Our Team
Board of Directors
Board Members
Co-President
Barbara Jo (‘BJ’) Caruso (She/Her/Elle)
BJ is a highly regarded senior member of the immigration bar with over 30 years of experience practicing immigration and citizenship law.
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She holds key leadership positions within the immigration bar and is co-author of both the Annotated Immigration Refugee Protection Act and the Citizenship Act. BJ is certified by the Law Society of Ontario as a Specialist – Citizenship and Immigration Law.
Co-President
Vance Langford (He/Him/Il)
Vance has been practicing immigration law for 25 years. His education includes a B.A. in International Relations and LL.B. from University of British Columbia.
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During law school, Vance worked as an Immigration Officer at the Peace Arch / Pacific Highway and did the clinical program in immigration law with the Legal Aid Society in downtown Vancouver. After law school, Vance completed an LL.M. at the University of Dundee, Scotland, and worked at the United Nations in New York. Vance has been a strong advocate for immigration lawyers in Canada, serving as a Past Chair of the Canadian Bar Association, National Immigration Law Section. He also practices corporate and commercial law and has extensive experience with private and public finance and governance.
Director
Nicolas Simard-Lafontaine (He/Him/Il)
Nicolas is the founding partner at Galileo Partners, a Montreal based immigration and international recruitment law firm.
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Since his admission to the Quebec Bar, he practices exclusively in business immigration, representing major business clients in civil engineering, construction, manufacturing, and technology sectors. Nicolas holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) from HEC Montréal and a Bachelor of Civil Law (L.L.B.) from the Université de Sherbrooke. He is recognized as a leading practitioner in business immigration by Chambers & Partners, Lexpert, and Who’s Who Legal. In addition, he served as Co-President of CILA during the 2022-23 term.
Director
Ho Sung Kim (He/Him/Il)
Ho Sung has 15 years of experience in Immigration Law and has been a member of the Board of Directors of Association québecoise des avocats et avocates en droit de l’immigration (AQAADI) from 2014 to 2023.
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He specializes in economic immigration, both temporary and permanent. He was born in South Korea and immigrated to Montreal, QC, Canada in 1992. He holds a Bachelor in Computer Science (B.A) from McGill University and Bachelor of Law from Université du Québec à Montréal.
Director
Nicholas woodward (He/Him/Il)
Nicholas Woodward (he/him) is a Partner at Battista Migration Law Group.
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His practice focuses on helping families, businesses, and individuals, including members of the LGBTQIA+ community and those living with HIV, navigate the complexities of Canada’s immigration and refugee systems. Nicholas is fluently bilingual in English and French. He holds a law degree (Juris Doctor), and an Honours Bachelor of Arts, both from the University of Ottawa. After law school, Nicholas clerked at the Federal Court with the Honourable Justice Elizabeth Walker.
Nicholas works on a wide range of immigration and refugee files, including litigation and economic matters. His clients include refugee claimants, students, businesses, and individuals seeking pathways to permanent residence in Canada. With respect to the litigation side of his practice, Nicholas regularly represents clients before both the Immigration and Refugee Board and the Federal Court.
An adjunct faculty member at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, Nicholas co-teaches Canadian Migration Law and also coaches the law school’s Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Law moot team. He also volunteers his time by providing regular legal advice to community members at both the 519 and HQ Toronto.
Director
Jonathan Leebosh (He/Him/Il)
Jonathan has been practicing immigration law in Canada for 25 years. Originally from Montreal, he started his legal career in Toronto and has gradually moved west, currently residing in Vancouver.
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Since moving west, he is still in search of a decent bagel. Jonathan leads the immigration practice at EY Law’s Vancouver office and has been a regular speaker and writer on various issues impacting immigration law. Although now focused primarily on corporate immigration law, Jonathan started his legal career focusing on all types of cases before the IRB. Prior to becoming a lawyer, he spent several years working in the field with the UNHCR. Jonathan holds a Bachelor of Arts (History) from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Laws from Queen’s University.
Director
Grace Allen (SHe/HER/ELLE)
Grace is the founder and principal lawyer with Grace Allen Immigration Law in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
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Grace holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Mount Allison University with a double major in International Relations and Hispanic Studies. She graduated from this program holding First Class Honours with Distinction. She earned a Master of Science, Human Rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science where she focused her thesis on the intersection of migrants’ rights and citizenship. Grace stayed in London to complete her LLB at the City University of London in 2015. She has also lived abroad in Denmark, Germany and Mexico.
Director
Jae-Yeon Lim (SHe/HER/ELLE)
Jae-Yeon Lim (“Jae”) practices corporate immigration law at Harris & Company LLP in Vancouver. Jae has been recognized by Chambers and Partners (2024) as one of the leading immigration lawyers nationwide, under the “Associate to Watch” category.
