BRIAN D. O'NEILL
ATTORNEY AT LAW, LLC
BRIAN D. O'NEILL
Our Team
Brian D. O'Neill is a highly experienced attorney celebrating nearly 40 years as a member of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Bars. In 1971 he graduated from the University of Maryland with High Honors and a B.A. degree in Government & Politics. After service in the U.S. Navy from 1971 to 1974, he attended Rutgers-Camden School of Law, where he was on the Editorial Board of the Rutgers-Camden Law Journal. He obtained his J.D. Degree with Honors in 1977.
Brian O’Neill first worked as a litigator with Rawle & Henderson, a well-known firm in Philadelphia. In 1980, he joined the legal staff of Curtiss-Wright Corporation in northern New Jersey, where he quickly mastered defense procurement law, contract law and employment law, and became the chief legal officer of the Company in 1999.
In 2001 Brian O'Neill left corporate life and began a private practice that combines business, employment and immigration law. He is now a highly respected immigration advocate. He has proved time and again that he can handle difficult, life-and-death cases that go far beyond routine immigration applications.
Brian O’Neill’s immigration practice covers virtually all areas of this complex field of the law. He and his Of Counsel team handle complex asylum and family immigration matters, waivers, immigration criminal consequences issues, defenses to removal in immigration court, Special Immigrant Juvenile matters, business immigration and naturalization matters. He also handles employment claims and commercial cases.
Brian O’Neill is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, New Jersey Chapter; the National Employment Lawyers Association, New Jersey Chapter; and the New Jersey Bar Association.
Non-Legal Writings
Outside the law, O'Neill has authored and edited a number of well-received books about American aviation in World War II. Half A Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer: B-17s Over Germany(McGraw-Hill, Special 2nd Ed. 1999) has been continuously in print since the first edition was published in 1989. O'Neill's illustrated history of the U.S. Eighth Air Force's 303rd Bombardment Group (Osprey Publishing Ltd. 2002) is a popular title in Osprey's Aviation Elite series of unit histories. O'Neill also edited and wrote the Forward to Mrs. Jeanne Spencer's World War II-based inspirational autobiography, The Journey (One World Press 2005) .
OF COUNSEL
Since Brian O'Neill began immigration law practice in 2002 he has acquired a strong reputation among his colleagues and adversaries for excellence and attention to detail. His informal "mentoring" of colleagues in the immigration bar, who have sought his advice on difficult cases over the years, has resulted in a number of attorneys having a more formal association with him. At present Brian O'Neill has no less than six “of counsel” lawyers who maintain their own practices, but who work with him on different matters.
They include:
Ifeoma Odunlami
Ifeoma Odunlami is a graduate of Pace University School of Law (1994) where she was a Casenote Editor of the International Law Review. She is admitted in both New Jersey and New York. Following graduation from law school, she did a judicial clerkship in the Family Division, Essex County Superior Court, Newark New Jersey with Hon. Michael J. Nelson.
Ms. Odunlami started her trial career at Harwood Lloyd . She has over twenty years experience as a trial attorney with a strong success record. Ms. Odunlami is the founder and principal of Odunlami Law Firm, LLC where she specializes in Immigration, Bankruptcy, Social Security Disability , Municipal Law and Real Estate. As an immigrant, Ms. Odunlami understands first hand, the fears and and frustrations of dealing with the complicated and tangled immigration process. Her passion is to ensure that intending immigrants achieve their goal of legal residency and citizenship in the United States.
