Desi Talk

www.desitalk.com – that’s all you need to know 7 CITY VIEWS December 26, 2025 A n Indian-origin masters-in-law student Suby Valluri, at Cornell University, was awarded the inau- gural scholarship named after one of its highly respected professors. On December 19, 2025, Cornell Tech announced it had launched the Michael Mills Memorial LegalTech Scholarship, honoring an influential figure in legal technology, an news article in the Uni- versity news site said. The scholarship marked a milestone for the campus’s Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Law, Technol- ogy, and Entrepreneurship program. The Scholarship is unique in that it is created by a network of more than 50 donors to celebrate Mills’s legacy. It will support Valluri and future recipients who are pursuing careers at the intersection of law and technology through the Cornell Tech LL.M. program. Valluri has a Ph.D. in quantitative economics and an M.A. in law. He is the co-founder and CEO of FinMont, a travel payments startup. His work combines law, artificial intelligence, and blockchain technology, the article said. “Receiving the Michael Mills Memorial LegalTech Scholarship marks a profound- ly meaningful step in my professional journey,” Valluri is quoted saying, adding, “Beyond its financial value, the award reflects Michael Mills’s legacy of mentor- ship, creativity, and his lifelong effort to reshape how law and technology inter- sect.” Using the Scholarship endowment, Valluri expects to develop “smart agree- ments” or contracts that combine tradi- tional legal language with computer code. “My broader aim is to make cross- border transactions more transparent, affordable, and secure,” Valluri said. “This scholarship gives me the space and con- fidence to deepen my research, test new prototypes, and participate more actively in Cornell Tech’s LegalTech community. Most importantly, it connects me with a network of thinkers and builders who share a common purpose: making legal systems more transparent, equitable, and adaptable through technology.” Mills co-founded Neota, which made it possible for lawyers to develop legal soft- ware applications without writing code. He was also the co-founder of Central Park Conservancy and Pro Bono Net, and set up innovation awards in the College of Law Practice Management mentoring professionals going into technology. W ASHINGTON – The De- partment of Homeland Security announced a ma- jor change to how H-1B work visas are awarded, ending the long-standing random lottery and replacing it with a system that favors higher-skilled and higher-paid foreign workers. Officials say the change is meant to better protect American workers’ wages, working conditions and job opportunities. Under the new rule, visas will no longer be chosen purely at random. Instead, ap- plicants with higher skills and higher pay offers will have a better chance of being selected. DHS said the current system has been abused by some employers seeking to hire lower-paid foreign workers instead of Americans. “The existing random selection process of H-1B registrations was exploited and abused by U.S. employers who were primarily seeking to import foreign work- ers at lower wages than they would pay American workers,” said Matthew Tra- gesser, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. He said the new weighted selection system is intended to match Congress’ original goal for the program and en- courage employers to seek highly skilled workers who are paid more. DHS also said the change will help strengthen the U.S. economy while limiting harm to American workers. Each year, the federal government is- sues 65,000 H-1B visas, with an additional 20,000 reserved for foreign workers who hold advanced degrees from U.S. universi- ties. Demand for the visas far exceeds the supply, which led to the use of a random lottery system in recent years. Critics of the lottery have argued that it allowed employers to flood the system with applications for lower-skilled work- ers at lower wages, reducing opportunities for U.S. workers. DHS said the new rule is designed to address those concerns while still allowing employers to hire foreign workers at all wage levels. The department said the weighted system will increase the likelihood that visas go to higher-paid and higher-skilled applicants, rather than simply picking winners by chance. The final rule will take effect Feb. 27, 2026, and will apply to the fiscal year 2027 H-1B cap registration season. DHS described the rule as part of a broader effort to tighten oversight of the H-1B program. It follows other changes made by the administration, including a presidential proclamation that requires employers to pay an additional $100,000 fee for each H-1B visa as a condition of eligibility. “As part of the Trump Administra- tion’s commitment to H-1B reform, we will continue to demand more from both employers and aliens so as not to under- cut American workers and to put America first,” Tragesser said. The department said more information is available in the final rule outlining the changes to the program. Suby Valluri First Recipient Of New Cornell Tech Legal Scholarship DHS Changes H-1B Visa Process To Favor Higher-Skilled, Higher-Paid Workers By A StaffWriter PHOTO: tech.cornell.edu Suby Valluri, LL.M. ’26, the inaugural Michael Mills Memorial LegalTech scholarship recipient. Illustration By NIT-AI Team By A StaffWriter IMMIGRATION