2011 Forty Under 40: Marco Moreno

 

About me…

Marco Moreno
Partner
Lewis & Kappes
37

Web sites:

www.lewis-kappes.com

Social media:

Marco A. Moreno

On my hip:

iPhone

Most-used apps:

CNN
theindychannel.com
OnStar
Google Maps
iTunes

Favorite stuff:

Books, including "An Unquiet Mind," by Kay Redfield Jamison, and "The Associate," by John Grisham; movies, including "Good Will Hunting," "The Closer" and "The Kite Runner;" TV shows, including "The Apprentice" and "The Good Wife;" places, including Fall Creek Place, and downtown Indianapolis and Chicago; commentators, including Christiane Amanpour and George Stephanopoulos

 

Marco Moreno’s law career began years before he became a lawyer. As a college undergraduate, he worked as a clerk for George Brown, a superior court judge in LaGrange County, where he learned his way around the court system. And because he’s bilingual, Moreno was able to help as an interpreter for legal proceedings and marriages at a time when the Latino community there was beginning to grow.

“Doing things for the community that affect the Latino population is really what I enjoy doing,” said Moreno, who became a partner this year in the Indianapolis law firm Lewis & Kappes PC. The firm gave him his start as a summer associate in 2002, and he has worked there ever since.

Moreno specializes in immigration law, and Lewis & Kappes’ practice in that specialty offers deportation defense, assistance with employment-based and family-based petitions and student visas.

Moreno serves as co-chairman of U.S. Rep. Andre Carson’s newly created Latino Advisory Council, which advises the congressman on Latino issues. Moreno also serves on the board of the Latino Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, chairs the Latino Affairs Committee for the Indiana State Bar Association and is vice chairman of its International Law Section.

His work in immigration law extends beyond the Latino community. In 2008, he received the Public Service Recognition Award from his alma mater, the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis, for a pro bono case he handled involving a 20-year-old Chinese woman who’d been sold into sex slavery and brought to the United States at age 12. He helped her retain permanent resident status, and today she’s majoring in chemistry at Indiana University.

“I always remember that particular case,” Moreno said. “Seeing the smile on her face and knowing how much she appreciated everything I did was just so rewarding.”•

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