Devesh Gupta, barrister and solicitor, ownerAmid this momentous triumph of the nation, a law firm that stands out for consistently making ripples to create huge waves in the immigration space is Mississauga-based Prudent Law. In an exclusive interview with Manage HR magazine, barrister and solicitor Devesh Gupta, owner of Prudent Law, shares insights on how his company is helping individuals, families, and businesses with personalized immigration services aimed at simplifying and expediting the process wherever possible.
Could you outline the unique differentiating factors of Prudent Law that set you apart in the immigration law space?
Prudent Law, first and foremost, is all about customer service. Our ability to implement customer centricity in our day-to-day workflow is what adds to our competitive edge.
From the start, we are very honest and upfront with our clients about the chances of success in their legal matters. Under-promising and overdelivering is our mantra in this regard. This is because of the very nature of our business, which is very delicate, and sometimes an individual’s entire life’s planning depends on us. We want our clients to understand the risks and uncertainties that they might face, and not everything is going to be a smooth sailing. We also do not want to make impracticable promises that negatively impact their livelihood. Honesty and transparency in communication are therefore integral to us for offering good customer service. That’s how we get repeat business from the same client or new clients from their referrals.
Are there specific immigration trends in the market that are pertinent to the legal services you are offering to your clients?
One of the biggest trends, of course, is increased immigration. Barring the brief pause during the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Canadian government has been accepting immigrants in larger volumes than ever before.
Even immigrant applications are at an all-time high now. A major reason behind this is the positive attention North America, in general, and Canada, in particular, received for its capacity to flatten the pandemic curve. Not just individuals, but even businesses are looking to set up their infrastructure in Canada today. The rise in immigration is helping the economic landscape of the country by creating new jobs and spurring innovation.
What, according to you, is the biggest challenge your clients face when it comes to immigration, and how do you tackle the issue?
There always has been one crucial pain point, which is of delays in legal processing. While the reasons for the extended timelines can vary, the outcome always remains the same, client frustration. For instance, in the last two years, one of the causes of delay was the pandemic. Although we were all on the receiving end of the situation, it was the immigration clients who had to bear the brunt of it, as their major life decisions had hit a pause. For those individuals, when a sixmonth processing time extended to more than a year, the impact became huge.
Many of the times, the issue was not about the delay as well, it was the uncertainty of it. Thankfully, the government is now taking proactive steps to try and reduce these delays and give clear timelines. From our end, we are trying to resolve such issues by maintaining transparent communication with our clients.
Could you walk us through your company’s multi-faceted legal team and the value the combined force brings to your clients?
At Prudent Law, we practice different areas of law. Every lawyer specializes in one domain, and lives and breathes in that area of law. For instance, Gordon Vuong is our immigration attorney, who has been practicing immigration law his entire career and whenever a new case law or a regulation is out, Gordon is always on the top of those developments. That kind of specialization by each lawyer is the key that goes back to our roots of providing the best possible customer service.
Then again, we are a firm that also caters to corporate law, real estate, and civil litigation. Since we have different lawyers exhibiting different expertise, whenever we want to bounce ideas and take different perspectives into account for a legal matter, we brainstorm with the entire team. It lets us avoid tunnel vision and think out of the box. Surprisingly, this approach has often helped us devise solutions that may not have been apparent to the original lawyer or that type of law in general.
How does Prudent Law build and nurture relationships with its clients to ensure that immigration processes run smoothly?
Immigration, by its very nature, is a global practice. You must accommodate to your client’s different time zones and schedules. Clocking nine-to-five business hours in Eastern Standard Time, therefore, becomes impractical. You can’t possibly expect a client from another part of the world to hold off a time-sensitive question until it is morning for us or stay up late at night to coordinate at unreasonable hours because it is daytime on our side. It would become very difficult for the client to have a sense of relief and feel in control of their immigration process. For that reason, we offer our clients almost 24/7 access to our immigration lawyers. We share our lawyer’s personal cell phone numbers so they can easily send a message and feel connected with us.
Our ability to implement customer centricity in our day-to-day progression is what adds to our competitive edge
How would you like to highlight or add some key takeaways from this conversation?
Prudent Law has been in practice for nearly a decade now, offering various legal services, with immigration law being one of its recent additions. Our newness in the domain acts more as an advantage than a shortcoming. Being young on the immigration side allows us to look at the arena with a fresh set of eyes, and hence, impact the industry in a constructive way that ultimately leads to our clients’ gain. We are here to bring a positive differentiation and help the global community.
