Jennifer Roggemann

Education

• Called to Bar of Ontario, 2000
• LL.B., University of Victoria Law School, 1998
• B.A., (Psychology), University of Guelph

Memberships

• Law Society of Upper Canada
• Waterloo Law Association
• Shade's Mills Law Association

Biography

Jennifer Roggemann moved from South Korea to Canada when she was in grade 11.
"I wanted to be a lawyer ever since I was a little girl," she explains, "but coming to a new country with a new language, new everything, it was not a dream that I thought I could achieve."

Then her family member ran into some trouble with the law and she became incensed when she saw how the court system treated people who couldn't speak the language. She promised herself that if God gives her the ability to speak English, she would go into law to serve Him.

She did just that, beginning her legal career at Deutschmann and Kelly, a successful firm in Kitchener-Waterloo looking for a junior lawyer.

Roggemann spent three years at the firm, including two years as a partner. She took on her first immigration case in 2001, when a client asked for help in getting his son's Korean bride into Canada. "I brought her back and before long someone else asked for help and soon somebody else needed help, and voila, I had a practice," she explains.

When Deutschmann and Kelly decided that immigration law no longer fit within their focus, she struck out on her own. She met local immigration lawyer Margaret Skowronski-Binek, who served as her role model and mentor. When Skowronski-Binek retired, Roggemann took over her practice and hasn't looked back.

Roggemann helped to set up a Free Legal Immigration Clinic in Kitchener and Cambridge, the clinic ran from 2004 to 2007.

Since 2009, Jennifer has been an immigration legal advisor for the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea.