I am Attorney Gerald Gornik, and I have been practicing law in California since 1986. For the first part of my career, I practiced criminal defense exclusively, handling thousands of criminal cases and numerous jury trials, including four death penalty trials. I served as the managing attorney of the Pomona Juvenile conflict panel and the co-managing attorney for the West Covina conflict panel for many years.
Throughout my early years as an attorney, I would wonder whether I had made the right decision to go into criminal defense rather than immigration law. I saw immigration law as a way of helping good, honest people achieve their American dream. In 2004, I decided to take the plunge and branch into immigration law. I opened my professional corporation, Vista Legal Services, and we have been going strong ever since.
My office is small compared to some. There is just one attorney—me—and my three excellent legal assistants: Maria Rueda and Alejandra Coyt are in the office daily, and Michele McLain operates as support staff offsite. We are not an immigration mill, grinding out applications and petitions on a mass scale. We are a detail-oriented office, where each client is treated with the individual attention and respect he or she deserves.
Most frequently, individuals are referred to Vista Legal Services by our satisfied existing clients. Alternatively, some clients come to us because they are unhappy with their current representation and have experienced issues such as:
- Limited direct communication with their attorney.
- Speaking with different attorneys each time, who are unfamiliar with their case.
- A lack of updates or explanations regarding the status of their case.
- Not receiving any documentation related to their case.
It is my promise to you that none of that will happen if you choose this law office to help you.
Want to talk to me? Walk into the office. I’m the guy sitting behind the desk you can see through the open interior door on the left. Want an update on exactly where we are on your case? Just ask me. I’ll sit down with you. Want a copy of the paperwork that we filed on your case? Just ask, you have a right to it.
As for fees, we will tell you what they are up front. There won’t be any surprises. This is a law office. We do great work, and we charge attorney fees, which are generally going to be higher than what you would pay an immigration consultant who is not an attorney. But we don’t cheat people or charge more than what is fair. I believe some immigration lawyers charge whatever they feel they can get away with. That may be a good formula for selling a product, but it’s not the way lawyers are supposed to charge, and we don’t.
If you were to ask me what kind of attorney you should look for, this has always been my answer: you want an attorney who cares about your case. It’s that simple. If the attorney and staff care about your case, everything else will follow. The reason we have clients from all over Southern California and beyond is that they have found a law office that will care about their case.
