Overview

Piyumi works with large corporations seeking to attract highly educated foreign nationals. In this capacity, she ensures each matter is handled with the personal and professional integrity and legal expertise required to successfully relocate top talent to this country. Piyumi’s areas of focus include securing various nonimmigrant classifications, such as:

  • H-1B – professionals (including physicians)
  • L-1A – executives and managers, exchange program students, scholars, trainees, teachers, research assistants
  • J-1 Waiver – medical graduates
  • TN – Canadians and Mexicans entering under the North American Free Trade Agreement
  • R1 – religious workers (R1)
  • P – entertainers
  • O – individuals with extraordinary ability in the arts, sciences, business, athletics, movies, or television.

She also focuses on various immigrant classifications including:

  • Labor certification applications
  • National interest waivers
  • Multinational executives or managers
  • Immediate relative petitions
  • A range of other immigration categories, including citizenship

Honors & Recognitions

  • Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® for Employment Law – Management (2023-2025)
  • Award Recipient, 25 Women to Watch in the Twin Cities, The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, May 2012

Professional & Civic Associations

  • Greater Twin Cities United Way (GTCUW)

    • Board member
    • Executive committee member
    • Former Chair, Governance Committee
  • Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA)
    • Board member
  • Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity (TCHFH)
    • Board member
  • YWCA Minneapolis
    • Former board member
    • Former Chair, Nominations committee
    • Former Vice Chair, Public Policy committee
    • Former member – Strategic Planning committee

Blogs, Videos & Podcasts

Podcasts

  • Immigration Law has a reputation for being something only multinational companies are concerned with, but is that true? How can companies use immigration law to identify the best talent for their organizations? Join host Bill McMahon and guest Piyumi Samaratunga as they break down what immigration law is really about and how it is more accessible than it may seem at first glance.

  • Can business be a force for good? What happens when you have a noble purpose, put people at the center, embrace all stakeholders, treat profit as an outcome, and push your suppliers, vendors and partners to embrace key values along the way? Join Susan Bassford Wilson and guests Piyumi Samaratunga and Hubert Joly for this enlightening discussion. Piyumi is co-chair of  Constangy's Immigration Practice, Partner and head of Constangy’s Minneapolis office. Hubert is former Chairman and CEO of Best Buy credited with the company’s overwhelmingly successful transformation and sustained success, Additionally, he is the author of The Heart of Business – Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism, which was published on May 4th by Harvard Business Review Press and can be ordered via Hubertjoly.org. Hubert is currently a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, where he teaches on issues of business transformation, corporate sustainability, and diversity, equity and inclusion. In this Podcast, Susan, Piyumi, and Hubert discuss the importance of embracing a new set of people-centric principles for this new post COVID19 era in business.

Practices

Education

Hamline University School of Law

  •  J.D., 2001

University of Cambridge

  • Master of Law (LL. M), 1995

Sri Lanka Law College

  • Attorney-at-Law (JD equivalent in Sri Lanka), First Class Honors, 1991

Bar & Court Admissions

  • Minnesota, 2002
  • Sri Lanka

Languages

  • Sinhalese
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