Abduli finds professional inspiration from personal experience

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Immigration attorney Sklkime Abduli understands her clients.

“I’m a first-generation American,” she said. “I was born in what is now called Macedonia, so I’m ethnically Albanian.”

Abduli was 18 months old when she arrived in the United States. She and her mother followed Abduli’s father, who moved to the U.S. in the 1970s to escape economic stagnation.

Barely 21, Abduli’s father enrolled in high school in Antioch, Ill., to learn English. After he graduated, he bought a restaurant.

It’s a risk Abduli kept in mind two years ago when she started her own firm, West Allis-based Abduli Immigration Law LLC, after graduating law school.

If her parents could do that with a toddler, she said, then she could start her own firm.

“From a young age, just everything international would always interest me: language, cultures, people,” Abduli said. “I would look up random things about Tajikistan. Carmen San Diego was my favorite TV show. Maybe that comes from having to bridge two cultures and two ethnicities, but once you see that there are differences (in the world) you kind of want to find out about everyone else.”

She also has seen the difference competent legal counsel and becoming citizens can make for immigrants.

“Having gone through that process and seen relatives go through that process, you don’t think of it as weird,” Abduli said. “It’s just something people do. They get green cards. It’s been a large influence for me.”

And if there is any way she can help those people, Abduli said, she will do it.

“I understand where they’re coming from,” she said, “and just being able to keep that in mind is important.”

Wisconsin Law Journal: What was your favorite class in law school?
Sklkime Abduli: This is a hard question because I enjoyed so many of my classes. Each one challenged me to think in a different way. Can I pick two? I loved Constitution and Criminal Investigations, which focused primarily on Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights. It was fascinating to me. Every case I read, I felt blown away. But I also loved the Law and the Underclass seminar. We discussed different areas of law — family, consumer, property, etc. — and how they affect the ‘underclass’ population. Very eye-opening in terms of demonstrating the sociological impact laws can have.

WLJ: What activity could you spend hours doing outside of work?
Abduli: Dancing. I feel so free when I’m dancing. I’ve never taken formal dance lessons, so I am by no means a trained dancer. But I love it, and I especially love learning different dances from all over the world. You get to know a lot about people and cultures through their music and dance. It’s a bonding experience for me when I can participate in that.

WLJ: If you could have drinks with anyone, who would it be?
Abduli: This one is so tough. But here goes. Dead: Rumi. Alive: the Dalai Lama.

WLJ: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Abduli: To probably take a little more time for myself. I’m a workaholic. Big time.

WLJ: What was the last book you read?
Abduli: Kurzban’s (Immigration Law Sourcebook). All day. Every day.

WLJ: If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
Abduli: In spite of our many internal problems, I would not trade living in the United States for anything. I’ve visited many other countries, spent more time in some than others. They’re nice to visit, but I wouldn’t live there indefinitely. Within the U.S., if money were no object, I feel like San Francisco would be an amazing place to live. Been there once and absolutely fell in love with it. Otherwise, the practical realist in me has really come to love and appreciate Milwaukee. This city really offers more than meets the eye.

WLJ: If you hadn’t become an attorney, what career would you have pursued?
Abduli: I honestly cannot think of anything else I’d rather be doing. But if I had to pick something else, it might have to be travel blogging. Is that a real job? I’m not sure. But I would travel the world, mix with the locals as much as possible, get a taste of life in that community, learn about the people, the culture, the history, the collective psychology and perspective on life and share that with the world. So, if anyone out there wants to pay me to do that, please call me.

WLJ: Who is someone you admire?
Abduli: My parents. I really look up to them and what they represent to me. It’s not easy to move halfway across the world, leaving everything and everyone you know behind, and start a new life literally from scratch. It requires conviction, determination and a mentality that failure is not an option. It requires courage. And I truly admire them for that.