Choucri Mansour Builds a Legal Practice That Helps Immigrant-Owned Businesses Gain Ground in the U.S.

Int'l Business Times

4 days ago

America's economic competitiveness increasingly depends on its ability to attract and retain global talent. One attorney in San Diego has quietly built something remarkable: a legal practice that doesn't just serve immigrant entrepreneurs—it empowers them to become engines of American economic growth.
Choucri Mansour, founder of Mansour Legal Services, MLS Global APC , represents a new breed of legal practitioner who understands that in our hyperconnected world, the old way of doing business—where clients bounce between multiple law firms, tax advisors, and compliance specialists—is not just inefficient, it's economically destructive. His approach has produced tangible results: over $3 million in foreign direct investment facilitated within just one year, and more than 10 full-time jobs created across eight states.
Here's what makes Mansour's story particularly compelling in today's economic context: he's operating at the intersection of two powerful trends that are reshaping American business. Immigrants now account for approximately 24 percent of entrepreneurs in the United States, up from 19 percent in 2007. Immigrant-owned businesses are 60 percent more likely to export than native-owned firms, making them crucial players in America's global competitiveness. The Economics of Immigrant Entrepreneurship
The numbers tell a story that should make every policymaker pay attention. While immigrants comprise only 14-15 percent of the U.S. population, they punch well above their weight economically. Recent data shows that immigrants contributed $2.1 trillion to total U.S. economic output in 2023, representing 18 percent of the nation's total wage, salary, and business proprietor income.
This outsized economic contribution isn't accidental. Immigrants are significantly more entrepreneurial than the native-born population, with some studies showing they have an 80 percent higher rate of firm founding than their U.S.-born peers. In 2023 alone, immigrants started nearly one in five new businesses, despite representing a much smaller share of the population.
The ripple effects are profound. Fortune 500 companies founded by immigrants or their children now employ 15.5 million people worldwide—more than the entire population of Pennsylvania. These companies generated $8.6 trillion in revenue in fiscal year 2023, making them collectively the third-largest economy in the world if they were a standalone country.
Yet for all these impressive statistics, immigrant entrepreneurs face a maze of bureaucratic and legal challenges that can derail even the most promising ventures. This is where practitioners like Mansour become economically significant, as service providers and as facilitators of wealth creation. Breaking Down the Barriers
Mansour's approach addresses what economists call "transaction costs"—the hidden expenses and delays that make it harder for markets to function efficiently. Traditional legal services for immigrant entrepreneurs operate in silos: immigration lawyers handle visa issues, corporate attorneys manage business formation, tax specialists deal with compliance, and consultants advise on strategy. Each handoff creates opportunities for miscommunication, delay, and error.
"The fragmentation of services creates artificial barriers that discourage investment and slow economic growth," Mansour explains. His solution consolidates these functions into what he calls a "culturally informed legal services model" that handles everything from entity formation to regulatory compliance in a single engagement.
The efficiency gains are measurable. Since launching MLS Global APC in May 2024, Mansour has successfully established businesses for more than 20 international clients across diverse industries, including professional services, technology, retail, and logistics. These businesses span eight states—California, Florida, Washington, New York, Nevada, Kansas, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming—demonstrating how immigrant entrepreneurship can distribute economic benefits beyond traditional business hubs. The Multiplier Effect
What's particularly noteworthy about Mansour's client outcomes is their job creation velocity. Six of the 10 full-time positions created by his clients were established in 2025 alone, suggesting an accelerating pace of economic contribution. This aligns with broader research showing that 91 percent of new immigrant-owned businesses have at least one employee, compared to 84 percent of all new businesses.
The geographic distribution matters too. While immigrant entrepreneurs often cluster in major metropolitan areas, Mansour's clients have established operations in states like Kansas and Wyoming—regions that might otherwise see less international business activity. This geographic diversity helps distribute the economic benefits of foreign investment more broadly across the American economy.
Beyond direct employment, these businesses contribute through what economists call "backward linkages"—purchasing goods and services from American suppliers, contributing to state and federal tax revenues, and participating in local economic ecosystems. Each new business becomes a node in a network of economic relationships that extends far beyond its immediate operations. Global Competition for Talent
Mansour's work takes on additional significance when viewed through the lens of global competition for entrepreneurial talent. Countries like Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom have aggressively reformed their immigration systems to attract business founders and investors. Canada's Start-up Visa Program, for instance, provides a direct pathway to permanent residence for entrepreneurs with viable business plans.
The United States, despite its economic advantages, often makes it unnecessarily difficult for immigrant entrepreneurs to handle the legal and regulatory requirements. This is where culturally competent legal services become a competitive advantage for the country, beyond individual clients.
Mansour's multilingual capabilities—he operates in Arabic, French, and English—and his international experience across Lebanon, Qatar, Egypt, Morocco, Georgia, and the UAE, position him to serve clients who might otherwise choose to establish their businesses elsewhere. His approach essentially reduces the "friction" that can send investment to competing jurisdictions. The Benefits of Diverse Perspectives
Perhaps most importantly, immigrant entrepreneurs bring what economists call a "diversity premium" to the American economy. Research consistently shows that immigrant-led firms generate more patents per worker than their native-founded counterparts. Among venture-backed startups and AI-related companies, immigrants make up over 40 percent of founders.
This diversity premium isn't just about individual brilliance—it's about perspective. Immigrant entrepreneurs often see market opportunities that others miss, precisely because they bring different cultural and economic experiences to bear on American market conditions. They're also more likely to build businesses that connect the U.S. economy to global markets.
Mansour's practice facilitates this diversity premium by removing barriers that might otherwise prevent promising entrepreneurs from establishing themselves in the United States. When he helps a client handle the complexities of business formation and compliance, he provides legal services and enables the kind of cross-cultural business development that has historically driven American economic growth. The Path Forward
As the United States grapples with an aging population, labor shortages in key industries, and intensifying global competition for talent, the economic contribution of immigrant entrepreneurs becomes increasingly critical. 46 percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. These companies didn't emerge by accident—they're the product of an economic ecosystem that, at its best, welcomes and empowers global talent.
Practitioners like Mansour represent a crucial piece of this ecosystem. By making it easier for immigrant entrepreneurs to establish and grow businesses in the United States, they're building successful law practices and building the infrastructure for continued American economic leadership in an increasingly competitive global economy.
The $3 million in investment and 10 jobs that Mansour's practice has facilitated may seem modest in the context of the broader economy. Multiply that impact across thousands of similar practitioners, and you begin to see how the seemingly mundane work of business formation and compliance becomes a cornerstone of national economic strategy.
In our interconnected world, the countries that make it easiest for global talent to create value will be the countries that prosper. Mansour's approach offers a template for how America can maintain its competitive edge, through protectionism or isolation, but by becoming more efficient at turning immigrant ambition into American prosperity.