818-850-3080About Abogada Nancy Reyes Guarderas
Nancy Reyes Guarderas
Abogada Nancy
Nancy Reyes Guarderas is an Immigration Attorney with more than 20 years of experience and service to the immigrant community. She has been licensed to practice as an attorney in the state of California since 1998. She is currently the President of her own practice, Law Office of Nancy Reyes Guarderas, A.P.C.
Before starting her private practice, she was the Directing Attorney with a large corporate immigration firm with several offices in multiple states. Her tasks included training and supervising attorneys, paralegals, clerks and intake analysts with immigration law and updates. She was also responsible for the marketing aspect of the firm as well as the implementation of standard operating procedures for the entire team.
About Abogada Nancy Reyes Guarderas
Abogada Nancy also served as Senior Attorney at “The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles” (LAFLA) for 17 years, where she handled a variety of immigration cases. LAFLA is a non-profit, frontline office for people in poverty or low-income situations in the city of Los Angeles, California.
In this organization, Abogada Nancy excelled in presenting affirmative and defensive petitions for her clients before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), conducting hearings before the United States Immigration Court (EOIR), as well as presenting briefing and motions before the Office of Administrative Appeals, Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit of the United States.
She has helped thousands of clients with direct services, conducting community outreach, and educating hundreds of private and nonprofit attorneys, social workers, and law students through panels, trainings, and as a guest speaker at the College of Social Work at USC and Loyola Law School during her 17 years at that firm.
During her time at LAFLA she also chaired the Los Angeles VAWA/U Visa Network for over a decade, where she led the group to make immigration policy changes at the local, state, and national levels, working closely with law enforcement. , prosecutors, USCIS, and other government offices to create and improve policies that affect our immigrant communities.
Abogada Nancy began her legal career as a partner in her own law firm, Reyes & Richland as a criminal law attorney. She represented clients charged with criminal offenses through every phase of the criminal process, including preliminary hearings and jury trials. This criminal law experience is now very useful to help immigrants who have criminal backgrounds understand the complexities of their cases.
She also worked at GUIA (Guatemala Unity Information Agency), a non-profit organization that provides immigration legal services to the community.
In her academic preparation, Nancy Reyes Guarderas also received a B.A. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance and a minor in Hispanic Business from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles in 1991. She received her law degree from Whittier School of Law in 1997. She is an active member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and the American Immigrations Lawyers Association.
Nancy Reyes Guarderas is “Always Ready” to help her community find solutions for families in need of immigration assistance. She wants to help families find “peace of mind” through immigration status.
About Coral Arias
Coral Arias
Senior Attorney
Coral Arias is a Senior Immigration Attorney at the Law Office of Nancy Reyes Guarderas, APC, with over twelve years of dedicated experience advocating for individuals and families navigating the complexities of U.S. immigration law. Recognized for her deep expertise and compassionate advocacy, Coral is committed to guiding clients through each stage of the immigration process with integrity and meticulous attention to detail.
Coral’s practice encompasses a broad spectrum of immigration matters, including family-based petitions, U-Visas, VAWA relief, asylum, and humanitarian protections. She regularly represents clients before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Clients value Coral for her personalized service, timely communication, and unwavering commitment to their cases. She provides honest, realistic assessments of each case, and empowers clients with the knowledge required to make informed decisions.
Coral earned her J.D. from U.C. Hastings College of the Law and is admitted to practice in California.
Coral was born and raised in Boyle Heights. She is the daughter of Mexican immigrants who instilled in her the importance of education, hard work, and service to others.
About Brianna Abrego
Brianna Abrego
Attorney
Brianna Abrego is a passionate and dedicated immigration attorney committed to keeping families together and helping individuals navigate the complex U.S. immigration system with empathy and care. She is admitted to the California Bar and is fluent in both English and Spanish, which allows her to connect meaningfully with the communities she serves.
A proud daughter of Mexican and Salvadoran ancestry Brianna is a first-generation college student and the first in her family to attend law school. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science – Law and Public Policy, with a minor in Spanish, from California Lutheran University, before going on to receive her J.D. from Southwestern Law School.
