Ken is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and currently serves as the Missouri/Kansas Chapter Treasurer and Liaison between the Chapter and the ICE District headquartered in Kansas City. He also serves as the AILA delegate to the Steering Committee of the Missouri Immigrant and Refugee Advocates and has previously served as the Missouri Bar Association Immigration Committee Vice Chairman. He is also a member of the American Bar Association, the Missouri Bar Association, and the Illinois Bar Association.
Ken received his Juris Doctorate from St. Louis University School of Law in 1993, his Master of Arts in Public Administration from St. Louis University in 1993 and his Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Political Science from St. Louis University in 1989. He is a graduate of St. Pius X High School in Festus, Missouri. He is a lifetime resident of Missouri, was raised in Jefferson County and currently resides in the City of St. Louis.
After graduating cum laude from St. Louis University in 1993, Ken began his legal career as a trial attorney at one of the largest and best known regional insurance defense litigation firms in the Midwest United States. He immediately developed expertise in defending corporate and individual clients before the trial and appellate courts in many different matters including serious personal injury and death related accidents, medical malpractice claims and other complex litigation matters.
In 1998, Ken founded his own firm, the Law Offices of Kenneth K. Schmitt, P.C. He expanded his area of practice to include the representation of employers and employees in employment-based immigration matters. He also developed a real estate practice and founded a regional title insurance agency, which provided title searches, real estate escrow-closing services, and wrote title insurance throughout eastern Missouri.
With the evolution of the Law Offices of Kenneth K. Schmitt into US Legal Solutions, LLC, Ken has taken his extensive experience across a spectrum of practice areas and has broadened his client base to include a vigorous representation of immigrant as well as resident clients in personal injury, work place injury and other civil liability matters before all state and federal courts in eastern Missouri and southern Illinois. Currently, Ken represents clients as diverse as subdivisions in rural Missouri with more than five thousand property owners to individual immigrant clients before the Division of Workers Compensation. He has successfully litigated difficult defenses to immigration removal cases before the Federal Immigration Courts as well as complicated claims of real estate lending fraud on behalf of immigrant victims before the state trial courts.
Because of the unique problems that criminal charges and convictions create for immigrants, Ken also recognized the need for skilled representation in criminal matters on behalf of this vulnerable population. Ken has therefore expanded his practice to include representation of clients in a variety of felony and non-felony criminal matters.
Outside of the courtroom, Ken has served as the President of the Advisory Board of Catholic Charities Community Services—Southside in St. Louis which targets private, non-profit social service programs that address the needs of immigrants in the St. Louis Metropolitan area. He has also worked closely with a number of legislators and other coalition groups (including the St. Louis University Legal Clinic, Catholic Legal Assistance Ministry, the Missouri Immigrant and Refugee Advocates and Metropolitan Congregations United) to advocate for immigration issues in the state capital in Jefferson City as well as locally to promote fair and equal treatment of immigrants before the law.
Given Ken’s active involvement in the Hispanic immigrant community, he has been designated by the Mexican State Department or Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores de México as an Ad Honorem consultant attorney to provide professional services on behalf of Mexican immigrants at the request of the Mexican Consulate in Kansas City, Missouri.
Ken is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and currently serves as the Missouri/Kansas Chapter Treasure and Liaison between the Chapter and the ICE District headquartered in Kansas City. He also serves as the AILA delegate to the Steering Committee of the Missouri Immigrant and Refugee Advocates and has previously served as the Missouri Bar Association Immigration Committee Vice Chairman. He is also a member of the American Bar Association, the Missouri Bar Association, and the Illinois Bar Association.
Ken frequently speaks to bar related organizations, the Missouri Public Defenders, law students and a variety of professional and community organizations on matters pertaining to immigration and the representation of immigrants before the courts.
Ken has a working ability to speak Spanish.
Ken is a founder and principal of US Legal Solutions and his complete CV may be reviewed by clicking here.
Last update: 08-Sep-2009
8714 Gravois Rd. St. Louis, Missouri 63123
info@us-legalsolutions.com Fax: 314-722-2000 Telephone: 314-729-1049
