Joan Duffy Mody, Esq. has been practicing exclusively in the area of Immigration & Nationality Law for her entire career. Ms. Mody practiced in boutique immigration law firms in Manhattan and Hudson County prior to establishing her own firm in 2007. She has handled hundreds of cases involving foreign nationals from nearly every continent. Ms. Mody regularly appears on behalf of her clients before the USCIS offices in New York and New Jersey, the Immigration Courts in New York and New Jersey, and the Board of Immigration Appeals. She has counseled clients in nearly every aspect of immigration law, including but not limited to obtaining green cards through family or employment, student visas, professional visas, intra-company transfer visas, religious worker visas, seasonal worker visas, citizenship, waivers, as well as the defense of asylum seekers, criminal aliens, and other foreign nationals against removal from the United States. Ms. Mody currently serves as Special Immigration Counsel to the Franciscan Sisters of Saint Elizabeth and previously served as such for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Metuchen.
Ms. Mody earned a Juris Doctorate from Seton Hall University School of Law with a focus on International Law in 2001. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Hamilton College, graduating in 1998 with Honors in English Literature and a minor in World Politics. Ms. Mody is fluent in English and Spanish and has a working knowledge of Italian and French.
During law school, Ms. Mody was a member of the Seton Hall Constitutional Law Journal, for which she authored and published a Casenote entitled "Congress Lacks the Authority to Enact a Statute Awarding a Civil Remedy to Victims of Gender-Motivated Crimes Due to Lack of Effect of Such Violence on Interstate Commerce," United States v. Morrison, 529 U.S. 598 (2000), 11 Seton Hall Const. L. J. 569 (2001). She obtained a Public Interest Law Fellowship from Seton Hall University in 2000 to work as a Fellow with the International Human Rights Law Institute of DePaul University School of Law in Chicago, Illinois to monitor and expand development of the International Criminal Court. Ms. Mody also worked as a Student Attorney for the Seton Hall Center for Social Justice Immigration and Human Rights Clinic.
Ms. Mody is admitted to practice law in the State of New Jersey and before the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. She is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and currently serves as Vice Chair of the New Jersey Chapter of AILA. She previously served her community as President of the Mendham Township Library Board of Trustees and currently serves as President of the Mendham Township School District Board of Education.