About Michael - Michael Maggio

Michael Maggio, Esquire

March 21, 1947 - February 10, 2008

Michael Maggio was the eldest son of Lena and Peter Maggio of the East Falls section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Michael's father was the president of the M. Maggio Company which he co-owned and operated with his brothers Mario and Salvatore. While the company manufactured several different food-related products, it has been remembered best for Maggio Cheese. Michael's mother joined CAPE (Child Abuse Prevention Effort) in its infancy as a volunteer and later served as its president. Today she is a psychologist for a non-profit organization that specializes in community behavioral health and developmental disability services.

As a youth, Michael attended Chestnut Hill Academy and later the Hun School of Princeton, receiving honors from both schools in the last five years of his life. After attending Georgetown University, Michael spent the later part of the 1960's living in Berkely California. He graduated from Temple University in 1971 leading many politically charged protests on and off campus. In 1978 Michael graduated from the Antioch School of Law (now UDC) in Washington, DC where he later taught.

In 1978 Michael Maggio was admitted to the District of Columbia; U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; U.S. Court of Appeals, Third, Fourth, Sixth and Ninth Circuits; In 1998 Michael was admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court.

After graduation, Michael wasted no time before his foray into the struggle for social justice. Not content to simply secure visas for countless of people, Michael used his advocacy skills to condemn the five-year old CIA-sponsored Augusto Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Among other exiles, he represented Isabel Letelier, widow of Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean ambassador who was assassinated in Washington D.C. by Chilean DINA agents.

Michael strived to integrate his political work and legal practice. A fluent Spanish speaker, Michael was active in the opposition to U.S. intervention in Chile, El Salvador and Guatemala in the late 1970's and early 1980's and represented refugees from those countries who sought asylum. He also represented Iranians opposed to U.S. policies and Nicaraguans opposed to U.S. intervention in their country.

While teaching an immigration law class at Antioch Michael met Candace Kattar, a student. Michael and Candace married in 1982, celebrating 26 years of marriage before Michael's passing. Together they worked side by side, fighting for the rights of countless individuals and challenging injustices throughout the world. Today, Candace is the executive director of Identity, a non-profit that empowers Latino youth to reach their full potential through culturally and linguistically competent youth and family-based initiatives.

Michael Maggio began practicing immigration law in 1978 in the Adams Morgan section of Washington, DC in a one room office. Later, he and Candace, founded Maggio & Kattar, a boutique immigration law firm. Together, Michael and Candace built the firm from the ground up and in the 1980's took up the legal defense of Central Americans caught in a web of U.S. policies that sought to deny them asylum and deport them to places where their lives were clearly in danger.

“Michael loved and hugged them, made them laugh, and dried their tears. In return they brought him wine, feted him in their local restaurants, and of course took him home to meet the family. Michael’s magnetism was there from the start,” recalled Peter Schey, fellow National Lawyers Guild member and friend, about Michael's relationship with his clients.

Candace and Michael moved Maggio & Kattar to its present location on Dupont Circle and the firm now employs over 40 immigration professionals representing individual foreign nationals and a select group of Fortune 500 and other companies as well as non-profits, universities and diverse institutions across the nation and around the world. "He was incredibly dedicated to his clients, he had a very strong commitment to justice, he hated intolerance, and he could disagree with you without ever seeming personal, disagreeable or abrasive," said colleague and friend Andres Benach.

Michael Maggio was a nationally recognized authority on numerous complex areas of immigration law. Throughout his career, Michael received countless professional awards and was honored for his extraordinary legal representation, astute strategizing, unwavering commitment to the highest ethical standards, and his deep passion for justice and upholding the rule of law. He had been named "Washington's best immigration lawyer" by The Washingtonian magazine, and listed in The Best Lawyers in America and International Who's Who of Business Immigration Lawyers. He practiced immigration law passionately for 30 years.

Michael was involved in many high-profile immigration related matters during his illustrious career representing everyone from Guatemalan housekeepers and Fortune 500 companies to a Russian "whiz-kid" millionaire pursued by the KGB and threatened with deportation.

