Archives: Our Team
Lance Curtright
Lance Curtright, a native of Lincoln, Nebraska, serves as the Managing Partner of DMCA. He has practiced immigration law since 2001 and is Board Certified in Immigration and Nationality Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Mr. Curtright was selected for inclusion in the Thomson Reuters Corporation Super Lawyers© list, Forbes Advisor list, and in the 2016-2025 editions of The Best Lawyers in America © by Woodward White, Inc. Under Mr. Curtright’s lead, DMCA’s Litigation Section was awarded the 2013 Best Litigation Department of the Year by Texas Lawyer magazine. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University ... Read more
David Antón Armendáriz
David is a partner at De Mott, Curtright & Amendariz, LLP (DMCA), in San Antonio, Texas. David is a graduate of Southwest Texas State University (now known as Texas State University) and he holds a Juris Doctorate from The University of Texas School of Law. Prior to joining DMCA, he litigated federal civil rights cases with The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights under Law of Texas. Prior to that, he was an attorney at Balber Pickard Battistoni Maldonado & Van Der Tuin, PC, in New York, New York and he clerked for the Hon. William J. Cornelius, Chief Justice for ... Read more
Marisol L. Pérez
Marisol Pérez is a native of San Angelo, Texas. She graduated from St. Mary’s School of Law in the year 2000 where she was awarded the Richard Green Spirit of Social Justice Award in recognition of her clinical work on behalf of clients in San Antonio and South Texas. Marisol began practicing law in 2001 at DMCA. In 2004, she joined the Southwest egional Office of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) as a staff attorney. She served as the immigrants’ rights attorney handling litigation and legislative matters for nine states. While at MALDEF, she participated in several ... Read more
Paul B. Hunker
Paul B. Hunker III, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, is a partner at DMCA, LLP. Prior to joining DMCA he spent his entire legal career representing the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He served as the Chief Counsel for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security, Dallas Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA). Mr. Hunker graduated magna cum laude from Marquette University in 1989 and from Georgetown University Law Center in 1992 where he was a member of the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal. Mr. Hunker also serves as ... Read more
Monica N. Saenz
Monica is a native of McAllen, Texas. While at SMU, she belonged to several honor societies and was the Hearing Board Chair for the University Hearing Board. Monica was also a Board Member of the University Honor Council. While in law school, Monica was an Octa-finalist in the Jenkens & Gilchrist Annual First-Year Moot Court Competition and Executive Articles Editor and Staff Writer for The Scholar: St. Mary’s Law Review on Minority Issues. She also studied abroad at St. Mary’s Institute on World Legal Problems in Innsbruck, Austria. Before joining DMCA, Monica worked at a local law firm practicing criminal ... Read more
Claudia Baellow
Claudia Baellow, a native of Guadalajara, Mexico, is the managing attorney of the business immigration group. Prior to joining DMCA, she practiced employment-based immigration with law firms in Los Angeles and Washington, DC. Ms. Baellow graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), with a double-major in History and Latin American Studies. She received her Juris Doctorate from the American University, Washington College of Law (WCL). Ms. Baellow was a member of WCL’s Administrative Law Review, and a student-attorney for the International Human Rights Law Clinic. She also interned with the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) and the ... Read more
Alejandra Martinez
Alejandra Martinez is a Partner and serves as the Managing Attorney of DMCA’s Austin office.. She has practiced immigration law since 2017 and is Board Certified in Immigration and Nationality Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Ms. Martinez was born in Minnesota to immigrant parents who raised her in a Spanish-speaking home in the Rio Grande Valley. Ms. Martinez graduated from St. Mary’s University School of Law with cum laude honors. As a law student, Ms. Martinez represented low-income immigrant clients in the Immigration and Human Rights Clinic. Ms. Martinez also served as a staff writer in The ... Read more
Robert A. Jimenez
Robert Jimenez practices primarily in the area of criminal law and has represented clients in a broad array of both felony and misdemeanor cases. Robert is committed to aggressively defending clients at each stage of their case and possesses the skill and determination needed to be successful in trial. In addition to defending the rights of the accused, Robert also practices family law and helps immigrant children who have been abused, abandoned and neglected apply for residency here in the United States. Whether in the criminal arena or family court, Robert has dedicated his profession to protecting those who need ... Read more
Claudia Hernandez
Claudia began working as a law clerk for DMCA. During that time, Claudia conducted research on novel legal arguments and helped draft briefs to present before the Board of Immigration Appeals and Immigration Courts. In 2012, Claudia began practicing as an associate attorney with the firm. Her primary focus was in removal defense, from appearing at bond proceedings to representing clients in deportation proceedings. She successfully litigated numerous removal cases in federal administrative courts and helped reunite persons with their families. In 2016, Claudia took a position at a family law firm to gain litigation experience in Texas civil courts. ... Read more
Amy Thomas
Amy is a native of San Antonio and a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law. After law school, she worked as an associate with Joseph De Mott from 1994 to 1996 primarily handling employment-based immigration cases. After a hiatus from the practice of law, she joined DMCA in 2012 where she has worked on both employment-based and family-based immigration matters of many kinds. Her employment-based immigration experience includes achievement visas (extraordinary ability EB-1, national interest waivers, and O-1 visas), PERM labor certification, business petitions, and non-immigrant visas including TN, H-1B, E-2, B1/B2, and F-1. Her affirmative experience ... Read more
Mary C. O’Rourke
A native of upstate New York, Mary O’Rourke received a B.A. in Spanish and a B.S. in Marketing, magna cum laude, from Siena College in Albany, and attended a Spanish immersion semester in Sevilla, Spain. Mary graduated from Villanova Law School, where she was President of the Immigration Law Society. Mary successfully advocated for immigrants to receive affirmative asylum as a Student Attorney in the Clinic for Asylum, Refugee, and Emigrant Services (CARES). Mary also interned at the EEOC in Washington, DC, where she handled Title VII cases involving federal employees, and represented migrant farmworker clients on both immigration and ... Read more
Debbie Cruz-Cortez
Debbie Cruz-Cortez is a Rio Grande Valley native. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts from St. Edward’s University in Austin in 2010, graduating summa cum laude. She received her Juris Doctorate from SMU Dedman School of Law in Dallas, TX in 2013. While in law school, Debbie participated in the SMU Criminal Defense Clinic where she represented indigent clients in misdemeanor criminal matters. As a student, she also interned at Catholic Charities where she consulted and prepared immigration forms for low-income clients. Debbie brings over ten years of legal experience in the fields of criminal and immigration law. She served ... Read more