Gail A. Goeke

Gail Goeke has practiced immigration law since 1998, advising businesses on immigration law compliance and employment of foreign workers and assisting individuals obtain naturalization and immigration benefits. Gail has wide experience guiding employers of foreign national executives, managers, professionals, and other workers in a variety of businesses and fields. She has successfully obtained temporary and permanent labor certifications, as well as national interest waivers, extraordinary ability alien, outstanding researcher and multi-national manager immigrant cases.

She joined the McCrummen Immigration Law Group in 2006, after nine years with Lathrop & Gage in Kansas City, Missouri where she concentrated on business immigration and employment law. Her labor and employment experience includes ADA, FMLA, employment discrimination and sexual harassment litigation. She counsels clients on equal employment opportunity, wage and hour, FCRA, IRCA, and a variety of other employment issues.

Gail served as Law Clerk to the Honorable Ronnie L. White, then Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court, before entering private practice. Prior to law school she was a teacher and school counselor.

Gail is a frequent national speaker and conducts training on various immigration and employment law topics for individual employers.


Practice Areas

Representative Engagements

Represent employers and investors in employment based immigration cases including:

  • Temporary work visas for professionals (H-1B), intracompany transferees (L-1), NAFTA professionals from Mexico and Canada (TN), Australian professionals (E-3), treaty-based traders and investors (E1/2), business visitors (B-1), religious workers (R-1), student visas and work authorization (F-1), exchange visitors (J-1), temporary agricultural workers 9H-2A) and nonagricultural workers (H-2B), temporary trainees (H-3), etc.
  • Applications for Employment Based Permanent Residence (Green cards), including alien labor certification with the Department of Labor (PERM), special handling for college and university teachers, national interest waivers, outstanding researchers and professors, extraordinary ability aliens, multinational managers, religious workers, etc.
  • EB 5 Employment Creation (Investors) Immigrant Visa Program.
  • Consular processing issues for workers traveling and obtaining visas abroad.
  • Employer I-9 compliance and audits, avoiding unfair immigration-related employment practices, employer sanctions, and federal E-verify system.
  • Representation of employer in DOL investigation of Labor Condition Application (LCA) compliance.
  • Guidance to employers regarding ICE audits and DHS site visits.
  • Administrative Appeals with the Board of Alien Labor Certification (BALCA), Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), Administrative Appeals Office (AAO), and similar bodies
  • Conrad 30 Physician applications for waiver of the J-1 2 year home residence requirement.

Assist and represent individuals in immigration related issues including:

  • Family petitions on behalf of spouses, family members, affidavits of support, work cards, travel documents, consular processing issues, driver's licenses, etc.
  • Naturalization applications.

Assist immigrants in humanitarian cases including:

  • Applications on behalf of asylees, refugees, humanitarian parole, etc.

Represent Employers and Individuals before federal agencies including:

  • Missouri Human Rights Commission and EEOC charges of discrimination.
  • OSHA violations.
  • Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigation and hearing.
  • IDEA Due Process hearing.

Defend Employers in Civil Litigation including actions brought under:

  • Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and state Human Rights Acts.
  • Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
  • Americans with Disabilities Act.
  • Family and Medical Leave Act.
  • Missouri Service Letter Statute and state wrongful termination and retaliation claims.

Advise employers regarding employment policies and practices including:

  • Employment applications and background checks.
  • Employment handbooks.
  • Sexual Harassment training and investigations.
  • Employee discipline and termination actions.
  • Wrongful termination and retaliation.
  • Con-compete and other employment contracts.
  • Wage and Hour requirements.
  • Reductions in force.
  • Affirmative action plans.

Education

  • J.D. cum laude - University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, 1995
  • M.A., Counseling - Northeast Missouri (now Truman) State University, 1982
  • B.A. summa cum laude, Political Science-William Jewell College, 1975

Admissions/Court Memberships

  • State of Missouri
  • State of Kansas
  • U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri
  • U.S. District Court, Kansas

Honors

  • Managing Editor of Missouri Law Review 1994-95
  • Judge Shepard Barclay Prize for senior with highest standing in scholarship and moral leadership 1995
  • Order of the Coif 1995

Professional Affiliations

  • Member, Missouri Bar Association
  • Member, American Immigration Lawyers Association

Publications and Seminars

  • Substantive and Procedural Due Process for Unaccompanied Alien Juveniles, 10 Mo. L. Rev. 221 (1995)
  • Panel Speaker for the 2010 Annual Conference of the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Bar Harbor, MD.
  • Presented for Council on Education in Management Personnel Law Update, Lorman Seminars
  • Associated Industries of Missouri Occupational Safety & Health Annual Conference and seminars
  • Missouri School Board Association's Annual Conference
  • Society for Human Resource Management Association-Greater Kansas City and Topeka chapters
  • Missouri Hospital Association
  • Kansas City Area Healthcare Recruiter Association
  • Presented continuing legal education for Kansas Department of Administration government lawyers, Kansas Bas Association, Missouri Bar Association, Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, and Missouri-Kansas Chapter of American Immigration Lawyers Association.