ATTORNEYS

Liya Djamilova, Managing Attorney

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Liya has been in the legal field for more than ten years dedicating all her time to defending human rights. She believes that everyone has a right to be treated with respect and dignity, and that no one is illegal. She is a member of the State Bar of California, and American Immigration Lawyers Association.Liya was born and raised in Uzbekistan, where she graduated from Law School and was admitted to the Bar. She worked in the area of human rights law with various organizations, including American Bar Association Europe & Asia Rule of Law Initiative, Open Society Foundation, Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe and with several United Nations projects.After moving to the United States in 2006, Liya worked for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project as a legal advocate with the Violence Against Women Act (“VAWA”) unit. She completed her Masters in Law (“LLM”,) at the University of California Hastings College of Law. She was admitted to the California State bar in 2010 and began practicing immigration law. In 2012 she established her own firm, the Law Office of Liya Djamilova P.S.

In 2016, she received the Pro-Bono Award from the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association in Washington State for establishing and maintaining a program providing a free legal assistance for detained immigrants who cannot afford to hire a lawyer at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA.

You can watch Liya making oral arguments before the 9 circuit court of appeals at the following links:

Danielle Richardson, Senior Attorney

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Danielle Richardson was born in Seattle, Washington and has been involved in immigration law and policy since 2008. While an undergrad at the University of Washington, she got involved in the Latinx community in the Seattle area through Spanish language conversation groups and volunteer work at Casa Latina. She also volunteered at and eventually worked for a non-profit in Seattle which dealt with microfinancing of agriculture projects in Central America. In 2010, she was able to travel to El Salvador as part of a volunteer group, where she worked with a sister city of Arcatao on water tank and irrigation systems. After graduating with a BA in Spanish Language, she started working as a paralegal at an immigration law firm in Seattle where she found her passion working with such a diverse group of people in a very complex legal system. For this reason she decided to attend Law School at Seattle University, during which she was an extern with the Seattle ICE office for a semester where she learned about the immigration court process from a different perspective. After graduating from Law School, Danielle began working as an associate at the Law Office of Liya Djamilova. Working in both removal and affirmative proceedings, Danielle has gained familiarity with a broad spectrum of immigration legal issues. Her personal relationship with many in the immigrant community help her to focus on immigration law not as just a legal issue, but a human one as well, and she is honored to be able to provide whatever help and service she can to those who cannot navigate these tumultuous waters alone.

Jerri Melendez, Associate Attorney

Jerri Melendez is a native of Houston, Texas. He attended undergrad at the University of Houston and graduated with a BA in Political Science. Jerri wanted to be an attorney since he was in middle school and his passion brought him to Seattle, Washington where he studied law at the Seattle University School of Law. Both of Jerri’s parents are from El Salvador and this has driven his passion to help the immigrant community. After his first year of law school, Jerri interned with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project where he helped clients with family petitions. After graduating from law school in 2018, Jerri practiced immigration law for almost two years, focusing on asylum cases, before joining our office.