Former Marine Captain and now Military & Immigration Attorney Lance Gallardo.

Lance Gallardo is uniquely qualified to lead this event by virtue of his education and experience: Throughout his pursuit of a Bachelors from CSUN-Northridge (1987) and a JD from Creighton University School of Law in Nebraska (1990), Lance worked his way through the Marine Corps Reserves to Officer Candidacy status to legal intern prosecutor at Camp Pendleton.  By the time he had his JD and legal admission to the Nebraska State Bar Association in hand, he was already a 1st Lt., and on his way to an officer student graduate school & the Naval Justice School in Rhode Island, which prepared him for his designation as a Judge Advocate for and assignment as an attorney at the Marine Corps Logistics base in Barstow, California. Lance was promoted to the rank of Captain (0-3), before leaving the marine Corps.

Upon his Honorable Discharge, he launched his private law practice first with the late Bob Platt, and then as a solo practitioner going on 20 years now with a bent toward defense in both Immigration and Military Law.   We all know what that means in Immigration Law, but in Military Law it means representing Department of Defense Service members facing administrative discipline, such as discharge and court martial, and maintaining  their security clearances.  We immigration attorneys can say we are admitted in the US Court of Appeals, US District Court etc. as Mr. Gallardo can say too, but how many of us can say that we have been admitted into the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces?  Lance has also served on the Board of Directors for the International Institute of Los Angeles, and has served his community as a Chicano Awareness Center volunteer founding the first student-run bilingual CLINIC in law school at Creighton University Law School in Omaha, Nebraska.  He is a member of the Mexican-American Bar Association, The Los Angeles County Bar Association Immigration Section, and the American Association of Immigration Lawyers.