King: Immigration lawyers want to spend more time talking to their clients
A US company that earlier this year set up a law firm backed by its AI system has made its first UK hire to manage its expansion both here and elsewhere around the world.
Sophy King has been appointed president of international immigration at Manifest OS with an ambitious brief to expand to more than 100 jurisdictions and open 40 offices over the next year as it looks to establish an AI-native business immigration practice on a global scale.
The software developed by Manifest OS, which raised $60m in a Series A round [1] earlier this year, operates through Manifest Law, an alternative business structure (ABS) licensed in Arizona, the only US state to have changed its rules to allow ABSs.
Ms King – who has led major corporate immigration businesses like Newland Chase and Envoy Global – told Legal Futures that the UK operation would likely be regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority, as it did not need to become an ABS here at the moment. There will be an office in London.
Manifest founder Dan Mishin said: “Our international expansion is driven by us listening to our clients who told us about how broken the status quo of working with legacy law firms is – inconsistent quality between different geographies, lack of unified reporting, lack of centralized client success.
“So, we decided to build our global immigration business differently and bring together experienced local counsel, a centralised global team and one operating system to deliver the same reliable, high-quality immigration support wherever our law firms’ clients hire and move talent.”
Manifest Law’s original model in the US saw it operate as a platform that allowed lawyers to build their own firms under a common brand, but it is also now hiring them and Ms King, who is not a qualified lawyer, said her focus was on employing lawyers and other immigration professionals in the UK.
She wanted teams, rather than individuals, in all the countries Manifest was targeting. “I am very interested in the idea that, if you’re using AI properly, you keep your team small on purpose.”
She went on: “You have to design from the very start with a global mindset, so that you can create consistent, excellent quality, a unified team, and technology that can not only bring together a company’s global programme but also anticipate their needs in every country.”
Ms King explained that she had worked at the intersection of technology and traditional immigration practice for her whole career and saw its potential to help build a global network: “In multi-country immigration, there’s a huge amount of data and knowledge that has to go into providing advice to the client.”
She was excited by the speed with which Manifest OS founder Dan Mishin wanted to grow – “this is what I used to think was possible before everybody told me it wasn’t” – and said the technology on offer would appeal to practitioners.
“The immigration lawyers I know want to spend more time talking to their clients. They don’t want to fill in forms. They want to be partners.
“If you’re going to run an immigration programme properly for your client, you can’t just wait for them to come to you and say, ‘I would like a work permit’. You should be saying to them, ‘You are going to need 20 work permits next year, and here’s how we’re going to make that work for you so that it’s easier, quicker or cheaper or whatever it is that you want to do’.”
Mr Mishin told Legal Futures that Manifest would expand into another area of law next year but declined to reveal which one at this stage. He said revenue had grown 10-fold this year but again would not put figures on this yet.
Manifest is now serving more than 500 corporate clients and is building its wider credibility, hiring Jeff Joseph, current president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, as its president of immigration strategy.
Mr Joseph said: “We see the future where Manifest OS platform enables global mobility managers at companies to become strategic partners to business leaders, not just coordinators of visas and relocations.
“Their work will influence how companies choose new office locations, conduct M&A and use immigration as a strategic lever to hire and retain the best talent.”