Marcela Gyires is a partner in the Fort Lauderdale office of Lewis Brisbois and a member of the Immigration Practice. Marcela is Board Certified in Immigration and Nationality Law in the State of Florida by the Florida Bar Board of Legal Specialization and Education. There are currently only 79 Board Certified Immigration and Nationality attorneys in the entire state of Florida. Board certification is Florida’s official, independent determination of a lawyer’s expertise to practice in a specialty field of law—it is the gold standard for Florida lawyers.

Marcela focuses her practice on U.S. business immigration for companies of all sizes and across all industries. Marcela is often called upon to assist in developing creative strategies for complex matters.  She provides a wide range of legal services for employers seeking to employ foreign nationals on both a temporary and permanent basis and for those seeking guidance on I-9 compliance and related anti-discrimination provisions. 

For a decade prior to joining Lewis Brisbois, Marcela handled family-based immigration, complex naturalization applications, asylum matters, and she represented foreign nationals facing immigration consequences for criminal convictions. An immigrant herself, Marcela was born in Central Mexico and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. Growing up on the U.S.’s southern border provides Marcela with a unique perspective on immigration law.

Certifications

Foreign Language Capabilities

Professional Presentations

• Immigration Section Panelist, 2024, Palm Beach County Bar Association Bench Bar Conference, March 2024 “Navigating U.S. Immigration Options for Athletes”
• University of Florida, Fredric G. Levin College of Law, Entertainment and Sports Law Society’s Symposium, March 2023 “International Athlete Implications”
• Ethics Panelist, “How Much Can a Lawyer Delegate to a Non-Lawyer?” 42nd Annual AILA South Florida Conference, February 2021
• Immigration Section Panelist, 2021 Palm Beach County Bar Association Bench Bar Conference, March 2021
• Team Leader/Presenter, Broward County Hispanic Bar Association’s 2021 Bilingual Conference, January 21, 2021
• Ethics Panelist, Ethical Issues with Third Party Payors in Immigration, AILA South Florida Luncheon, May 2021

Admissions

• State Bar Admissions
  • Florida
  • Texas
• United States District Courts
  • United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida
  • United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida
  • United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida
• United States Courts of Appeals
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

Admissions

FL

TX

U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Florida

U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Third, Fifth, and Eleventh Circuits

Associations

• American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), Miami, Florida, 2014-Present
  • USCIS West Palm Beach Committee, Member 2016-2017; 2019-2020
  • Border Patrol Liaison Committee, Vice-chair, 2019-2020
  • Homeland Security Investigations Committee, Member, 2015-2016
  • Customs and Border Patrol Committee, Co-chair, 2014-2015
• Palm Beach County Hispanic Bar Association, West Palm Beach, 2020-2022

Awards & Honors

• The Florida Bar’s Immigration & Nationality Law Certification Committee, 2023-2024

Education

Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Texas Southern University, Houston, Texas

Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, 2009

• Top 15%

The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas

Bachelor of Arts, Government, Minors in Economics and Portuguese, 2006