Comprehensive Legal Expertise Across Multiple Practice Areas
Lisa’s nearly two decades of legal experience includes work in civil litigation, business and employment law, immigration, and civil rights. She has practiced in Texas, New York, Washington state, and Washington, D.C.
I currently run a solo practice, the Law Office of Lisa Y Guerra, where I handle all aspects of litigation, including trials, in the following areas:
- Employment Law
- Family Law
- Business Law
- Consumer Law
- Personal Injury Law
- Immigration Law
- Civil Rights
- Torts
My Track Record of Success
I am dedicated to giving each of my clients the time and attention to get the best possible result for each of them. Here are just a few examples of recent client wins.
I recently settled a case involving employment discrimination and FMLA claims against a multinational corporation. I settled another case involving consumer law (DTPA) and contract claims against a national manufacturer and local dealer in the transportation industry.
My recent immigration experience includes affirmative cancellation of removal for my clients, and I have assisted private attorneys with immigration cases, including defensive and affirmative asylum cases and cancellation of removal cases.
Supporting the Texas Community
Before establishing my private practice, I worked as a Staff Attorney for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) on the Migrant Farmworker & Employment Law Team. I mainly represented workers, specifically local low-income and migrant farmworkers, including H-2A agricultural guest workers, with a variety of employment law claims, often in federal court. While centered on Texas, this work extended nationwide to cases in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Wyoming, and Georgia.
While at the TRLA, I also assisted with several other teams, including the Disaster Relief Team, the Income Tax Team, the Immigration Team, and the Consumer Law Team. While assisting asylum seekers from 2016 to 2018, I won a defensive asylum case for a detainee at Port Isabel.
I served as the Institutional Equity Officer at South Texas College (STC) where I took on a variety of roles. As the Title IX Coordinator and the 504/ADA Coordinator, I handled complaints of discrimination from students, faculty, administrators, and contractors, from all areas of the school. I was responsible for drafting, publishing, and implementing the newly published Title IX regulations issued just months after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020. Due to the pandemic, I briefly advised STC administrators on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), assisted with furloughs and layoffs, and worked remote or in-person as needed.
Legal Experience in New York City
From 2012-2014, I lived in worked in Manhattan as an agency attorney for the Labor Bureau of the New York City Comptroller’s Office. I prosecuted wage claims for work performed on NYC construction and service contracts. I was involved with all aspects of litigation, including damages assessments, client/witness interviews, asset research, discovery, settlement negotiations, pre-trial motion practice, trial prep, and bench trials before the NYC Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH). I also reviewed construction contracts, service contracts, real estate purchase lease agreements, real estate financing agreements, and collective bargaining agreements as part of my work.
In just two years with the Labor Bureau, I recovered over $5 million dollars in unpaid wages, interest, and civil penalties. I also assisted with the publication of New York City’s annual prevailing wage schedules based on surveys and reports from a wide variety of local unions.
Legal Experience in Washington, D.C.
From 2009-2012, I worked at the DC Employment Justice Center (EJC) as both a Wage & Hour Policy Attorney and Bilingual Litigation Attorney. In both positions, I focused on legal advocacy for immigrant low-wage workers who were victims of wage theft.
As a policy attorney, I worked with worker rights organizations, national and local unions, and District Council members, to pass the Workplace Fraud Amendment Act of 2012 (which prohibits misclassification of construction workers as independent contractors) and the Wage Theft Prevention Act of 2014 (which added variety of protections to the existing statute for victims of wage theft).
As a litigation attorney, I was responsible for all aspects of litigation of wage-hour cases in federal and state courts, including collective and class actions, at times with private co-counsel. I also assisted with the management and operation of EJC’s weekly Workers’ Rights Law Clinic which served workers from DC, Maryland, and Virginia.
Legal Experience at Large Legal Firms
From 2007-2009, I worked as document review attorney at a variety of “big law” firms including: Williams & Connolly; Arnold & Porter; Willkie, Farr & Gallagher; Hogan & Hartson; and Wiley, Rein & Fielding. I conducted English and Spanish review of documents in response to government agency subpoenas or as part of corporate self-audits, including reviews for privilege and confidentiality. During one highly-confidential project in 2009, I was the only attorney reviewing documents related to the 2008 financial crisis.
Legal Experience in Washington State
From 2006 to 2007, I served as a Migrant Worker Staff Attorney with the Northwest Justice Project in Yakima, Washington, where I represented migrant worker clients with employment law matters. In addition to assisting with litigation and outreach, I represented farmworker interests within a Washington State pesticide biomonitoring program and in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stakeholder meetings on federal pesticide regulation.