About Michael Serotte

Michael Serotte

Biography

Michael Serotte is the founding and senior partner of Serotte Scarborough & Associates. A lawyer since 1985, he has been practicing immigration law since 1992. His focus is on guiding clients through the complex maze of U.S. immigration. He enjoys helping clients by developing and executing strategies that help meet their business and personal immigration goals.

Michael’s enthusiasm and energy for life is evident in both his personal and professional worlds. He balances his devotion to his family — his wife since 1993, Karen Cook Serotte, and their three children: a daughter and two sons — and his commitment to his clients who are treated more like close friends rather than business relationships.

A long-time season-ticket holder of the Buffalo Bills, he takes his three children to most Bills’ home games, even in December! He’s also a supporter of sports teams at the University of Miami, his alma mater, and has convinced his children to become fans. Michael was at the university’s first National Championship game, in the Orange Bowl in 1984, when Miami defeated the University of Nebraska 31 to 30.

When not watching sports, Michael enjoys playing them, especially basketball and soccer. He also enjoys exercising, running, skiing, snowboarding and Bikram yoga. Active in his children’s lives, Michael has coached his sons’ basketball and soccer teams and has learned to appreciate his teenage daughter’s shopping and fashion skills! His family also includes two Labrador retrievers, Dunbar and Buck.

Experience

After graduating from The Park School in 1977, Michael attended the University of Miami and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration, with an accounting major and finance minor, in 1981. After graduation, Michael worked as an accountant, including at the predecessor of Ernst & Young. In the fall of 1982, he enrolled at the University at Buffalo Law School, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Harry Serotte, and his father, Donald D. Serotte. While in law school, Michael was a small business owner and landlord, which fueled his interest in finance, real estate and business.

Following his first legal experience practicing estate, corporate and real-estate finance law in Buffalo, New York, he returned to Florida in 1987. He was instrumental in a company that developed two large apartment complexes, including a $10 million 204-unit project near Orlando and an $11 million 200-unit project near Tampa. Later, he experienced Washington, D.C.’s Beltway, conducting real-estate closings and corporate finance transactions as well as dabbling in the food-service industry.

Michael began practicing immigration law in 1992 when he returned to Buffalo to join his late father’s partners’ practice. In 1997 he founded his own firm, which concentrates on immigration law with a focus on developing creative solutions for corporations and individuals that face challenging matters. Michael’s education in accounting and finance coupled with his entrepreneurial spirit provides clients with a valuable perspective on business and investment immigration strategies.