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Passionate about being part of and contributing to and empowering a collaborative legal professional community, Jae enjoys volunteering. Jae has been an active member of the Canadian Bar Association’s National Immigration Section, previously volunteered as a Senior CPD Coordinator, responsible for organizing the CBA Immigration Law Section’s Brown Bag Webinars and received a Volunteer Contribution Award in recognition of her leadership in putting together quality learning materials for lawyers including substantive topics on immigration law practice as well as on important issues such as anti-racism, 2SLGBTQI+ and mental health. Outside of law, she has been appointed by KOTRA (Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency) as a Global Regional Consultant, assisting in the overseas expansion of Korea’s small and medium enterprises. Additionally, she serves as Vice President of the Canada Korea Business Association.
Jae received her bachelor’s degree with specialization in French language and literature and a minor in political science with high distinction, as well as her law degree from the Faculty of Law at McGill. Fluent in English, French, and Korean, Jae recounted her early experience as an immigrant child in her bilingual book (English and Korean), “Inside Out, Upside Down: A Journey Across Cultural Borders” (ISBN: 8977122384).
Director
Sarah Adler (SHe/HER/ELLE)
With almost 20 years of Canadian Immigration experience, Sarah is a senior immigration lawyer in Toronto with MT>iplus, the immigration division of McCarthy Tetrault LLP.
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She has expertise across a diverse spectrum of clients including individuals, entrepreneurs, start ups and multinational corporations, and possesses a variety of industry experience including those in engineering, healthcare, IT, and finance.
Sarah has been a speaker on the Express Entry system for permanent residence and has also spoken on the importance of work permits to the permanent residence process, and regularly speaks alongside Labour and Employment to provide business with update on the everchanging Canadian Immigration landscape.
She has posted blogs on topics such as the interplay between Canadian tax and immigration rules, considerations when hiring internationally (including project planning), and the use of AI in the immigration process. From 2020-2022, Sarah acted as a Canadian board member for Talent Beyond Boundaries, an NGO that supports the relocation of refugees through economic immigration programs.
Having graduated from the University of St. Thomas, School of Law in Minnesota, USA in 2004, Sarah is a member of both the New York State Bar (3rd District), and the Law Society of Ontario.
Director
Ekaterina (Katia) Neouimina (SHe/HER/ELLE)
Ekaterina (Katia) Neouimina is a founding member of CILA. With over a decade of experience practicing exclusively in immigration law, she primarily practices corporate immigration law serving small and mid-size businesses, large multinational corporations, and individuals.
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She believes that immigration should not be stressful. Her approach is “find Zen with ENN.”
Holding a Juris Doctor degree, specializing in international law, from the University of Ottawa, a Master’s in public administration from Carleton University, and a Bachelor in Political Science from the American University in Cairo, Katia combines a robust educational background with a deep understanding of global legal frameworks.
Prior to establishing a successful immigration law firm, Katia gained valuable experience working with leading global immigration law firms, the Government of Canada, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). She is a strong advocate of a collaborative immigration bar and welcomes suggestions from CILA members on ways to grow CILA and contribute to its work.
Director
Rick lamanna(He/Him/Il)
Rick is a Partner at Fragomen Canada in Toronto, the Canadian office of the world’s largest immigration services provider.
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Since his call to the Bar in 2006, Rick has practiced exclusively in the area of business immigration, representing clients in a wide range of industries, such as manufacturing, oil and gas, finance, information technology and professional services. Rick holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA, with distinction) from Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, Quebec and a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. He is also certified as a Specialist in Citizenship and Immigration Law by the Law Society of Ontario.
Administrative Team
Executive Director
Kareem El-Assal (he/Him/il)
Kareem has worked in strategic and operational roles for CILA since 2021. He has been a Canadian immigration policy professional for over a decade. He holds degrees from the University of Toronto and Durham University.
Membership Coordinator
Dinah Singh (She/Her/Elle)
Dinah has been supporting CILA since the onset of the Association. She supports Board members with important tasks essential to running the organization. Dinah holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in French-Spanish-English Translation and a Master of Information Studies, both earned from the University of Ottawa.
Our Latest Articles
Communicating With Your Immigration Representative – Why Language Matters and the Value of Second Opinions
This article was originally posted on the website of Sas & Ing Immigration Law Centre, and authored by Catherine Sas, K.C., Canadian Immigration Lawyer.
Pepa : Une trousse à outils sur l’interprétation législative
Cet article est rédigé par Justin Toh, avocat spécialisé en droit de l’immigration canadienne. The English version of this article can be found here.
Pepa: A Toolkit on Statutory Interpretation
This article was authored by Justin Toh, Canadian Immigration Lawyer. La version française de cet article se trouve ici.
