and draws on this familiarity to develop communication strategies that counter misinformation, facilitate participation and reduce dissatisfaction.
- Flexible, data-driven program design and diagnosis. Sophia dives deep into client and industry data to create new immigration programs for her clients—or to revitalize and streamline their existing efforts. By evaluating pain and pressure points, including lag time and success rates, she helps clients adjust resource allocation and increase transparency. She leverages her capacious industry experience to introduce clients to best practices from outside their sector.
She also helps companies on the cusp of major growth to transform their current, bespoke immigration framework into full-blown programs handling hundreds or thousands of employees—a key factor in removing impediments to expansion.
Education
- Fordham University School of Law, J.D., 2000
- Washington University in St. Louis, B.A., 1994
More from Sophia
Admissions
Bar Admissions: New York, Massachusetts
Practice Limited to Federal Immigration & Nationality Law
Awards
Listed in Best Lawyers in America, 2012 to 2025
Listed in Crain’s New York Business’s Notable Black Leaders, 2022
Stein Scholar in Public Interest Law and Ethics, Fordham University School of Law, 1997 to 2000
Thurgood Marshall Fellowship, City Bar Justice Center’s Immigrant Women and Children Project, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, 1999
Professional accomplishments
Member, American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)
Member, New York State Bar Association, Commercial and Federal Litigation – Committee on Immigration Litigation
Member, Metropolitan Black Bar Association
Publications and lectures
Speaker, “Keynote Panel – State of Mobility.” 2025 Bay Area Mobility Management Annual Mobility Conference, San Francisco, CA, 13 February 2025.
Speaker, “Navigating the Corporate Climb: Lessons from Women at the Top.” Women of Color in Pharma (WOCIP) 8th Annual Conference, Scottsdale, AZ, 10 November 2024.
Sophia’s insights
February 12, 2025 — February 13, 2025 | Conference
November 7, 2024 — November 10, 2024 | Conference
August 19, 2024 | Awards
