Teri A. Simmons is a partner in and leads the International Immigration and Naturalization Practice. She also serves as practice leader of the German Business Practice. Ms. Simmons has been practicing law since 1989 and has represented companies as large as the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, for which she managed visa processing for thousands.
Ms. Simmons focuses her practice on the management of legal services supporting foreign-owned business entities and individuals investing in the United States in the areas of corporate, employment and immigration law. As an immigration lawyer, she manages companies’ global immigration needs through the Employment/ Immigration Law Alliance as well as both U.S. immigrant and non-immigrant visa processing for businesses and families (temporary work visas and green cards), immigration consequences of mergers and acquisitions and immigration reform and control act compliance. Under Ms. Simmons’ leadership, AGG’s Immigration Practice Team was hailed by the Legal 500 as having “one of the most prominent reputations for immigration law in the Southeast of the United States.”
Ms. Simmons is very active in the international community. Fluent in written and spoken German, she serves on the Boards of the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Southeastern U.S., the German American Cultural Foundation and the German School of Atlanta. She manages the legal needs of German-owned corporations throughout the U.S. She has been featured in Atlanta Woman magazine in an article titled “Bringing the German Ways to Law” (December 2008). Ms. Simmons also serves on the Board and is past president of the Georgia-Indo American Chamber of Commerce and is quoted in a June 2009 GlobalAtlanta.com article titled “Atlanta, Georgia Reach Out to India.”
Ms. Simmons serves as chair of the Atlanta Sister Cities Commission, which supports Atlanta's relationship and exchange in the areas of economic development, education, sports and humanitarian aid with 18 cities around the world. In 2011, the Commission won the Sustainable Development—Energy Award for its international conference entitled “Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Atlanta Sister Cities Economic Development Global Partnership Forum 2010,” and in 2009, the Commission won the award for Innovation for Sustainable Development programming. In May 2009, she was quoted in a GlobalAtlanta.com article titled “Award Energizes Atlanta Sister Cities Partnerships.” She also serves on the Board of the Atlanta Council for International Relations.
Ms. Simmons works frequently on legislative initiatives supporting U.S. economic development and business immigration initiatives, having served as the chair of the Atlanta Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and on its national Customs and Border Protection Committee. She is also actively involved in the Employment Law Alliance, AGG's Global Partner Alliance of firms supporting the global movement of personnel. She is a frequent speaker for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, multiple international chambers of commerce and foreign associations on international business and immigration law.