Richard T. Herman is the founder of Herman Legal Group, an immigration law firm based in Cleveland, Ohio, with a second Ohio office serving Columbus from Worthington. For more than 30 years, Richard has represented immigrants, families, employers, entrepreneurs, students, professionals, and people facing immigration court proceedings.
Richard is also the co-author of Immigrant, Inc.: Why Immigrant Entrepreneurs Are Driving the New Economy, a nationally recognized book about immigrant entrepreneurship, economic growth, and the role of immigrants in rebuilding American cities.
This page explains why clients, journalists, editors, researchers, and civic leaders recognize Richard T. Herman as a trusted immigration lawyer and public voice on immigration law, immigrant entrepreneurship, workforce development, and the future of American communities.
Richard T. Herman is an immigration attorney, author, speaker, and civic advocate based in Cleveland, Ohio. He founded Herman Legal Group, also known as “The Law Firm for Immigrants,” and has spent more than three decades helping people navigate the U.S. immigration system.
Richard’s work includes family immigration, employment immigration, investor and entrepreneur visas, green cards, citizenship and naturalization, waivers, removal defense, immigration court, federal litigation, and complex immigration strategy.
He is known not only for legal representation, but also for public education, policy commentary, media interviews, civic leadership, and his long-standing argument that immigrants are essential to America’s economic and civic future.
Clients should trust Richard T. Herman because his immigration law experience is supported by a long public record of legal practice, published writing, media commentary, speaking engagements, civic leadership, awards, and professional recognition.
Immigration cases are often high-stakes. A visa denial, green card delay, removal case, waiver issue, criminal immigration problem, or citizenship concern can affect a person’s family, job, business, safety, and future in the United States.
Richard’s credentials include:
Richard T. Herman and Herman Legal Group have been selected and retained as independent outside counsel through Mexico’s PALE consular-protection program to assist eligible Mexican nationals in Ohio and Michigan with deportation defense and other U.S. immigration matters, work that spans more than six years. Review HLG’s documented consular-protection work.
Richard has represented clients in many areas of U.S. immigration law, including:
This practical experience gives Richard a ground-level view of how immigration policies affect real people, families, employers, universities, hospitals, startups, religious organizations, and communities.
For clients, this matters because immigration law is not just about filing forms. It is about timing, risk, evidence, discretion, credibility, legal standards, government delays, and long-term strategy.
Richard T. Herman is the co-author of Immigrant, Inc.: Why Immigrant Entrepreneurs Are Driving the New Economy, published by John Wiley & Sons in 2009 with Robert L. Smith.
The book helped advance the national conversation about immigrant entrepreneurship, innovation, job creation, and urban renewal. It argues that immigrants are not a burden on America’s future. They are one of its engines.
Richard’s work on immigrant entrepreneurship shaped his broader public message: immigrants create businesses, fill workforce gaps, strengthen cities, serve in critical industries, buy homes, pay taxes, revitalize neighborhoods, and help America compete globally.
Richard has spoken at conferences, universities, legal programs, civic forums, business events, immigrant entrepreneurship gatherings, and community discussions. His speaking topics include:
Richard’s presentations often focus on a central idea: immigration is not only a legal issue. It is also an economic, workforce, demographic, family, community, and moral issue.
Richard has been the subject of interviews, profiles, and feature coverage focused on his work, ideas, book, law firm, civic advocacy, and views on immigration.
These profiles tell the story behind the legal credentials: Richard’s Cleveland background, immigration practice, advocacy for immigrant entrepreneurs, civic work, and belief that welcoming immigrants can help renew American communities. Being quoted in the media shows expertise; being profiled shows the story behind it.
Read Super Lawyers’ feature profile, “A Lawyer Without Borders.”
Richard’s public writing on immigration spans more than two decades. His verified archive contains more than 90 independently published original works dating to 2004, including articles, op-eds, legal analyses, essays, policy papers, and a book. He writes about:
Richard’s writing grows directly out of more than three decades as an immigration attorney. Rather than focusing only on what a statute, regulation, or court decision says, he examines what those rules mean in practice for immigrants, families, employers, universities, and communities.
Richard’s work has appeared in Law360, Salon, Governing, Washington Examiner, Houston Chronicle, Crain’s Cleveland Business, IndustryWeek, RealClearScience, JURIST, University World News, The Advocate, Common Dreams, New York Amsterdam News, The PIE News, Planetizen, HuffPost, New African Magazine, and many other publications. Several articles have also been syndicated or republished by additional outlets.
Law360, 2026. How Supreme Court developments involving Temporary Protected Status affect employment authorization, I-9 compliance, and workforce planning.
Governing, 2026. Why a patchwork of competing state immigration rules risks undermining the national structure of U.S. immigration law.
RealClearScience, 2026. Immigration policy and America’s ability to attract and retain scientists, researchers, and highly skilled talent.
