All types of business-related immigration, with a particular emphasis on PERM labor certifications.

International adoptions.

• Kentucky, 1992

• University of Kentucky College of Law, J.D., 1992
• Centre College, B.A., 1989

Barbara practices exclusively in the area of immigration law. She assists both large and small companies in their efforts to deal with the ever-changing immigration landscape as it affects the employment of foreign nationals both on a temporary and permanent basis. In addition, Barbara assists individuals with the complex immigration issues associated with international adoptions or marriages and facilitates the attainment of legal status in the U.S. for that foreign national.

Prior to joining Frost Brown Todd in 2002, Barbara was an associate with Brown Todd and Heyburn and in-house counsel with Fruit of the Loom. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Kentucky Bar Association, the Louisville Bar Association and the Women Lawyers Association. She is also a Board Member for American Heritage Girls and an active volunteer at her church.

Experience

Barbara has developed a broad base of experience providing full-service immigration representation to a wide variety of clients located across the U.S. Her clients include a large, multi-national financial services and insurance company, a small multi-national energy information firm, a medium-size dental laboratory, a large, multi-national computer services company and various small companies from virtually all industries. Her representation of these and other companies includes all aspects of inbound immigration work, including non-immigrant “work” visas, such as Es, H-1Bs, L-1A and L-1Bs, H-3s, Os, TNs, and permanent residence visas via the PERM process, multi-national manager cases, and extraordinary ability petitions. She also advises her clients on I-9 compliance and worksite enforcement issues.

• Kentucky Bar Association
• Louisville Bar Association
• American Immigration Lawyers Association
• Women Lawyers Association
• Society for Human Resources Management
• Leadership Louisville, 2009 Focus Louisville Graduate

• Federal Contractors Required to Use E-Verify Beginning September 8, 2009
• Federal Contractors Required to Use E-Verify to Confirm the Employment Eligibility of New Hires
• E-Verify Redesign
• Haitian Orphans and Temporary Protected Status
• Devastation in Haiti
• H-1B Visa Cap Met for Fiscal Year 2010
• Last Call for H-1Bs!
• H-1B Numbers Dwindling for this Fiscal Year
• Perm Processing Times Continue to Lengthen
• Recent BALCA Decisions Including Advertised Salary in PERM Case

Past

• North Oldham Middle School Parent Teachers Association
• North Oldham High School Parent Teachers Association
• American Heritage Girls, Board Member; Fundraising Director

Kentucky Legal Update, October 2009, "Immigration Law for the Nonimmigration Practitioner."

Sterling Education Services, Inc., January 2008, "Immigration Law and Employer Compliance."

Owens, D., Menefee, B., Wood, N., & Obi, S. Immigration: Looking Through A Security Lenses, 66(1) Kentucky Bench & Bar 29 (2002).

Owens, D., Menefee, B., Wood, N., & Obi, S. Shortage of Medical Professional: Foreign Help is on the Way, 67(2), Kentucky Bench & Bar 23 (2003).

Owens, D., Gunn, M., Menefee, B., & Wood, N., & Obi, S. Practicing Immigration Law in Post 9/11 World, KBA 2004 Annual Convention Handbook (2004).

Owens, D., Gunn, M., Menefee, B., & Wood, N. Immigration Issues in Employment, UK CLE Treatise, 3rd Ed (2007).

Client Advisories

Federal Contractors Required to use E-Verify Beginning September 8, 2009
September 21, 2009

Cincinnati Doughnut Company Fined $40,000 after I-9 Audit, July 15, 2009

Federal Contractors Required to Use E-Verify to Confirm the Employment Eligibility of New Hires, June 18, 2008

Premium Processing for Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, is Reinstated, June 13, 2008

FY2009 Cap-Subject H-1B Update, June 12, 2008

The H-1B Visa "Cap" and its Effect on Foreign Nationals Graduating in the U.S., August 22, 2007