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ARTICLE · 09 MAY 2017

Law Student Perspective: An Interview with AILA Member Jonathan Grode

Green and Spiegel LLP
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In the interview below, published by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), Practice Director Jonathan Grode discusses his personal experiences that led him to pursue a career in immigration

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Green And Spiegel LLP
Green And Spiegel LLP
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In the interview below, published by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA),  Practice Director Jonathan Grode discusses his personal experiences that led him to pursue a career in immigration.

AILA Doc. No. 17050504 | Dated May 5, 2017

By Alexis Dutt

For Jonathan Grode, the U.S. Practice Director at Philadelphia's Green and Spiegel law firm, the introduction to immigration law happened at a hospital. "My father died when I was thirteen. I spent all my teen years thinking the world owed me something. I didn't try very hard in school."

Grode's mother suggested that he learn more about the illness that took his father's life, leukemia. With this in mind, he spent a summer at a leukemia institute working with a Nigerian doctor. Grode remembers, "He instilled in me a remarkable amount of power. He told me that 'people might feel sorry for you now, but nobody is going to do 'it' for you but you.'"

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