Courtney McDermed has been practicing immigration law in the Bay Area since 2003, litigating cases in the areas of asylum, cancellation of removal, NACARA, naturalization, 212(c), U visas, waivers, and writing appeals.
Ms. McDermed worked as an associate attorney at Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, LLP for over seven years before opening Johnson & McDermed, and more recently, the Law Office of Courtney McDermed. Ms. McDermed has represented hundreds of people before the courts and the Department of Homeland Security. In addition, she has many years of experience analyzing the immigration consequences of criminal convictions and has broad contacts within the Defense Bar as well as the Immigration Bar. Ms. McDermed is a member in good standing of the State Bar of Arizona and has been admitted to practice in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition to mentoring new attorneys for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and the National Lawyers’ Guild, she also volunteers for the Volunteer Immigration Program for the San Francisco Bar and the International Institute for the Bay Area. Ms. McDermed has served as the liaison for the American Immigration Lawyer Association (AILA) with the Office of the Chief Counsel for Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in San Francisco.
Prior to moving to the Bay Area, Ms. McDermed clerked for a federal district court judge in the Eastern District of Washington from September 2001 until December 2002. She received her juris doctorate from the University of Arizona in May 2001. She received her bachelor of arts from Whitworth College in 1992. Before earning her law degree, Ms. McDermed worked for the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project in Florence, Arizona; the University of Arizona Immigration Law Clinic; and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights in El Paso, Texas. Ms. McDermed speaks Spanish. courtneymcdesq@gmail.com
