Attorney Profile

I have been interested in U.S.-Latin American relations early on, growing up in Santa Barbara, CA where there was a large Latin population. I studied Spanish all through elementary and high school, and in college I worked with Professor Wayne Cornelius in the Political Science Department at University of California, San Diego and was an assistant on his San Diego County migration research project.

My 1984 honors thesis was on agrarian reform in Mexico. After college, I did a number of things; I was a songwriter, music publisher, musician and a Union stagehand with IATSE Local 16 in San Francisco. I specialized in high tech audio-visual presentation for corporate meetings and conventions. After 10 years out of school I decided to return to my studies, and enroll in law school.

In 1995 I began working during the day as an immigration paralegal utilizing my Spanish language fluency and at night I attended Santa Barbara College of Law. Instead of clerking for a judge, I was accepted as an intern with the Los Angeles County Bar Immigration Legal Assistant Project, assisting low income and indigent immigrants. After passing the California bar on my first attempt in 1999, I began working as an immigration attorney in Santa Barbara. In 2003 I opened my own Immigration law office in Santa Barbara and I moved to Nashville in July of 2004 to open up my second office. I have not specialized in any particular area of immigration law, preferring to try my hand at all types of services. I have had articles written about me in magazines and newspapers, and enjoy lecturing to professional and civic organizations about immigration law and participating in media discussions and talk shows about immigration issues.