Michael was not one to hold his tongue. In 1996 he publicly compared the Washington regional office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to "Dante's rings of hell." Two years later, Michael said, "The bureaucracy is unresponsive, the building is Third Worldly, the computer equipment is a decade old. It's a disgrace to have this office serving the nation's capital." When teaching at various Universities over the years, Michael was known to begin a semester by telling his students that lesson number one in immigration law was, "Never get into bed with the INS."

"He was a brilliant legal mind who not only interpreted the law without peer, but he recognized also that justice could only be served by changing it. His life embodied that commitment to change," said friend and colleague José Pertierra who would battle Michael frequently on the tennis court. "He played tennis in the same manner he practiced law. He fought like a tiger for every point."

At the U.S. House of Representatives on April 5, 2001, Michael received the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom's Constitutional Rights Award "In Recognition Of His Outstanding Legal Service, Commitment to Due Process, And Resolute Stand Against The Use Of Secret Evidence."

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild honored Michael Maggio on October 26, 2004, "for his courageous and visionary work in defending immigrant rights and, in so doing, strengthening the Constitutional rights of all U.S. residents and citizens." Michael, an author of numerous publications also received the Tahirih Justice Center's 2002 Pushing the Envelope award "for his pioneering legal work and generous support of immigrants."

As a past President of the AILA District of Columbia Chapter Michael appeared before the United States Supreme Court in 2007 on behalf of the organization. Michael was active in numerous other immigrant rights organizations, including Immigrants' List and the Tahirih Justice Center.

Michael had served as an Adjunct Professor of immigration law at numerous law schools including American University, and he worked as a lobbyist on Capitol Hill before becoming an attorney. "Michael was a dynamic teacher, who was engaging and not afraid to make controversial statements. He shaped understanding of immigration issues and gave them passion," recalled Jim Alexander, friend, managing partner of Maggio & Kattar and former student.

"My Uncle Michael was like a father to me. As a child I would spend summers working for him in awe." recalls Michael's nephew Peter "Jamie" Maggio. "I accompanied him on a cab ride to court one day and the driver refused payment and excitedly told Michael that he was the reason that the driver and his family were able to live and work in America as citizens. Michael remembered the driver and his family by name, asking about his children and wife. That is when I began to comprehend his impact on humanity."

Michael was a man of many passions. He had a love for good food and wine. "Michael was the best person to share a meal with. He was the real Zagat's, not that pretender they sell in stores. For Michael choosing the right restaurant was more crucial than choosing a university, a lawyer, or a spouse; it was a way to prop up civilization. Sharing food was Michael's way to herd friends together and examine us, to make sure we were okay... where every glass of wine was a sacrament and dinner conversation an act of love. Sometimes it seemed there wasn't a maitre d’, waiter, busboy or chef at a District restaurant who wasn't working there thanks to Michael," said life-long friend Mark Rosenthal.

Michael had an incredible eye for art and architecture. He had an amazing sense of fashion whether he was dressed casually or for the court room. He adored his family and friends and cherished them both unconditionally.

After being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in May of 2007, Michael courageously and consistently fought for ten long months. He had enormous sunshine in his heart and the amazing gift to share it with those he met along life's journey. Those who were fortunate to know Michael knew that he stood tirelessly for justice, equality and peace, primed with a large measure of love, optimisim, humor and friendship.

"By any measure Michael's loving heart and intellect combined to make him an extraordinary lawyer, one who embraced a passion for social justice with perhaps an even greater passion for life – a life filled with love, optimism, story-telling, and laughter over good food and wine made from grapes he could tell you everything about. Michael's enthusiasm for a common and shared happiness was his real passion," said Peter Schey.

Michael Maggio passed away on February 10, 2008. A funeral mass was held for Michael on Thursday February 14th 2008 at Saint Bridget Parish in his hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. View the mass card from the services

On Saturday March 8th 2008 a memorial service was held in Michael's honor at Johnny's Half Shell, restaurant of friends Johnny Fulchino and Ann Cashion in Washington, DC. Hundreds of friends and family gathered again to celebrate Michael's life, share stories and raise their glasses to a great man. View the memorial service program. A memorial mass was held for Michael at Saint Lucy's church on March 21, 2009.

After 60 amazing years on this earth, Michael Maggio changed the world, making it a better place.

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