Rebecca Dames joined Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, LLP in 2017. Prior to joining the firm, Rebecca served as a judicial law clerk and attorney advisor for the Executive Office for Immigration Review at the Immigration Courts in both Los Angeles and San Francisco from 2014-2017 through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. As an attorney in the honors program, Rebecca worked with immigration judges in both detained and non-detained settings, and she gained experience in all forms of deportation defense, including complex asylum matters, adjustment of status, cancellation of removal, and waivers for fraud and for crimes. She also developed expertise in analyzing the immigration consequences of criminal convictions.

During law school, Rebecca twice served as a law clerk for the Department of Justice. She served as a law clerk for the Office of Immigration Litigation, Appellate Division in Washington, DC. She also served as a law clerk for the San Francisco Immigration Court. Prior to law school, Rebecca worked for a national non-profit advising philanthropic organizations on issues of immigrant integration. Through this position, Rebecca helped establish the East Bay Naturalization Collaborative and later volunteered as a law student at a clinic funded by the group.

Rebecca graduated from University of San Francisco School of Law in 2014, and graduated from UC San Diego in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies: Political Science and completed two minors in International Migration and Spanish Literature.