Atlanta Lawyers on the Move — Episode 3
Matthias “Matt” Ohm
Attorney-at-Law
Arnall Golden Gregory LLP
Interview Transcript
PAMELA: My name is Pamela DeNeuve and welcome to Atlanta Lawyers on the Move. Today we are very privileged to have Matt Ohm. And Matt is admitted in the country of Germany, as well as the state of New York. And let me tell you a little bit about Matt. Matt is a German and US lawyer holding a US Masters of Law from the University of Georgia Law School. He obtained both his German and his US law license in 2015. Matt focuses his legal services on supporting foreign-owned business entities and individuals investing in the US in the areas of immigration, corporate and employment law. He supports companies’ global immigration needs throughout the US, immigration and non-immigration visas, processing for business and family, temporary work visas and green cards.
Matt was elected as a board member of the Stonewall Bar Association of Georgia. Stonewall is a professional association of attorneys, judges, law students, paralegals and other legal professionals who support the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and who oppose discrimination based upon sexual orientation or gender entity. Mr. Ohm is also the new Chair of the Atlanta-Nuremberg Sister Cities Commission. The city of Atlanta fosters 17 sister city relationships with communities across the globe. The Atlanta Sister Cities Commission has continued to expand its programming by promoting mutual, beneficial, cultural, educational and economic and Community Development exchanges. And we could go on but we really want to thank you Matthew- Matt — for being here. It’s Mathias- Matt- for being here with us today.
MATT: Yes.
PAMELA: So I’d like to ask you our questions for Atlanta Lawyers on the Move. So the first question, Matt, is what and when did you decide to become a lawyer?
MATT: So this is a long time ago- I — as you already mentioned, I am licensed in Germany and the US. And I’m actually a German citizen and I grew up in Germany, went to law school in Germany and did all of that in Germany before I even decided to move to the US. So when I was in high school, I participated in a bunch of clubs and activities where, you know, I practiced law stuff. I did an internship with a lawyer that I knew from home who did civil law in Germany and did an 8-week internship in the summer and starting then, I learned my passion and decided to go to law school afterward. And in Germany, you go right after high school. So you don’t have the 4-year undergraduate degree. It’s immediately high school, law school, which takes seven years.
PAMELA: Okay. Wow. So you knew at a young age that you wanted to be a lawyer. What are the aspects when you saw you this mentor helped people? What was it that inspired you to think that it was something you wanted to do?
MATT: Well, it’s- it really is- what I enjoyed a lot was not just actually helping people to do something, but being in this job where you’re so communicative with people, where you help people with their problems every day. And it sounds so trivial to help people with, you know, get- deserve what’s right and that’s just fascinated me.
PAMELA: That’s really great. And what do you like about practicing law in Atlanta? So did you practice law in Germany?
MATT: No. I graduated in Germany from being a lawyer but after graduating from law school in Germany, every person does have to do a mandatory two-year traineeship with the State. So during that time, basically you do practice law but you’re under supervision and the government- it’s a government-funded program- where you work in four different areas. You work in the criminal area, you work in the civil area, you work for a judge, you work in an administration and so basically, that part is currently my German experience. But immediately afterward, I decided to do one more year of studying in the US and I did a degree called Masters of Law at the University of Georgia and afterward, I was able to take the New York bar exam. And with that, I am licensed to practice immigration law in the whole country because immigration law is one of the rare areas of law in the US that you can practice anywhere because it’s all federal.
And I happened to meet Terry Simmons, who founded the International Practice Group here at Arnall Golden Gregory, where I work now and it was like a perfect match because we have a lot of German-speaking clients- German, Austrian, Swiss. There’s a lot of investment here in the southeast of the US, not only automotive but other companies, as well as software IT. And because we have so many German companies here, and German customers and German clients, it is ideal for me to be able to give legal advice, not just in English but also in German, and explain not only the American US laws but also the German laws. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the last four years.
PAMELA: Oh, that’s really excellent. That’s really excellent. So what do you like about practicing law in Atlanta?
