Your lawyer is right.

Your lawyer is right. The new USCIS memo (2006) allows you apply H1b extension beyond 6 year without necessarily being in H1b status. You can apply extension while you are abroad. How you smartly use this memo depends on your own circumstance and a good lawyer.

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Availability of Post-Sixth Year Periods of H-1B Stay
http://pubweb.fdbl.com/news1.nsf/7f4d7596b0572ba886256e3100809439/f1bd59d174825eec8525726f005ec0d5?OpenDocument

USCIS has also made a significant clarification concerning the availability of H-1B time beyond the six year maximum, under Sections 104(c) and 106 of the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act (AC-21), as amended. AC-21 Section 106 provides that an H-1B foreign national on whose behalf a labor certification application, I-140 immigrant petition or adjustment of status application has been filed is eligible for an extension of H-1B status in one-year increments if 365 days or more have elapsed since a labor certification application or I-140 petition was filed on the foreign national's behalf. AC-21 Section 104(c) provides that an H-1B nonimmigrant who has an approved I-140 petition in the first, second or third employment-based category but who is unable to adjust status because of immigrant visa backlogs is eligible to extend H-1B status in three-year increments until the application for adjustment of status has been adjudicated. Previously, agency officials had used a very strict reading of the statute to take the position that post-sixth year time was available only through an application for an extension of stay while the foreign national was present in H-1B status in the United States. This position appeared to preclude post-sixth year time obtained by applying for a new visa abroad, even though there was evidence of Congress's intent to provide this second option.

(In the December memo, the agency has reversed this position and has issued a very expansive policy on post-sixth year time. According to the memo, foreign nationals who are otherwise eligible for the post-sixth year time "may be granted an extension of stay regardless of whether they are currently in the United States or abroad and regardless of whether they currently hold H-1B status." (Emphasis added.) A foreign national may therefore obtain post-sixth year time via an application for extension of stay or by means of H-1B visa issuance at a consulate (unless visa exempt) and admission from abroad. The guidance also permits post-sixth year H-1B time to be obtained through a petition to change status to H-1B from another nonimmigrant classification. Note that, in all cases, the foreign national must fulfill the basic H-1B eligibility criteria and the criteria for an additional period of stay under AC-21 Section 106 or 104(c).)


USCIS memo:
http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/PeriodsofAdm120506.pdf