Admissions
• New York (Appellate Division, Second Department)
• U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York

Education
• BA, New York University
• MA, Columbia University Teachers College
• JD, City University of New York School of Law

Professional Memberships
• American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)
• New York State Bar Association
• New York City Bar Association
• National Peace Corps Association

Languages
• English
• Spanish

About the Founder

Tom Tortorici is the founder and principal attorney of Laconia Immigration Law & Advocacy (LILA), based in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. He represents individuals and families facing deportation, seeking humanitarian protection, pursuing family-based immigration benefits, and applying for lawful permanent residence and U.S. citizenship. He also maintains a substantial reduced-fee and pro bono practice, through his work at LILA and as a Consulting Attorney with the nonprofits Co-Counsel NYC, Open Catskills, and CUNY Law’s City Counseling Program.

Tom has more than 15 years of experience serving immigrant, asylum-seeking, and refugee communities in various capacities. Before founding LILA, he served as Executive Director of Legal & Support Initiatives at the NYC Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, where he led access to justice initiatives for immigrant New Yorkers and designed & launched emergency response programs serving tens of thousands of newly arrived migrants, in close collaboration with nonprofit and community partners. In 2024, he joined Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) to lead the initialization and management of a nationwide federal legal services program for unaccompanied children, under contract with the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. Earlier in his career, he spent four years helping build a local immigration law practice, preparing hundreds of asylum and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status cases during the Central American Refugee Crisis.

In addition to his work at LILA and immigrant-serving nonprofits, Tom serves as a Non-Resident Fellow at The New School’s Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility, where he provides practice-based insight to research and policy initiatives. He is a returned U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer (Peru) and speaks Spanish.

Why "Laconia?"

In 1928, Tom's Irish grandmother (“Nana”) arrived in New York Harbor aboard the ship RMS Laconia, as a 17-year-old kid migrating on her own in search of a better future. She spent decades cleaning hotel rooms in New York City and raised five children as a single mother with limited resources and little formal education. Laconia Immigration Law & Advocacy is named in honor of her strength and courage, and with the promise to treat every client the way Tom would have wanted her to be treated upon arrival: with dignity, respect, and excellent professional service.