MATT: Practicing law is great here because it is very eclectic. I work for a firm, we have about 170 attorneys. Our Immigration Practice Group is about six attorneys and then ten paralegals. We- in our team- we are basically a variety of Nationals of Foreign Languages. It’s a very good, strong team. Immigration law itself has become a little more difficult, as starting with the new administration. They’ve become a lot more strict with processing and [ ].
So it has been a very tough year for us and basically even more for our clients but the great thing is that in Atlanta, there are so many new companies that we can help and all these new companies and businesses- they come here, they may be foreign, but they bring, for example, a CEO or president over to start something up, or maybe even a very high-skilled technical engineer, and then they start expanding here and they hire Americans, and I think they’ve created 800,000 jobs here in Georgia already and it’s growing, so it’s just fantastic to see what foreign investment- what impact it has. It has not just a local impact but an impact in all of Georgia, and probably even the whole US because some of our clients are even then expanding to other states.
PAMELA: Wow, that’s really interesting. So you’re really kind of in the nucleus of a lot of growth expansion and change. The changes, I’m sure, have really affected many, many of your clients in an adverse way and so to have a good attorney is almost- it’s a necessity at this point.
MATT: Yes. It’s weird to say this, but it’s easier to start a corporation in Georgia than to get a work visa. And yeah, that’s why we’re here. And you know, some people try it on their own and it’s just very tough at the moment. And it’s very unfortunate if you get a- like a denial if you tried because then you’ll always have that little prejudice in your background and the consular officer, for example, always see it that there has been a denial in the past. So it’s something you really don’t want, so I suggest, you know, going with a professional is the right way to go, especially now.
PAMELA: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I just have to mention this as an aside. You don’t seem to have a really strong German accent. Did you work hard on that or did it just naturally happen?
MATT: It’s been a lot of work. Before I came to the US, I had to do a lot of classes. You have to take a very hard exam in order to be eligible to go to university in the US, which I did. And basically, growing up, my mother is an English teacher, so she made me and my siblings read English books. And then when, you know, more and more TV started happening- DVDs, for example, they are issued in Germany in German and in English. So she made us practice, practice, practice. And then I took- in law school, I took a US law class, which was in English and then during my one year at UGA, I learned a lot and I feel like I’m still learning every day.
PAMELA: Wow, well your mom did a good job! I’ve been around Germans who have had a strong accent. So that’s really great. So what are your biggest wins and challenges?
MATT: Well, the biggest challenge currently is our administration. Last year- April- the president issued a bunch of executive orders, which people know of [ ], where he basically instructed the officers who adjudicate these immigration petitions and applications that we submit to you know, focus very hard on not just getting two looks but three, four, five looks. We receive letters from the government after submitting something that they want additional information, additional evidence. These letters have increased, I think, 70% or something around that area in the last year. They’ve always happened but it’s just gotten a lot harder.
If you like, some of the consular officers. Because it’s- the thing is, it’s all a 100 percent discretionary. There’s one person who has to be convinced to approve this visa or not. So if that person is not convinced, or maybe he’s or she’s just having a bad day and maybe the person applying for the visa says something that they don’t like to hear, then they can say denied and that’s pretty much it. So these- it’s very hard to [ ] and even we feel like some businesses have said, maybe we’ll wait a couple years before we come to the US. So I’m hoping that’s not an ongoing trend because it’s a huge business. But yeah.
And then, I guess our biggest win was last year. We filed 50 visa applications for the company that- a huge, billion-dollar project in the state of New York and all of them were approved without question. So that was pretty fantastic!
PAMELA: Wonderful, congratulations! Now, who would be a perfect referral for your practice there at Arnall Golden and Gregory?
MATT: So we- so my team and especially me, work very closely with a couple of companies. We work, for example, very closely with the German American Chamber of Commerce of the southeast, which is one of the biggest German chambers in the US. They have about 40 people here, so a lot of German companies- they actually go to them when they start, you know, thinking about, you know, well, should I go to the US? And it’s- the visa is not the first thing on your mind. The first thing on your mind is, where would my company go? How do I even incorporate a company? What’s a good location? So the German American Chamber of Commerce- what they do is they support new companies and then often with the visa questions, they refer to us. And then we also work very, very closely with accounting firms because in the US, lawyers and accountants aren’t allowed to work under the same roof and so a bunch of foreign accounting firms, for example, German accounting firms who, you know, they do everything, then they refer their immigration work to us.
