Good Neighbor Podcast Live

From War Zones to Wall Street: An Immigration Lawyer’s Journey and Mission

• Garfield Bowen & Merium Malik

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What does it take to build a world-spanning immigration law practice from a single desk in Queens—and keep heart at the center while policies and lives hang in the balance? We sit down with attorney and founder Merium Malik to trace the journey from childhood in a war zone to leading a team that serves clients across six continents and every U.S. state. The conversation moves from gritty origin stories—door knocking in New York, cold calls, and learning marketing by doing—to the disciplined systems that power business immigration for Fortune 500 companies and the compassion required for deportation defense when enforcement spikes.

Merium opens up about how growing up Pakistani and spending time in Iran during the Iran–Iraq war hardwired a sense of justice that law could channel into action. That grounding shows in how her firm navigates volatility: when administrations shift and rules tighten, they pivot without losing sight of people. You’ll hear how they balance H‑1B strategy, O‑1 talent cases, EB‑1 filings, and employer compliance alongside family petitions, interviews, and removal defense—making immigration strategy accessible for both corporate mobility teams and individuals seeking stability. We also get practical: how ethical marketing works for lawyers, why content and newsletters build trust, and what clients should line up—timelines, documents, expectations—before the first consultation.

Away from the office, Marion shares the habits that sustain high-stakes work: yoga, spiritual reading, Florida parks and springs, and finding quiet between court dates and ICE visits. Through it all runs a clear promise: extreme competence paired with a family-first mindset. If you’re an HR leader planning global hiring, an entrepreneur eyeing U.S. growth, or a family wrestling with status questions, this conversation offers a playbook for moving forward with clarity and care.

If this story resonates, follow along for daily immigration updates on LinkedIn and Instagram, grab the free weekly newsletter at maliklawimmigration.com, and share this episode with someone who needs a steady guide. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us what immigration question you want answered next.

SPEAKER_00:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Garfield Bowen.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to Good Neighbor Podcast Live. Are you looking for an immigration attorney? Well, one may be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Marion Mellick with Mellick Law Firm. Marion, how are you doing today? Great.

SPEAKER_02:

How are you, Garfield? Nice to talk to you.

SPEAKER_01:

I am well. Excited to learn all about you and your practice. Tell us about your company.

SPEAKER_02:

Amazing. Yeah, so the company is I'm the founder and uh a managing partner. Um, I'm an attorney by trade. I started it um in 2000, uh, in 2014. Um, it's and I started in New York City, um, started in Queens, uh, expanded to uh Wall Street, downtown Manhattan, and then expanded to Tampa, Florida. Um, we have clients in 30 countries, six continents, all 50 states. Uh, our main focus is business employment immigration, but then we do anything and everything, uh, all types of immigration. So um anywhere from somebody from representing uh Fortune 500 companies to doing deportation defense. So anything and everything as it relates to immigration, you can think of as what we do. Um, we have staff from all over the world, um, over 20 years of experience. And um, yeah, we're a well-oiled machine. So it's been it's been amazing so far.

SPEAKER_01:

What got you into the area of law? Do you just like like to read?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh well, you in order for you to um be interested in any kind of law, you have to like to read. Uh, because you're reading uh like in law school, we're reading about like 500 pages a night and having to like not just read, having to like regurgitate that the next day in class where we go through the entire uh case process. Uh so yeah, I think I I got into law because I just had like a very strong sense of social justice growing up in uh Pakistan and Pakistani and growing up in Pakistan and having seen a lot of um injustices and having seen a lot of like inequalities um in terms of gender, socioeconomic background, and just people, you know, just just to keep to to simplify it, just people being uh not treated fairly. Um and I grew up in um my parents were very they were doctors, they were very ambitious, and so they wanted to, as well as being very humanitarian, they uh they did like a version of Doctors Without Borders in Iran. At that time, um there was an Iran-Iraq war going on, and they decided to just pick up my mom was pregnant with my sister and leave and um and then just uh practice medicine there. And so we would we were like in a war zone, so we had to get food, food was rationed out, um, everything was like in tent little tents. There was no grocery store for us to go to. So just growing up like that, and that was like my norm because we'd be like playing in the snow and not knowing that we're in war. Um, it just was like just a part of me. It's something I had to um, I couldn't just like live in this world without having to be um involved in in the justice system.

