Veronica

Veronica Douat is a native Spanish language speaker. Born and raised in San Jose, CA to immigrant parents from Jalisco, Mexico. 

Veronica Douat is a founding partner of The Law Offices of Gomez and Douat, LLP, a law firm dedicated primarily to federal immigration law practice with some California criminal and family court representation and overlap.

Veronica has spent the last 8+ years in private practice representing individuals in affirmative immigration applications such as family based applications, humanitarian applications, Naturalization, and removal defense, collateral issues before California family court, misdemeanor criminal defense, and criminal post-conviction relief.

Before private practice she was the Immigration Program Co-Coordinator at the International Institute of the Bay Area, where together with the other regional office directors she helped shape the immigration program for the organization. She spent three years total with IIBA where she coordinated the volunteer program, DACA and Citizenship workshops, in addition to representing individual clients. In October 2014, Veronica was one of 10 Bay Area immigration attorneys that participated in the AILA Artesia Pro Bono Project. She spent a week in Artesia, NM defending recently arrived immigrants that had turned themselves in at the border in order to seek political asylum. These immigrants came to the United States from El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Honduras fleeing violence from gangs and others in their countries of origin.

Before she worked at IIBA, Veronica completed a Post Bar Fellowship and Interned at two Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Offices, totaling over one year of work completed. There, she took criminal cases to trial, argued motions, and defended clients in a variety of criminal cases. During her time as a law student at Santa Clara University (2008-2011) she also interned at the California Appellate Project (CAP) working with Death Row inmates at San Quentin State Prison.

In 2005, during her undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley (2002-2006), she interned at The Alameda County Pretrial Services Program which focused on pretrial release on own recognizance (promise to return) as an alternative to monetary bail. Here she interviewed criminal defendants accused of misdemeanors and felonies, to complete reports used by judges to determine whether monetary bond would be set or own recognizance release (ORR) would be granted. This means Veronica has spent over 18 years working in the criminal justice system in some capacity.

Veronica has trained hundreds of volunteers during her time in the non profit realm and trained two BIA Accredited Representatives (Immigration Court Certified, similar to a Paralegal). She has presented at various trainings over the years to community groups and other attorneys.

Veronica is a local native of San Jose. Veronica is a mother and wife. Her family enjoys outdoor activities, like camping and hiking.