THE PRINCIPALS:

Marc Van Der Hout

Marc Van Der Hout, the founding member of Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, LLP, is a California State Bar Certified Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law. Mr. Van Der Hout has been recognized by bar associations throughout the country for his innovative and resourceful representation of immigrants. He has twice received the American Immigration Lawyers Association premier award for outstanding litigation in the field of immigration law. Most recently, Mr. Van Der Hout was the recipient of the American Immigration Law Foundation's Honorary Fellow Award and was named by LawDragon as one of 2005's 500 best lawyers.

Mr. Van Der Hout graduated from the University of Michigan in 1970 and from Golden Gate University School of Law in 1977. He was national president of the National Lawyers Guild in 1985-86. Currently, Mr. Van Der Hout is an active member of the Board of Governors of the American Immigration Lawyers' Association (AILA) and serves on AILA's national Litigation Committee. He is a past chair of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild and has served on its governing board for the past 20 years. In addition, he is a current member of the Board of the Criminal Trial Lawyers' Association of Northern California. Mr. Van Der Hout has authored many articles and has lectured extensively on the subject of immigration law. He has also served as an adjunct professor at Hastings College of the Law and Boalt Hall School of Law.

Marc Van Der Hout (seated at table, second from right) participates in panel of judges, staff, and attorneys, advising the Ninth Circuit on issues involving the high number of immigration appeals.  (May 2006)

Christine Brigagliano

Christine Brigagliano has practiced law since 1982 and has been a California State Bar Certified Specialist in Immigration Law since 1989. Her practice emphasizes business immigration, including employment-based petitions, labor certification, and consular processing, but includes family-based immigration, naturalization, asylum and deportation matters as well. She brings broad experience to the firm having served as Immigration Project Director for the California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) Foundation, Legalization Specialist at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, staff attorney for the Child Care Law Center (Formerly part of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights), and prosecuting attorney for the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board prior to joining the firm in 1989. She holds a B.A. from Smith College (1970), a MAT in from Antioch College (1971) and a J.D. from the University of California’s Hastings College of Law (1982).

Ms. Brigagliano, an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, served as District Director Liaison and as Chapter Chair for the Northern California Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association (2000/2001). She frequently engages in public speaking on current topics in Immigration Law and in 2004 was appointed to the California State Bar’s Board of Legal Specialization, Immigration and Nationality Law Advisory Commission.

Zachary M. Nightingale

Zachary M. Nightingale is a 1996 graduate of Stanford Law School, who received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989, and a Masters degree in Mathematics from Stanford University in 1991. He has been with the firm since 1996. His practice focuses on deportation defense and federal court litigation, with an emphasis on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions. Other specialties include asylum, naturalization, and family-based adjustment of status. A significant part of his practice includes advising non-citizens and their attorneys as to the immigration consequences of pending criminal charges, and how to minimize those consequences.

Mr. Nightingale was honored with the 2003 Jack Wasserman Memorial Award for excellence in litigation from the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). He has spoken regularly at local and national conferences of AILA, and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, and was a member of AILA's 2002 Annual Conference Program Committee. He has been co-counsel on Magana-Pizano v. INS, 200 F.3d 603 (9th Cir.1999) (establishing eligibility for relief from deportation for those in immigration proceedings before the effective date of the statutory amendments eliminating relief, and for those who pled guilty before that date in reliance on being eligible for such relief), and Barahona-Gomez v. Reno, 167 F.3d 1228 (9th Cir. 1999) (affirming district court stay of deportation for circuit-wide class of applicants for suspension of deportation incorrectly denied eligibility due to directives of Executive Office for Immigration Review personnel).

THE ASSOCIATES:

Ilyce Shugall

Ilyce Shugall joined Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, LLP, in October of 2001, and currently specializes in all types of relief from deportation, including cancellation of removal, NACARA, and asylum. Ms. Shugall also advises clients regarding the immigration consequences of criminal convictions. Prior to joining Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, LLP, Ms. Shugall worked for two years at the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR) as a National Association of Public Interest Law Equal Justice Fellow. At ProBAR, Ms. Shugall conducted daily live group rights presentations to individuals detained by the INS and provided direct representation to indigent immigrants before the Immigration Court. Ms. Shugall also worked at the Human Rights Law Institute at DePaul University and for the Peruvian Ombudsman's Office studying human rights violations in Peru. Ms. Shugall received her juris doctorate from DePaul law school in June 1999, and her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Ms. Shugall is fluent in Spanish.

