About Dr. Tamara
Dr. Tamara Relis combines academic training and courtroom work in a way that shapes how she approaches immigration law. She holds an array of degrees in law and human rights and has carried research interests into practical advocacy. Those twin strands — scholarship and practice — show up in the cases she takes and the papers she has produced.
Her legal education began at The London School of Economics and Political Science, where she completed an LL.B, an LL.M and a Ph.D. in Law in 1996. Her studies at LSE covered conflict resolution, alternative dispute resolution and human rights. She later spent time as a postdoctoral research fellow at Columbia University, finishing that work in 2005. At Columbia she examined law, human rights and efforts to improve legal systems so they better serve clients.
After years of academic research and practical training, she moved into private practice and opened her own firm. She is the founder and principal lawyer of RelisLaw. The firm presents itself as a specialist practice handling visas and immigration matters. Her legal work draws on those earlier studies in ADR and human rights while addressing concrete client needs: visa petitions, adjustment of status matters and cross-border immigration challenges.
Her professional affiliations include membership in the American Immigration Lawyers Association. That association ties her into an active network of practitioners who handle immigration law across the United States. She maintains a practice in New York and handles matters that reflect both the procedural side of immigration law and broader questions of rights and protections for migrants.
Colleagues and clients have noted that her background in conflict resolution informs how she approaches negotiations and case strategy. She often blends litigation pathways with negotiated outcomes where appropriate. Her academic publications and postdoctoral research give her an analytical frame for evaluating complex cases and for identifying system-level issues that affect individual clients.
RelisLaw operates as a boutique firm centered on visas and immigration issues. The office handles family- and employment-based petitions, humanitarian protections and related counseling. She continues to publish and to speak on topics that intersect law and human rights while running a practice that serves individuals and families navigating U.S. immigration rules.
Her current practice focuses on visas and immigration matters.
