About Our Firm                                                                  
Gerard Chapman is the founder of Chapman Law Firm, located in Greensboro, NC.   He has been a Board Certified Immigration Specialist since 1997.  He graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1973 with a BA in International Studies, and in 1978 he received his JD, cum laude, from the University of Georgia School of Law.  

Mr. Chapman has handled virtually every kind of family based and employment based immigration case since 1987.  In 2006, he expanded his practice to include removal defense, and appeared in the Atlanta immigration court until the Charlotte court opened.   Recently, he was sole counsel in the seminal case of Matter of Garcia-Arreola, 25 I&N Dec. 267 (BIA 2010), which overruled long-standing prior precedent regarding Mandatory Detention.Regarding professional activities, Mr. Chapman served as a Trustee of the American Immigration Law Foundation (now the American Immigration Council) from 2002 to 2008, and remains a Trustee Emeritus of AIC.  He served as Chair of the Carolinas Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) from 1998-2000, and has served as Chair or Co-Chair of four national AILA Committees:  the Immigrant Investor Visa Committee (1990-93); the Committee on Intracompany Transferees and International Managers and Executives Subject to Transfer (1993-94); the Essential Worker Committee (1999-2004); and the Consumer Protection Committee (2010-11).  He presently serves as a member of AILA’s Access to Counsel Committee.  From 2007 to 2008, he served on AILA’s Liaison Committee with the DHS Executive Office For Immigration Review (EOIR), and he has served as a Mentor on Ethics from 2003 to the present.   Mr. Chapman also served on AILA’s 2008 Strategic Planning Committee to evaluate AILA’s missions, goals and programs.  He has authored articles in several publications and has lectured regularly at AILA’s annual national conference, as well as at numerous other programs in the US and abroad.   He has been heavily involved in AILA’s efforts to secure immigration reform on a national level, and through his service on the Carolina’s Chapter Faith Based Committee, he is working on reform with multiple contacts in the larger faith community.  He is included in the 2007-2012 editions of the Best Lawyers in America, in the specialty of immigration law.  He also has been chosen for inclusion in the 2008-12 lists for Super Lawyers in the field of immigration law in North Carolina.   Mr. Chapman is conversant in Spanish.
“Our ability to help clients in their cases with USCIS, DOS and DOL over the years has been extremely satisfying, especially where those cases have been highly complex,” says Mr. Chapman.  He continues:  “Cases have become even more challenging over the last several years with deportation issues adding another layer of complexity.   Even so, we have enjoyed a number of significant successes, including Garcia-Arreola, a case in which the BIA established new and workable rules on Mandatory Detention, by reversing its holding in a precedent case from years ago.   We also have been able to use very new legislation to re-open and obtain an approval for one of our clients in a 2001 green card case where the petitioner (the client’s sister) died years ago, leading USCIS to deny the case.   With USCIS’ recent decision to re-open that case, we now are filing a motion to terminate the client’s deportation case.  When we began representing this client, it appeared that he had no options at all.    As in all of our cases, detailed and focused research by the paralegal on this case, and effective teamwork between that paralegal and the lawyer let us achieve a singular result for this client.” 
Gerard M. Chapman Attorney