While in law school, she developed her passion for immigration law through impactful work at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) and the Southwestern Immigration Law Clinic, where she assisted children and families seeking humanitarian relief. Her experience includes handling Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) petitions, U Visa, family-based applications, adjustment of status, and removal defense.
Today, Brianna continues to advocate for immigrants with empathy, cultural awareness, and a deep personal understanding of the challenges faced by those seeking a better life in the United States. Her work is grounded in a strong belief in justice, dignity, and the importance of keeping families united.
About Gabriela Tovar
Gabriela Tovar
Director of Operations/Attorney
Gabriela started her legal career at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles where she worked with grassroots organizations, funders and advocates to implement and operationalize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). She conducted trainings for LA County staff on domestic violence and the implications of the passage of VAWA on their day-to-day operations. She was recruited by the Los Angeles County Community and Senior Services to create and manage VAWA funding to the County, and helped to develop funding opportunities for non-profit organizations serving battered immigrant women.
Within a few years she was recruited into Private Philanthropy as a Contract Administrator with First 5 LA, a quasi-governmental agency that received the lion’s share of tax funding collected from tax on tobacco products to distributed funding across LA County. She helped to create the infrastructure for the disbursement of millions of dollars to non-profit organizations throughout Los Angeles County. As a Senior Program Officer with First 5LA, she helped with the creation of strategies that continue to impact children and families to this day.
Known for her experience in creating structure and processes she was recruited by the LA84 Foundation, a legacy of the 1984 Olympic Games, to help streamline their grantmaking process across eight counties in Southern California for youth sports programming.
Most recently she held the position of Associate Vice President of the AltaMed Institute for Health Equity, made up of six professional teams: Medical Education, Research, Grants Management, Evaluation and Grant Development and Operations. She led the development of a multi-disciplinary team that managed over 100 Federal, State, County and private grants totaling $100 million in funding to support the organization’s efforts to improve health equity and the social determinants of health.
As a seasoned leader with over 20 years of proven success in program management, team building and implementation of large-scale community driven programs, she is honored at the opportunity to come back to community and serve as the Director of Operations for the Law Office of Nancy Reyes Guarderas. “It is a true full circle moment for me to come back to where my career started. Helping people to navigate the immigration processes and obtain legal status.”
Gabriela earned her bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Chicano Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and her Juris Doctorate from Whittier Law School.
Gabriela is a first-generation immigrant born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. She lives in the Inland Empire and in her spare time loves to attend LAFC soccer games with her husband.
About Monica G. Villafaña
Monica G. Villafaña
Contract Manager
Monica Villafaña is the newest addition to the team and serves as the Contract Manager for the Law Offices of Nancy Reyes Guarderas. Monica joined the law firm after more than two decades working in the non-profit arena where she developed a deep commitment and experience in fostering collaborative environments, building partnerships and working with underserved and underrepresented communities. She is a seasoned leader with proven success in operations, program & contract management, team building and organizational development.
Monica started her legal career working as a Staff Attorney with Protection and Advocacy, now Disability Rights California, the largest disability rights group in the nation. While working for this non-profit organization, Monica assisted in the operation and administration of federally mandated programs to protect, advocate for, and advance the human, civil and service rights of Californians with physical and developmental disabilities.
After a few years, her community service work took her away from the law and brought her to Great Minds in STEM (GMiS) a non-profit organization focused on inspiring and supporting underserved students, primarily Latinos in pursuing careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). During her 20+ year tenure with the organization, Monica led efforts in the concept, development and delivery of GMiS’ national conferences, K-12 education programs and university scholarship programs for Latinos in STEM.
Monica gained extensive experience in negotiating hotel contracts, event venues and vendor contracts for large and small-scale projects including GMiS’ annual national conferences and university student STEM competitions. Monica served as program manager for GMiS’ large government contracts including it’s $7.5M STEM-Up™ Initiative to promote STEM in Boyle Heights, CA. She was responsible for maintaining communication and managing relationships with Corporate and University partners as well as with contract administrators from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
As a first-generation immigrant herself, Monica is excited for this next chapter of her career, coming back to a legal environment where she can continue to nurture her passion for working directly with the community, this time working with a dedicated team to find solutions for the community’s immigration needs. Monica received a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Spanish Literature and Political Science from University of California San Diego and a Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. Monica G. Villafaña was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1997.