This sponsored column is by Law Office of James Montana PLLC. All questions about it should be directed to James Montana, Esq., Janice Chen, Esq., and Victoria Khaydar, Esq., practicing attorneys at The Law Office of James Montana PLLC, an immigration-focused law firm located in Falls Church, Virginia. The legal information given here is general in nature. If you want legal advice, contact us for an appointment.
Diego Lowe, a high school senior, has joined us as a Law Clerk! We are thrilled to introduce him to the ARLnow readership, and, of course, the commentariat.
By way of introduction, here is a brief Q&A between Diego Lowe and our august founder.
Montana: Diego Lowe is a great name, but an unusual one. Does it ever throw people for a loop?
Lowe: Quite often. Whether it be college interviews or meeting people for the first time, the name Diego doesn’t associate with a Taiwanese face.
Montana: How do you handle that?
Lowe: I tell people: Imagine Diego from Dora but Asian and just a bit taller.You could also remember that I’m half Panamanian and half Taiwanese, but with so many countries around the world, thinking of me as Dora’s Asian brother might be easier.
[A BRIEF INTERLUDE: Montana notes, with horror, that Dora the Explorer came out about eight years before Lowe was born.]
Montana: As Dora’s Asian brother, what language did you grow up with?
Lowe: My first language was Spanish, but after moving to Japan I quickly switched up my preferred method of speaking to English and Chinese. It’s been a hobble, but now I’m back to learning all three and with any luck should achieve fluency at some point, if that’s even a real thing with languages.
Montana: Why did you choose to spend a semester working with our firm?
Lowe: I love putting myself out there, and new experiences are always life’s greatest joys. Also, I want to help our immigrant community. My parents are immigrants and I moved to the U.S. from Tokyo when I was a little kid, so I know what it’s like to have the U.S. feel like a foreign entity. Plus, college is expensive and it doesn’t hurt to get some bread as a high school student.
Montana: We will pay you a living bread-wage, I promise. One more question: if you could change anything about our government, what would it be?
Lowe: I think everyone will always have a long list of things, but I just want to see us become a tad less partisan and more pro-everyone in America. I mean political drama aside, it’s always a great thing to love your neighbor. You don’t need to agree on everything in the world to be able to sit down and have a couple burgers and some fries.
Montana: Speaking of productive meetings – do we have any openings for new consultations?
Lowe: Yes, we do! Here is the link. Make sure the readers know that we charge for consultations here: $240 for the initial consultation; but if you hire us to do further work in your case, we subtract that from the bill!
Montana: Couldn’t have put it better myself. I’m very glad that you’ve joined the practice, and we’ll do our best together to help clients to live life to the fullest.
As always, we are grateful for your questions and comments, and will do our best to respond.
