CONSIDINE - Key Persons
Griselda Trujillo grew up in Santa Clara, CA, where she attended Santa Clara University. After receiving her Bachelor's Degree in History in 1996, she pursued her dream of becoming an attorney. She attended UC Davis School of Law and received her Juris Doctor in 1999. She began her career as an attorney working for the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, a nonprofit legal services program whose mission is to strive for economic justice and human rights on behalf of California's rural poor. She then moved on to criminal law, where she served as a public defender for the County of Santa Clara and worked on determining the immigration consequences of criminal convictions. She later returned to her passion which was Immigration Law. She joined the Law offices of Considine & Sorensen in 2002 and is certified as a specialist in immigration & nationality law by the State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization.
Ms. Trujillo has also taught the Immigration law clinic at McGeorge School of Law. The Immigration Law Clinic provides a practical skills experience in client interviewing, identifying legal issues, providing legal advice and advocacy for law students.
In addition, Ms. Trujillo currently serves as the Abogada Consultora for Immigration for the Mexican Consulate. As the Abogada Consultora she is responsible for advising the Mexican Consulate in Sacramento on immigration law issues. The Law Firm of Considine, Sorenen &Trujillo also provide legal representation to individual clients on behalf of the Mexican Consulate in Sacramento under special subsidized programs financed by the Department of Protection.
Ms. Trujillo is also a wife and mother. She is a mother of two children, Sofia and Jacob, which are her joy in life. She frequently volunteers at her children's school which she loves doing. Ms. Trujillo comes from an immigrant family herself. Her parents immigrated from Mexico. She witnessed firsthand the journey immigrants take through the hardships of her own parents and extended family members.
Juliet Turner-Lloveras received her Juris Doctor from the University of California, Davis, in 1999 and was inspired to work in immigration after participating in the Immigration Law Clinic. Her mother's experience as an immigrant and her father's advocacy at Centro Legal De La Raza in East Oakland also influenced her direction in law. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from U.C. Santa Barbara and studied at the Complutense University in Madrid, Spain, through the Education Abroad Program (EAP) at U.C. Santa Barbara.
After law school, Ms. Turner-Lloveras worked for the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation (CRLA), where she served the rural community in the areas of immigration and education. Eager to work with children, Ms. Turner-Lloveras later represented minors in Sacramento County's Juvenile Dependency Court, with a special interest in helping undocumented clients obtain legal status through Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS). She also briefly represented parents in dependency appeals through the Central California Appellate Program (CCAP). Working with undocumented children directed her to exclusively practice in immigration, and Ms. Turner-Lloveras continues to represent undocumented juveniles while also serving the larger immigrant community in removal defense, appeals, family immigration, Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) self-petitions, U Visas, deferred action, and naturalization since 2005.
Ms. Turner-Lloveras practices before the Immigration Court as well as the Board of Immigration Appeals, and is admitted to practice in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She is a member of the California State Bar, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild.
True to the firm's commitment to community service, Ms. Turner-Lloveras has participated in workshops, panels, and school functions. She has presented on various topics of immigration to nonprofit organizations, advocates, and law school students. Yet, her most rewarding and inspiring role has been that of mother to her daughter, Amaya. Ms. Turner-Lloveras is fluent in Spanish, having been raised in a bilingual household by her Spanish mother and Mexican-American father.
Maribel Herrera's passion for working with immigrants was sparked when her mother opened a restaurant in San Francisco. From the age of five, Ms. Herrera worked alongside the employees, all of whom were immigrants, up until she went to law school. She became drawn to their life stories and sensitive to their struggles, serving as interpreter for them and helping them navigate through the administrative processes necessary for settling in to their new adopted home.
Wishing to be able to offer immigrants expert assistance, Ms. Herrera's enrolled in McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. There, she participated in the on-campus Immigration Law Clinic under the supervision of Attorney Michael M. Considine, handling cases as a student for one year and then working as Michael's assistant for a second year. Ms. Herrera frequently accompanied Michael on his outreach sessions, speaking at schools, nonprofit organizations, at the Mexican Consulate and on the radio.
Ms. Herrera graduated from McGeorge in May 2002 and joined the current firm in August. She has been practicing as an attorney since December 2002, exclusively within the field of immigration law. She is a member of the American Immigration Law Association and of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild. Ms. Herrera has continued to perform community outreach regularly, speaking at schools and churches, participating in immigration workshops, and having appearing on Univision television station. She currently presents informational sessions at the Western Farm Workers Association in Stockton once a month.
In her personal life, Ms. Herrera enjoys traveling and has visited several regions including Europe, the former Soviet Union, Africa and India. She is fluent in Spanish and conversational in French.
Tami Castillo attended law school at University of Pacific, McGeorge School of Law where she participated in the Immigration Law Clinic. Her interest in immigration law however, was formed during her early career experiences.
Immediately following undergrad Ms. Castillo was accepted to the AFL-CIO organizing institute. She was trained as a union organizer and was quickly working full time as an International Organizer with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (H.E.R.E.) international union. She worked extensively throughout the Monterey Bay, Salinas Valley and Central California regions where she was immersed in the issues facing the immigrant community. She learned firsthand the barriers many families face when confronting the immigration process.
Wanting to settle back in the Sacramento region, Ms. Castillo accepted a position with the Rural California Housing Corporation as a Community Organizer. She worked to develop community based initiatives with predominately immigrant communities in refuge and farm worker housing complexes.
Seeking more knowledge of the immigration process, Ms. Castillo signed up for an advocacy course with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) which ultimately led to her working as a legal assistant with the present firm in 2002. She was encouraged to attend law school and began working as Of Counsel attorney with the firm in 2010. Ms. Castillo is a member of the California State Bar, the American Immigration Law Association and of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild. She participates in community workshops, naturalization fairs, panels and school engagements. Ms. Castillo is fluent in Spanish.
Ms. Castillo is proud that her path has led her to do such important work. In her free time she enjoys adventures with her husband Emigdio and their son, Diego.