PRINCIPAL ATTORNEY
Irene Gonzalez
Irene Gonzalez is the founder and Principal Attorney of Hernandez Prada & Associates, established in 2016 to advise entrepreneurs, executives, professionals, and companies on both sides of a single challenge: building a business, and building the workforce and mobility to support it.
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Born in the United States to Venezuelan parents and raised between the two countries, Irene brings a genuinely multicultural perspective to her practice, one that allows her to understand not only the legal mechanics of cross-border business and mobility, but the personal and commercial stakes of relocating, investing, and building a future across borders.
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Irene began her legal career in Venezuela, where she earned her first law degree from Universidad Central de Venezuela and practiced international business law before pursuing an MBA in International Business. She later earned an LL.M. in Transnational and International Law from the University of Miami School of Law and was admitted to practice law in New York. Her early experience in regulatory compliance, risk management, contracts, and negotiation established the business-first perspective that continues to shape her practice.
Irene built her U.S. practice in business immigration, with particular depth in employment-based and investment-based immigration and EB-1 extraordinary ability petitions, where individuals petition for permanent residence based on their own accomplishments and qualifications. She also advises companies, entrepreneurs, investors, and executives on a broad range of immigration matters, including intracompany transfers, treaty investors, national interest waivers, and L and O visa classifications.
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Over the course of her career, Irene has represented multinational companies, entrepreneurs, investors, executives, professionals, and families from around the world. Her approach treats corporate strategy and immigration strategy as interconnected parts of the same plan: understanding how a client operates, what they are building, and where they want to go, then developing legal strategies that support both immediate needs and long-term objectives.
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As Principal Attorney, Irene leads Hernandez Prada & Associates with the conviction that effective legal counsel begins with genuinely understanding what each client is trying to build, and structuring the legal strategy to help them build it with clarity, compliance, and confidence.