SPEAKER_01:

We know marketing is the heart of every uh business. How would you describe your target audience and how do you currently attract them?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, marketing is like a uh a degree on its own and not even a degree, it's like encompassing of of every of every business, right? So there's no business if there's no if there's no marketing. Um there's then it's just you uh at a desk just sitting if they're not getting customers. Um my degree was in marketing, which uh helped me do nothing. Uh uh basically, everything had to be um I've always been very entrepreneurial. So I started out like in college having my own business, helping my parents with business. Immigrants, especially like South Asian, like um Pakistani Indian immigrants were very like entrepreneurial. So I always like had this hustle mentality. And when I started my firm, I started like door to door. Like I would go into businesses. Remember back in the day, door to door. Um, I would actually knock on like people's doors, knock if they asked if they wanted to um an immigration attorney. And you know, imagine New York City, someone knocking on your door, people would tell me release their dogs or tell me to get out. And I would go to like I would go back again. They would like call the cops, they would like curse at me, they would throw things, and I just like thinking back, it was like, how did I I was unfazed by that? I was like, oh like, yeah, that's fine. Um, because I would do the same thing. Someone came to my door, and then um just and then you know, just with the we didn't have social media like the way we had it, but it wasn't like people were just using it very uh recreationally. Um, so yeah, it was a lot of like cold calling, it was a lot of reaching out to companies, individuals, um, not really like really reaching out to individuals per se for services, but just letting them know because lawyers cannot directly, I don't know if you knew this, we can directly solicit clients. It has to be like in a general, like I have an immigration law firm like that. Um uh so started out doing a little bit of advertising, um, doing um in the beginning, it was like whoever needs immigration help, I would do, and that started from friends and family, and and you know, in living in New York, and just really I think immigration is something everybody's like, oh, my uncle and my brother and my sister, or my aunt, or my neighbor, somebody's going through some immigration process. So that was like fairly easy. Um, the the tough part has been like honing in who our ideal client is because it's so general, and anytime I try to pick a niche, like we really started focusing before Trump's administration, we're focusing on business immigration, which is anybody who's coming in on employment visa companies, large companies, medium-sized, small companies, entrepreneurs of high net worth. And then Trump got elected, and so now all clients people started getting arrested. So now we're back to doing deportation defense. So who is our ideal client? Anyone who needs immigration help, any entity, any person, any entrepreneur, any business. So that really is our uh uh our our our target client. And now the advertising has gone more from face-to-face in person to video social media and online advertising.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, have you ever thought about doing your very own podcast?

SPEAKER_02:

I have not thought about that because I'm actually still very much in the um trenches. I'm still very much involved in my law firm. I'm very involved in growing it. Um, so my focus is really on that right now. And also, you know, um there's so many moving parts that are happening. Um, and I also, you know, when I have when I have downtime, like I need to have that downtime. So, you know, that's not something that I've even thought about.

SPEAKER_01:

Listen, when you're not so busy running your business, Marion, what does Marion like to do for fun?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, um I I was gonna say like lately a lot of the fun has been going to um immigration uh interviews and also uh visiting ICE facilities, but that may not be as fun for um a normal person, so I can share some normal uh activities for you. Um it's it's fun. The other part is uh fun for me because I do like interacting with people from uh, you know, to see how different facilities are around, just seeing how what's happening at the forefront of something that's such a big hot topic. Uh, but yeah, I love to do yoga. I do a lot of yoga, peace of mind, anything spiritual, and very much into spiritual books. And I love to hike. Um, I live in Florida, so there's not a lot of hiking, but we do have a lot of beautiful parks. And um, I love being in nature, outside, water, uh, the springs, um, riding my bike. Just love the outdoors. And so as much as I can, you know, try to be outside when I'm away from my laptop.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we're just about out of time, but I want you to narrow it down to one thing. If we were to limit it to one thing that everyone should remember about my leak law firm, what would that be?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh, I think that's uh I mean that's really easy. I think it's it's not just extremely competent uh services and um and and and uh and good work, but also um heart very, very heart-based. Like we are all uh comprised of immigrants and we we really honestly treat everybody like like our family. And so uh everybody who comes in the door is like treated like family.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, it is one word on every everyone's lips right now, and that's how. How can we get more information on uh Malik Law Firm?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we are on the the the best way people contact us is is through our phone number. Uh we have a website, maliklawimmigration.com. Uh we're on Google, we're also on social media. I'm Miriam Malik. On my personal social media, I share a lot of immigration news, and every day I share tidbits of immigration news on my platforms on LinkedIn, Instagram, uh, Facebook, and also we have a newsletter if you want to sign up. If you go on Maliklawimmigration.com on our website, you can fill out the contact us form. We'll add you to our uh we share immigration upgrades also weekly in our newsletter. So you'll have access to that as well, free of charge.

SPEAKER_01:

Before you go, uh you mentioned your phone number, but you never gave it.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, the phone number, yes, it's 646-901-7746.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, uh, Marion, it's been a pleasure having you on the show. I wish you and your business the very best moving forward.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you. Thanks a lot. Take care.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnplive.com. That's gnplive.com or call eight seven seven nine three four three three zero two.