Houston Chronicle, 2026. The consequences of turning ordinary domestic travel into a potential immigration-enforcement encounter.
Washington Examiner, 2026. Naturalization and the principle that a person born elsewhere can become fully American.
Salon, 2026. What happens when promises of mass enforcement meet legal constraints and operational realities.
Planetizen, 2026. Whether aspiring immigrant business owners can help solve America’s small-business succession problem.
Richard was writing about immigrant entrepreneurship, demographic decline, Rust Belt revitalization, and America’s competition for global talent long before those issues became central to the immigration debate. His early work includes Reclaiming Cleveland’s Immigrant Entrepreneurs (CoolCleveland, 2004), Foreign-Born Entrepreneurs Have Created Millions of Jobs for Americans (Immigration Daily, 2009), Will a Dying City Finally Turn to Immigrants? (New Geography, 2010), and The Resource We’re Throwing Away: Entrepreneurial Immigrants (Governing, 2015).
That continuity matters. Richard’s recent writing on H-1B workers, international students, citizenship, ICE enforcement, and immigration courts is part of a much longer body of work on how immigration law affects the country’s economy, institutions, and people.
Journalists turn to Richard for immigration law analysis, policy commentary, and real-world context on how immigration decisions affect families, employers, workers, students, universities, and communities. He has been quoted by The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR and WBUR’s Here & Now, Forbes, and Business Insider on topics including:
For reporters and producers, Richard brings legal experience, Cleveland roots, a national policy perspective, and real-world client experience.
Richard’s immigration work extends beyond the law office. He helped found Global Cleveland, was a founding adviser to Global Detroit, co-founded TiE Ohio and the Immigrant & Minority Business Alliance, and served on the boards of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, the Cuyahoga County Bar Association, and the Cleveland Council on World Affairs.
This civic record matters because immigration success depends on more than legal paperwork. Immigrants also need welcoming communities, employers, schools, neighborhoods, and civic leaders who understand their value.
Richard has been selected to Super Lawyers every year from 2004 through 2025, holds a Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent® rating, and has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® since 2015 in Immigration Law. His civic work has been recognized by Cleveland mayors, members of Congress, and immigrant-community organizations.
Awards do not replace legal experience, but they show that Richard’s work has been noticed by peers, community leaders, and institutions outside his own law firm.
Richard T. Herman’s work is deeply connected to Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland was built by immigrants. Like many older industrial cities, it later faced population loss, disinvestment, and economic transition. Richard has long argued that immigrants can help cities like Cleveland grow again by starting businesses, filling jobs, buying homes, rebuilding neighborhoods, and connecting local economies to the world.
That perspective gives Richard’s immigration work a distinct voice. He sees immigration not only as a legal system, but as a force for family stability, economic renewal, civic growth, and national competitiveness.
When choosing an immigration lawyer, clients should look for more than a website biography. They should ask:
For families, this can matter in marriage green card cases, waivers, citizenship problems, immigration court, consular processing, and removal defense. For employers, it can matter in H-1B, L-1, O-1, TN, PERM, I-140, and compliance issues. For professionals, students, entrepreneurs, and investors, it can matter in long-term strategy, visa transitions, travel risks, and government delays.
Immigration law changes quickly. Court decisions, USCIS memos, visa bulletin updates, executive actions, and enforcement priorities can create confusion for the public. Journalists, editors, and researchers need sources who can explain:
Richard is available for commentary on immigration law, USCIS, visas, green cards, citizenship, work permits, immigration court, removal defense, immigrant entrepreneurship, international students, and the impact of immigration on American cities.
Richard T. Herman is a Cleveland-based immigration lawyer, founder of Herman Legal Group, author, speaker, media commentator, and civic advocate. He has practiced immigration law for more than 30 years.
Richard T. Herman founded Herman Legal Group, an immigration law firm based in Cleveland, Ohio, also known as “The Law Firm for Immigrants.”
Richard is known for immigration law, immigrant entrepreneurship, employment immigration, family immigration, removal defense, citizenship, civic advocacy, media commentary, and his work connecting immigration to economic growth and urban renewal.
Yes. Richard T. Herman is an immigration attorney with more than 30 years of experience in U.S. immigration law.
Yes. Richard T. Herman is the co-author of Immigrant, Inc.: Why Immigrant Entrepreneurs Are Driving the New Economy, a book about immigrant entrepreneurship and economic growth.
Yes. Richard has published more than 90 independently published articles, op-eds, essays, and legal analyses on immigration law, immigrant entrepreneurship, citizenship, workforce development, due process, and America’s need for global talent.
Yes. Richard has been quoted, interviewed, and profiled by outlets including The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR and WBUR, Forbes, Business Insider, and Super Lawyers magazine.
Yes. Richard has spoken at legal, civic, university, business, immigrant entrepreneurship, and community events on immigration law, economic development, global talent, and the role of immigrants in America’s future.