Stacy Tolchin

Stacy Tolchin joined Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, LLP, in September of 2001. Before joining Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale Ms. Tolchin worked for the International Institute of San Francisco as the Citizenship Project Coordinator, clerked for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, and led immigration clinics at several non-profit organizations. Ms. Tolchin primarily researches and writes briefs before the Executive Office of Immigration Review and the 9th Circuit, and is involved in monitoring legislation and agency action generated in response to the September 11th tragedy. Ms. Tolchin is currently a member of the board of the International Institute of San Francisco. Ms. Tolchin received her juris doctorate from the University of California at Los Angeles and received her Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College in 1996.

Courtney McDermed

Courtney McDermed joined Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, LLP, in February 2004. Prior to joining Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, she practiced immigration law in the Bay Area litigating cases in the areas of asylum, cancellation of removal, NACARA, naturalization, 212(c) and writing appeals. Ms. McDermed also has experience analyzing the immigration consequences of criminal convictions. Previously, Ms. McDermed spent a year clerking for a district court judge in the Eastern District of Washington. She received her juris doctorate from the University of Arizona in 2001. 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. She received her bachelor of arts from Whitworth College in 1992. Ms. McDermed speaks Spanish and French.

Stacey L. Gartland

Stacey L. Gartland received her juris doctorate from the University of Washington School of Law in 1995 and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Biology and a Master of Arts degree in Biomedical Ethics. She entered the practice of immigration law as a skilled scientist with a background in genetics. Her medical and scientific background gives her a deep understanding of biotechnology and related areas. She specializes in employment-based nonimmigrant and immigrant visas for scientists, university professors, healthcare workers, business owners and managers, and other professionals. She is particularly skilled at preparing complex labor certification applications, extraordinary ability petitions, outstanding researcher petitions, and national interest waivers. She also specializes in family-based immigrant visas, naturalization applications, and in applications for relief from removal, including political asylum.

Ms. Gartland joined Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, LLP, in June of 2004. Prior to joining Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, she practiced business immigration law for nine years in San Francisco and Seattle. She has authored articles published in the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s (AILA) Immigration & Nationality Law Handbook and has spoken at national AILA conferences and other legal educational seminars. She is also a member of AILA’s Advocacy Committee, serving as a resource for local Congressional representatives and their staff members.

Avantika Shastri joined Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, LLP, in October of 2004.  Her practice focuses primarily on deportation defense.  Ms. Shastri has been working in the field of immigration law and immigrant rights, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, for many years.  During law school, she represented individual clients and engaged in broader class-action litigation through her work at Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, a community-based social justice organization in San Francisco, the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic at Harvard Law School, and the California Asylum Representation Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall).  She also externed for Magistrate Judge Edward M. Chen at the United States District Court, Northern District of California.  Prior to law school, Ms. Shastri volunteered and worked with Narika, an organization that aids survivors of domestic violence in the South Asian community as well as other local and national organizations serving immigrant communities.  In 2003, she received the Robert M. Takasugi Public Interest Fellowship in recognition of her work.  She is a board member of the South Asian Bar Association of Northern California and a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.  Ms. Shastri received her juris doctorate from Boalt Hall in 2004, and her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley in 2000.

Beth Feinberg

Beth Feinberg joined Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, LLP in December 2004 as the firm’s Research Fellow. She had previously worked at the firm as a law clerk during the fall of 2003. During law school, Ms. Feinberg worked at the San Francisco County Public Defender’s Office, first in the felony unit and then in the Behavioral Health Court unit, where she represented criminal defendants with serious mental illnesses. She also participated in the law school’s Criminal Advocacy Clinic, where she worked in conjunction with the local public defender’s office in Roxbury, Massachusetts to defend indigent persons facing felony charges. She has also worked extensively with prisoners throughout California to advocate for improved healthcare and conditions in state prisons. Ms. Feinberg received her juris doctorate from Northeastern University School of Law, her Masters of Public Health from Tufts University, and her Bachelor of Arts degree from McGill University.