Marc Santamaria is the founding attorney of Santamaria Law Firm, P.C. that is a full-service immigration law firm based in San Francisco, CA. He leads the law firm team and together with the team, they’ve assisted clients obtain humanitarian relief at USCIS and from Immigration Court (e.g., asylum, cancellation of removal), various non-immigrant visas (e.g., investor visas, work visas), and many other types of immigration relief. Santamaria Law Firm has been recognized by several consulates in the Bay Area and community organizations for their work in advocating for immigrants. Marc Santamaria is licensed to practice law in California and is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Attorney Santamaria has significant experience in teaching the law. He currently teaches LL.M. Legal Research and Writing (“LRW”) at UC Berkeley Law School. He is also the Immigration Law Clinic (“Clinic”) Director at San Francisco Law School. At the Clinic, he teaches removal defense and directs the externship program in which law students participate in cross training sessions with PhD psychology students to assist immigration clients with their various cases. He was also an SJD (PhD equivalent) Dissertation Committee Member at Golden Gate University Law School in which he guided his students in legal research and writing and conducted, or participated in their first and final oral defenses.
Attorney Santamaria draws from his background in teaching English to immigrants and foreigners to teach the LRW class at UC Berkeley Law School. He taught various levels of English as a Second Language (“ESL”) at City College of San Francisco where he was voted as a member of the Academic Senate. He also taught ESL at a private ESL school in San Francisco.
Education
B.A. in Legal Studies, UC Berkeley (2004)
J.D., San Francisco Law School (2011)
M.A. in TESOL, University of San Francisco (2014)
LL.M. in Taxation, University of San Francisco Law School (2015)
S.J.D. in International Legal Studies, Golden Gate University School of Law (2016)