For example, we send- everybody who comes to the US, of course, has to file a tax return so we can refer back to them, which is just a great way of giving. And then maybe last, which I think you mentioned earlier, I’m Chair of the Atlanta-Nuremberg Sister Cities Committee, and through that, of course, we have very close relationships with organizations by the city of Atlanta. Though we work with all 16 other sister cities, we work with the international office of the mayor’s division. Of course, everything is still kind of new now because of the new mayor in Atlanta. So their administration is being exchanged a little bit, but we’ve had so much success. We’ve got a lot of companies [ ] just come to Atlanta because of this relationship. So that’s fantastic!
PAMELA: Wonderful. Well, what legacy- I know you’re young- but what legacy would you like to leave for your law practice?
MATT: Well, I hope that people will remember me as someone who has supported not just the individual person, but companies, who’s made an impact on Georgia and in the US by supporting companies, by helping investment, helping growth, which I think is a such an important thing in this country because even though, you know- people can do what people can do. Americans are just as smart as Germans, as Italians, as anybody. But the thing is, sometimes you just need someone from a local country who knows how the specific things work in order to help grow the people who are in a different country. So that’s what the amazing thing is about immigration because you teach other people more skills that they can then teach more and more people.
And one other big thing that we are working on, also closely with the German American Chamber, is something called- [ ] an apprenticeship system. So what we have in Germany, not everybody goes to universities. That’s maybe not a small number, but maybe 50/50. People do three four or two three four-year programs where you work for a company and go to school at the same time and you learn such a great skill and then after that time, usually they hire you and you’re with that company for a very long time because no one else has those skills you have. So what we’re trying to do is establish these apprenticeships in the US and we’ve had great success, actually, with foreign investing companies who need employees that the state has offered free tuition for these programs. That people have gotten so many jobs also in rural places where a lot of these companies started building the production facilities.
So that is something that is very important to me because not everybody needs to go to college. With the four-year degree, sometimes you don’t know anything but with the three-year technical training, you can work the machine that only 5 other people can, you’re guaranteed to have a great job.
PAMELA: Yeah, that’s true. Just yesterday, I heard the mayor’s State of the City of Atlanta address- your new mayor and she spoke a lot about the gender equity. Could you say a little bit about how you are involved in trying to- because she spoke about trying to make sure that that happens in Atlanta?
MATT: Right. Well, I fully support all kinds of diversity. As you mentioned earlier, I’m a board member of the Stonewall Bar Association of Georgia. We support a lot of LGBT rights. Of course, once you’re in some kind of diversity committee, you work with all the other diversity committees throughout the state together and support each other. I’m full-on supporting that and I feel that we’re all heading in a really good direction, in that regard.
PAMELA: Yeah, I liked what I was hearing. So the last question, Matt, is name one thing that you do to manage your stress levels because you have a busy, busy job right now.
MATT: Okay, so I work in this area called Atlantic Station in Atlanta, Georgia.
PAMELA: I love that area!
MATT: Yeah, I like to call it a teeny, teeny-tiny Manhattan because there’s- you can walk through the streets, there are lots of shops and outdoor spaces. So what I do once a day- I go out of my office, walk all the way across to the other end to the grocery store and I usually buy one of those kombucha drinks, whatever they are. I have that and walk back. No matter rain or shine. I go out, take that about the 20-minute walk and clear my head.
PAMELA: That’s great! So you unplug for those 20 minutes and do something that you enjoy to relax?
MATT: Yeah. [ ].
PAMELA: Wonderful! Well, Matt, thank you so much for being our Atlanta Lawyer on the Move and to our audience, we hope to see you again next week.
MATT: Thank you so much, Pamela. Have a nice afternoon.
PAMELA: You too.