Wildes & Weinberg, P.C. Senior Partner Leon Wildes recalled his personal handling of the John Lennon deportation matter at the Englewood Public Library, Englewood, NJ. Michael Wildes, the firm’s Managing Partner and Leon’s son, led the Q & A. December 2019.
YouTube Link to the Lecture, Click Here: https://youtu.be/5oS4x_9dl_I
Leon Wildes is best known for his successful representation of former Beatle John Lennon and his artist wife, Yoko Ono, in deportation proceedings.
Between 1972 and 1976, Leon represented Lennon and Ono in their struggle to remain in the United States, despite the concerted attempts of the Nixon Administration to deport them.
The case (which included bringing four separate Federal lawsuits) not only resulted in John and Yoko getting their green cards and being able to remain in the United States, but it also led to substantial changes in immigration law and brought to light secretive government practices and undue political influence, whichhas resulted in greater transparency in the U.S. immigration system and which paved the way for DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration policy.
Leon Wildes’ long-awaited memoirs of the case, aptly titled John Lennon vs. the U.S.A ., is published by Ankerwycke Books, an imprint of ABA Publishing, a division of the American Bar Association.
Since the book’s launch in August 2016, nearly 5,000 copies have been purchased. Leon and his son Michael Wildes, the Managing Partner of the firm who also wrote the foreword to the book, have appeared on dozens of TV and radios shows including Good Day NY, The Michael Stolar Show, and The Lawrence O’Donnell Show. More than 1,000 people have attended a “Conversation with Leon Wildes”, at noteworthy institutions such as The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, and The Lower East Side Tenement Museum. The book has been reviewed and discussed by Rolling Stone, Billboard Magazine, The NY Post, and many other impressive periodicals.
Michael Wildes, the firm’s Managing Partner, who was sworn in for a third term as Mayor of Englewood, New Jersey on January 1, 2019, authored Safe Haven in America: Battles to Open the Golden Door, which draws on over a quarter of a century of his practice in the immigration field. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York and serves as Counsel to Lincoln Center and several international/corporate law firms. Michael is internationally renowned for his successful representation of distinguished individuals and corporate clients such as performing artists, directors, writers, models, actors/actresses, athletes, race car drivers, fine artists, art dealers, curators, musicians, photographers, stylists, and literary agents. Some of the firm’s other distinguished clients include scholar Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, soccer icon Pele, Master Chef Jean-Georges and First Lady Melania Trump and her family.
Today, the firm of Wildes & Weinberg maintains offices in New York City, New York; Englewood, New Jersey; Miami, Florida; and a presence in Los Angeles, California. It continues to maintain its stellar reputation in the field of U.S. Immigration & Nationality Law.
For more information please visit the firm’s website at www.wildeslaw.com or contact michael@wildeslaw.com for media inquiries.