Tahmina Watson
Founder, President, & Board Chair
Tahmina Watson is an experienced immigration attorney and advocate for immigrants' rights. She is the founder of Watson Immigration Law where she practices exclusively in the area of immigration law with a focus on business immigration matters.
She serves as chair of the Response Committee of the Washington Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA WA), a committee she helped create after the November 2016 election. She serves on numerous organizations and boards both locally and nationally. Tahmina is author of The Startup Visa: Key to Job Growth & Economic Prosperity in America and Legal Heroes in the Trump Era: Be Inspired. Expand Your Impact. Change the World. She is also cofounder of Airport Lawyer, and host of the podcast Tahmina Talks Immigration.
Jay Gairson
Co-Founder, Visa President & Board Member
Jay is an information, immigration, and national security lawyer who merges his technology and legal experience to understand the unique needs of his clients and help them optimize the position of their new companies. He is the founder of Gairson Law.
Erin Albanese
Co-Founder, Secretary, & Board Member
An experienced attorney, Erin has handled complex mergers, acquisitions, financings, and other transactions in a wide range of industries for several institutional firms.
She has a non profit and business law practice at Albanese Law and is one of the founders of Lawyers Moms Foundation.
Takao Yamada
Co-Founder, Treasurer, & Board Member.
Takao Yamada, a Seattle-based attorney, and entrepreneur is a co-founder of WIDEN. He previously helped found AirportLawyer.org. Yamada worked on the app after helping to coordinate the emergency legal response at SeaTac airport. He has worked in public policy and politics for a number of years. In addition to co-founding tech startups, Yamada has worked for the Washington State legislature and as a clerk for Justice Mary Yu. Yamada is a graduate of Georgetown Law and Hobart College.
Minda Thorward
Board Member
After a decade as an attorney working for big law firms and corporations, Minda left the corporate and big firm world as a senior compliance attorney to pursue her passion: immigration law.
Her previous practice experience includes real estate, small business law, compliance, regulatory advisement, and also non-traditional roles, such as legal research consultant. In addition to being the owner and managing attorney of Thorward Immigration Law, PLLC, she is also an Of Counsel attorney for Sound Immigration, Washington State's first web-based immigration law practice.