About Kara Rachel
Kara Rachel Lavy earned a bachelor's degree in Law & Society and Spanish from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2005 and completed her J.D. at California Western School of Law in 2008. Her academic path combined social science and language study before she moved into legal training. Those early choices surface in the kinds of matters she handles and the communities she serves.
After law school she built a practice that crosses criminal defense, immigration and family law. She is admitted to practice in California and New York. Her firm, Lavy Law, has been the base for that work. Over time she added roles that range beyond individual representation. She has taught college students and trained prosecutors and police abroad.
In 2012 she served as an instructor at San Francisco State University for a course titled "The Cross Section Between Immigration and Family Law." Earlier, in 2011, she worked with the U.S. Department of Justice's OPDAT program, leading a trial advocacy course for Mexican federal prosecutors, police and experts. Those teaching assignments reflect an interest in practical courtroom skills and in the institutional side of legal systems.
Her professional memberships show the breadth of her practice. She belongs to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the California Public Defenders Association, the California Trial Lawyers Association and California Lawyers for Criminal Justice. Locally she participates in the Bar Association of San Francisco's Lawyer Referral Information Service and serves on Contra Costa County's Criminal Conflict Panel. In New York she is part of Manhattan's 18B Felony Panel.
Voluntary work is a steady element of her schedule. She volunteers on NPR's "Your Legal Rights" call-in program, offering free legal advice to listeners. She is also active with La Casa de Las Madres, a domestic violence shelter in San Francisco.
Colleagues describe her as someone who moves between courtrooms, classrooms and community settings. Her practice draws on courtroom experience and a grounding in immigration questions that often intersect with criminal and family law issues. She has handled matters that require coordinating across jurisdictions and systems.
She maintains an active practice under the name Lavy Law and continues to take on cases, teach and volunteer. She currently handles criminal defense, immigration and related family-law matters.
