08/18/2026
Managing Partner Mayor Michael Wildes, Esq. to Teach at Columbia Law School!
Michael Wildes Brings Decades of Immigration Expertise to Columbia University as a Lecturer in Law. Mr. Wildes is also an Adjunct Professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law for the past fifteen years. He will be teaching at both institutions this coming semester.
In addition to the two law courses, he teaches at Cardozo--Michael Wildes will now join Columbia Law School this fall teaching a course in Business Immigration, Visas, Workforce, and Compliance Law. A nationally recognized immigration attorney, educator, and public servant, Mr. Wildes has spent nearly than four decades at the forefront of U.S. immigration law. He serves as Managing Partner of Wildes & Weinberg, P.C., one of the nation's oldest and most distinguished immigration law firms, founded by his father in 1960, Leon Wildes, whose landmark representation of former Beatle John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono Lennon helped shape modern immigration law.
Mr. Wildes earned his law degree from the Cardozo School of Law (1989). Mr. Wildes often shares that he met his wife while attending his father’s class at Cardozo, where his father also taught for thirty-three years, and later had the privilege of teaching two of his own four children. His son Josh has joined the firm as well.
Throughout his career, Mr. Wildes has represented a diverse clientele including Fortune 500 executives, celebrity artists and athletes, Nobel prize winners, and heads of state along with thousands of immigrants pursuing their own American Dream. (Some notable clients: Yoko Ono Lennon, Sinead O’Connor, Boy George, Pelé, Karim Benzema, Mike Tyson, Melania Trump, Dolly Parton, Jean Georges, Gisele Bundchen, Ana Ivanovic, Lionel Richie, Tom Clancy, and Millie Bobby Brown, among others).
Mr. Wildes served as a Federal Prosecutor (1989-1993) with the United States Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn (EDNY). Mr. Wildes testified on Capitol Hill in 1999 regarding anti-terrorism immigration legislation and has been a frequent legal analyst for national and international media outlets including Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, and many more. He was previously appointed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan to the District Appeals Board of the Selective Service System for the State of New York where he served for 20 years. He currently serves as Immigration Counsel to the iconic Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Yeshiva University. Mr. Wildes has been selected as a Super Lawyer every year for the last decade and is currently serving his fifth term as Mayor of Englewood, New Jersey, where he resides with his family.
Mr. Wildes has already authored two books published by the American Bar Association: Safe Haven in America: Battles to Open the Golden Door (2018) and From Origin to Opportunity: Unlocking U.S. Immigration Law to be released this fall.
Mr. Wildes has been a frequent guest lecturer and panelist at many distinguished academic forums and institutions, with Columbia University marking the latest chapter in his academic career. Mr. Wildes provides students a hands-on perspective navigating complex immigration matters while examining the evolving legal and policy landscape shaping the future of immigration in the United States. Mr. Wildes brings students something few educators can offer - decades of firsthand experience at the intersection of law, government, public service - and the real human stories that they impact. His goal is to equip students with the legal knowledge, historical understanding, and practical skills to become thoughtful advocates and leaders in the next generation of immigration law.
