Officers

Officers

Hon. Mimi TsankovPresident

City, State: New York, NY

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The Honorable Mimi Tsankov is President of the National Association of Immigration Judges. In her personal capacity, she was elected to the Board of Directors of the Federal Bar Association (FBA), and has been appointed Vice President for Publications at the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ). She serves as Secretary to the American Bar Association (ABA) National Conference of Administrative Law Judiciary (NCALJ) and was recently appointed by the ABA President to the United Nations Department of Global Communications. Judge Tsankov has published articles in the U.S. Department of Justice, Immigration Legal Advisor, and in various academic law journals. She speaks regularly before members of the immigration law community at international, national, and regional conferences. Currently, she teaches International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School.

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Hon. Samuel B. ColeExecutive Vice President

City, State: Chicago, IL
Phone: (312) 399-6794

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The Honorable Samuel B. Cole has been an Immigration Judge in Chicago since July 2016. He presides over a detained docket.

Prior to his appointment as an immigration judge, Judge Cole was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois from 2003-2016. He served both in the Civil Division and the Criminal Division. He spent most of his prosecution career focused on complex fraud, including healthcare fraud. He also prosecuted public corruption and national security cases. Judge Cole was awarded the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in 2007 for his work on a healthcare fraud False Claims Act case. He graduated Harvard Law School cum laude in 1998 and Rice University magna cum laude in 1995.

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Hon. Dorothy HarbeckSecretary-Treasurer

City, State: Elizabeth, NJ
Phone: (908) 787-1351

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The Honorable Dorothy Harbeck was appointed to the Elizabeth, NJ Immigration Court in 2006 and transferred to the New York City Immigration Court in 2019. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from Wellesley College, with honors in English and a special studies certificate with honors from the Universite’ Catholique De L’Ouest in Angers, France. She earned her Juris Doctor from Seton Hall University School of Law, where she was awarded the ASCAP/Nathan Burkan Prize for a meritorious paper on the use of demonstrative evidence in musical copyright infringement cases. She attended a program on comparative law at Jesus College, Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. She also received a certificate in trial advocacy skills from the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA) at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Judge Harbeck’s particular research interests include the presentation of evidence in trial court. She is an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School (Trial Skills), Seton Hall University School of Law (Persuasion & Advocacy) and Rutgers University School of Law in Newark (Immigration & Nationality). She is a faculty member at the Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs at Wellesley College, where she has taught on the history of citizenship. She also teaches deposition skills for NITA and has been a lecturer and the immigration law program coordinator for the New Jersey Judicial College (NJJC).

She has published articles in Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, Seton Hall Legislative Journal, Rutgers Law Record, Fordham Urban Law Journal, St. John’s University Journal of International and Comparative Law, Connecticut Public Interest Law Journal, Federal Lawyer, ABA Judges Journal, Immigration Law Advisor, New Jersey Law Journal, and New Jersey Lawyer. Judge Harbeck has been an author and lecturer for NJICLE for more than fifteen years. She was a panelist comparing U.S. asylum procedures with Italian asylum procedures at the 2013 NJSBA Mid-Year Conference in Rome, Italy, a panelist on Human Trafficking at the 2014 NJSBA Mid-Year Conference in Paris, France and a panelist on Effective Trial Skills at the 2016 NJSBA Mid-Year Conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Further, she was NAIJ’s representative to the UNHCR—The UN Refugee Agency for its project on creating its Legal Representation Manual for Stateless Persons in the United States in 2017.

She is a member of the executive board of the Federal Bar Association – Immigration Law Section and was recognized by two separate FBA components for her efforts in education and legal scholarship. For her CLE and publication efforts, she was appointed as a Fellow of the Federal Bar Foundation in 2014.

Prior to her appointment to the bench, Judge Harbeck was a litigation attorney in private practice. She has tried civil jury cases and New Jersey Department of Labor cases. She has argued in trial and appellate courts at both the state and federal levels including the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. She is a former Assistant Warren County Counsel and former alternate municipal prosecutor for Atco Township, Camden County. She is a master at the Haydn Proctor Inn of Court (Monmouth County, NJ), where she was initially a pupil in its inaugural class approximately 25 years ago. Judge Harbeck is a member of the N.J. and N.Y. state bars.

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Hon. Scott LaurentVice President- Western Region

City, State: Los Angeles, CA

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The Honorable Scott Laurent is Vice President (Western Region). Judge Laurent was appointed as an immigration judge in August 2008. He received a bachelor of arts degree in 1986 from the University of Missouri and a juris doctorate in 1989 from the University of Missouri, School of Law. From June 1996 to August 2008, Judge Laurent served in various positions with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), most recently as lead attorney in the Assistant Chief Counsel’s office where he supervised the litigation unit at the San Pedro Detention Center. From February 1995 to May 1996, he worked as an attorney in private practice. From October 1991 to February 1995, Judge Laurent entered on duty through the Attorney General’s Honors Program as an attorney with the former INS. From September 1989 to May 1991, he worked as a judicial clerk with the Honorable Edith L. Messina, 16th Judicial Circuit Court, Independence, Mo. He is a member of the Missouri Bar.

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Hon. Holly D'AndreaVice President- Eastern Region

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Attorney General William Barr appointed Holly A. D’Andrea to begin hearing cases in May 2019. Judge D’Andrea earned a Bachelor of Science in 2003 from Oklahoma State University and a Juris Doctor in 2006 from Saint Louis University School of Law. From 2011 to 2019, she served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, Department of Justice (DOJ), in Brownsville, Texas. From 2016 to 2017, she served as the national border and immigration legal issues coordinator with the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, DOJ, in Washington, D.C. From 2008 to 2010, she was an assistant prosecuting attorney, assistant county counselor, and city attorney in Washington County, Missouri. From 2007 to 2008, she was in private practice. Judge D’Andrea is a member of the Missouri and Texas Bars.

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