An immigration lawyer's (49 th ) parallel lives
Edmonon Journal, February 5, 2005
(See the article as published - click here)

Andy Semotiuk's career split between city, L.A.

Every three weeks, Andy Semotiuk travels from one law office beside the Tim Hortons in a Castle Downs strip mall to his other law office on the 23 rd floor of a skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles .

It's an unusual situation, but Semotiuk, 56, is a not your run-of-the-mill lawyer. He is one of a handful of lawyers licensed to practice immigration law in both Canada and the United States . He was one of Canada 's observers in the recent Ukrainian election and covered the United Nations as a journalist back in the '70s, working as a correspondent for Southam News in New York .

Although he worked largely with refugees in the past, these days he specialized in business and professional immigration, with 80 per cent of his cases involving Canadians who want to move to the U.S. , including many with American spouses. The other 20 per cent are U.S. citizens wanting to come here.

Some of the Americans who immigrate to Canada are in the film business and looking for the advantages of tax breaks and cheaper production costs. Some are what he calls "lifestyle" immigrants who think they'll find a cleaner, healthier and more humane environment outside of Bush's America .

A new segment of his caseload involves "virtual draft dodgers," whose numbers are growing with the war in Iraq and the possible military involvement of the U.S. in other countries.

It's not a tidal wave, but there families concerned about mainly sons who could be drafted three, four, five years from now, and they're opening up the possibility of coming to Canada ," Semotiuk says.

Life can be a bit disorienting. He's often working on American files from his Canadian office, and vice versa. He has to keep two sets of staff, two homes and even two sets of identification.

And he just loves L.A.

"I think it's a wonderful city," he says. "It's just spectacular. Any time, day or night, you can find whatever you need. I like the action, the sparkle and glitz of Hollywood ."

Semotiuk has a life in L.A. Both of his children are studying there, and in his spare time he attends concerts and takes courses about the film business and writing. He just finished a stint as president of the Beverly Hills Bar Association, where his main duties involved organizing schmoozefests for L.A. Lawyers.

He then uproots himself from the sunshine and smog to return to the Great White North for three weeks.

Semotiuk, who has practiced law for more than 30 years, moved to Toronto after graduating from the University of Alberta . He got the journalism bug after doing some work for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, and managed to land a job covering the United Nations, where he came in contact with the world leaders including Jimmy Carter and Idi Amin.

To ease the boredom after suffering a broken leg, he decided, he decided to study for New York state bar exam and managed to pass.

He practiced general law in a two-man firm in New York for a couple of years. His most vivid memory of that time was serving papers to a lawyer who ran his office out of a bar.

Family eventually brought him back to Edmonton in 1979, and it was family that took him to L.A. in the early '90s. He had an ailing aunt there who he was going back and forth to visit.

On one of those trips, he decided to try to become a member of the California bar.

It took him three attempts to pass the California bar admission exam, and like the 220,000 actors in L.A. he had visions of working in the movie industry.

He sent out literally thousands of resumes, but didn't get a bite, which he figures was related to his age. He finally broke in with Manning, Marder, etal, after presenting himself as a specialist in immigration law.

Semotiuk modestly compares his practice to McDonald's - he does what he does very competently but doesn't offer a lot of variety. He doesn't go for high profile cases, although last year he handled the case of a deportation order against a Ukrainian nurse who was caring for her ailing grandfather in Edmonton . About six weeks ago, Semotiuk traveled to Ukraine as a Canadian observer to Ukraine in the historic and controversial election. He saw no irregularities at the polls he visited in Khmelnytsky, a city in western Ukraine .

"It was a lesson in how profoundly important an honest ballot and process is, and how significant it is for a society to choose its leader," he says.