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Richard M. Wilner
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Richard Wilner is a founding member of Wilner & O’Reilly, APLC, and is Board Certified by the State Bar of California as a Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law. He is admitted in the U.S. District Court, Central, Northern and Southern Districts of California; the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas; the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit; and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Committed to public service, Mr. Wilner serves as a Commissioner on the State Bar of California’s Immigration and Nationality Law Advisory Commission, and is a member of the following prestigious organizations: The American Bar Association; the Federal Bar Association; and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, for which he serves as the Media Liaison for the Southern California Chapter. He also provides pro bono representation to active-duty soldiers from the United States Armed forces in all their immigration needs.
Known for representing famous athletes, entertainers, businesspersons, and entities in their global immigration needs, Mr. Wilner is hotly sought after as a speaker by major organizations. Even other immigration lawyers seek his advice and counsel. Among his most notable cases is EEOC v. Reeves & Assoc. (United States District Court Case Number, CV-10515), where he and a team of lawyers successfully defended Attorney Robert L. Reeves and his office against allegations of pregnancy discrimination and sexual harassment. This case resulted in the largest reverse award of attorneys’ fees ever assessed against a federal agency. He was also instrumental in the California Supreme Court case against two immigration lawyers, Hanlon and Greene, wherein the two were lambasted by the court for unethical business practices (Reeves v. Hanlon, 33 Cal.4th 1140 (California Supreme Court 2004).
Representative clients include The Gracie Family, World Featherweight Boxing Champion Manny Pacquiao, Allan “Apl” Pineda of the Black Eyed Peas, Team Subaru ESX Motor Sports, and other major Fortune 500 companies.
A native of Los Angeles, California, Mr. Wilner received his law degree (Juris Doctor) as well as a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Transnational Business Practice from McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific and the University of Salzburg, Austria. He also received a Certificate in International Law from the National University of Singapore and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California in 1992. He has also worked in Thailand and Vietnam.
Richard Wilner not only fights for his clients, but also fights for himself. Having retired from Rugby (at the insistence of his wife on behalf of his sons) he is the 2005 American National Brazilian JiuJitsu Champion and the 2006 Silver Medalist at the Pan American JiuJitsu Games.