SEAN LAI MCMAHON, LEGAL PROGRAM director

Sean was raised in an immigrant family in Richmond, California. He comes to DSCS with 14 years of experience in nonprofit organizations, with nearly a decade of that as an immigration attorney. His work has focused on removal defense, federal immigration litigation, detention issues, and the intersection of law and organizing. Prior to DSCS, Sean represented both detained and non-detained immigrants in removal proceedings and federal litigation at Pangea Legal Services. His work at Pangea included habeas litigation for detained immigrants, appellate matters at the circuit level, and amicus and impact litigation work such as Pangea v. Dep’t of Homeland Security I and II, the lawsuits that blocked the Trump Administration’s changes to asylum regulations. 

Previously, Sean worked at the Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center (now TakeRoot Justice) in New York, where he provided legal support for the organizing work of workers’ centers and grassroots community organizations. He represented individual members of these organizations on a broad spectrum of humanitarian immigration matters, provided technical assistance for organizing campaigns, and helped to advocate for policies supporting immigrants’ rights in the New York area. Sean was also in the first class of Immigrant Justice Corps (IJC) legal fellows, from 2014 to 2016. He earned a bachelor’s degree with honors from U.C. Berkeley, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.  As Legal Program Director of DDLAP, Sean hopes to continue to help build power in working-class and immigrant communities. Sean speaks Spanish and English. He is licensed to practice law in the states of New York, New Jersey, and California.