The Odunlami Law Firm, LLC provides individual personalized attention and experienced counsel to our clients. Ms. Odunlami is a proud member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA); the New Jersey Bar Association, the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorney (NACBAR), the Bankruptcy Inns of Court and the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representative (NOSSCR). Ms. Odunlami also donates her time volunteering her services in immigration cases and assisting indigent debtors in bankruptcy proceedings. Ms. Odunlami emigrated from Nigeria and speaks Ibo fluently. (www.odunlamilaw.com)
Marta Cruz Gold
Of Counsel Since 2012
In addition to working with Brian on general immigration matters, Ms. Gold is Brian O'Neill's “go-to” Of Counsel for business immigration cases, due to her many years of experience in that immigration sub-specialty. She also has practices in wills and estates, real estate and bankruptcy. A graduate of Rutgers-Camden School of Law (1994), Ms. Gold is admitted to practice in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She is a former member of the Hopewell Township Zoning Board of Adjustment and the New Jersey District IV Ethics Committee. Ms. Gold is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), New Jersey Chapter; the New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA) (Bankruptcy Law Section and Immigration & Nationality Law Section); and the Mercer County Bar Association. She is also an active participant in the Bankruptcy Inns of Court (South Jersey Section). (http://www.elegalfirm.com/)
Carolina T. Curbelo
Of Counsel Since 2017
Carolina Curbelo is a graduate of Vermont Law School (2005) and a member of the New Jersey Bar (2010) who, like my other Of Counsel, shares a passion for immigration law after obtaining significant experience in other areas of the law. From September 2007 to October 2011, she worked in the litigation department of Sullivan & Cromwell, LLP a famous, New York headquartered, international law firm. There Ms. Curbelo handled securities regulation and antitrust matters. She also advised and consulted with clients on e-discovery and litigation readiness. From October 2011 to May 2015, Ms. Curbelo served as a New Jersey State mediator resolving employment and labor disputes, and as an Appeals Examiner in unemployment appeals for the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Ms. Curbelo also has experience representing clients in residential real estate transactions. Ms. Curbelo is the daughter of Cuban refugees, and is fully bilingual in English and Spanish. Her immigration practice includes Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) Cases for abandoned, neglected and abused children in the U.S., asylum or withholding cases, and a wide variety of other immigration matters in and out of immigration court. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), The Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey, and The New Jersey State Bar Association. (https://www.curbelolaw.com/)
Saba Husain
Of Counsel Since 2010
Ms. Husain is a Pakistani-American attorney whose main area of practice is family law. Her extensive experience in New Jersey family courts handling custody cases and domestic violence matters provides a natural fit for SIJS applications involving abused, neglected or abandoned minors from other countries. Ms Husain has also worked closely with Brian O'Neill on numerous asylum and withholding of removal cases, including battered spouse cases from South Asia. She speaks fluent Urdu. She is a 2007 graduate of the Thomas M. Cooley School of Law in Lansing Michigan, and a member of the New Jersey Bar. https://www.sabalawnj.com
Marilyn C. Levy
Of Counsel Since 2015
Marilyn (“Mimi) Levy is the 2016 recipient of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association “Pro Bono Champion Award.” For more than five years, Ms. Levy has been volunteering legal services at Centro Communitario CEUS, a nonprofit organization that provides immigration legal services and advocates for the immigrant community in Union City, New Jersey. Like Brian O'Neill, Ms. Levy is a former corporate lawyer: she started her career as an associate with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, one of the most famous “Wall Street Law Firms.” Ms. Levy graduated from Columbia Law School in 1990, where she was Co-Managing Editor of the Journal of Chinese Law. She graduated cum laude from Wellesley College in 1984. Ms. Levy is a member of the New Jersey and New York Bars, and (as noted above) is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, New Jersey Chapter. She now devotes herself exclusively to the practice of Immigration Law.
William D. Ware
Of Counsel Since 2013
William Ware is a certified criminal defense attorney, one of approximately 250 lawyers in New Jersey so designated by the State Supreme Court. Mr. Ware has over 20 years experience trying criminal cases, first as a prosecutor and now as a defense attorney. He has had his own firm for the past five years. He earned his BA from Drew University and his J.D. Degree from Vermont Law School in 1988. Mr. Ware and Brian O'Neill frequently collaborate in matters where an alien either faces criminal charges, or already has one or more convictions, which could result in could result in loss of permanent resident status and removal from the United States. (http://williamwarelaw.com/)