Meet Our Legal Team
About the Attorneys
Vanessa Baehr-Jones
Founding Partner
Vanessa spent nearly a decade prosecuting child sex offenders and securing restitution for survivors. As the Project Safe Childhood coordinator in Los Angeles, she managed intake of all child exploitation cases in the seven-county district. Notable cases include the six-week trial of a recidivist sex offender who exploited children in Cambodia, and the indictment of four offenders who trafficked children through a darknet website. After leaving Los Angeles, Vanessa served as a federal prosecutor in Northern California, providing expertise on child exploitation and trafficking cases. A skilled trial and appellate attorney, she is fearless in seeking the best outcomes for her clients.
Vanessa earned her B.A. summa cum laude from Tufts University, and then served as an intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency. She holds a law degree from UCLA School of Law. She clerked for the Honorable Virginia A. Phillips of the Central District of California, and the Honorable Dorothy W. Nelson of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She is a member of the National Crime Victims Bar Association and the American Association for Justice.
Ami Sheth Sagel
Founding Partner
Ami, a litigator for over 15 years, served as a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles and Riverside. In Riverside, Ami served as the Branch’s Project Safe Childhood and Human Trafficking Coordinator and helped create the Riverside County Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, a collaboration of prosecutors, law enforcement, and victim servicers. Notable cases include an eight-defendant, gang-related sex-trafficking prosecution that involved working closely with teenage survivors. Since leaving government service, Ami has directed her law practice towards working with families and children, and litigating on their behalf within the state court system. Ami knows how to advocate for children and families in crisis.
Ami is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and Claremont McKenna College. She started her legal career at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis, LLP in New York. Ami is a board director for the Inland Empire Chapter of the Federal Bar Association; Co-Chair for Mommy Esq. (a committee of the Orange County Bar Association); and a member of APALIE (Asian Pacific American Lawyers of the Inland Empire). She is committed to her pro bono work, which most recently includes cases from nonprofit legal aid organizations such as Advokids, Veterans Legal Institute, Kids in Need of Defense. Ami is on the board of MPower Alliance, a nonprofit serving the needs of birth mothers post-adoption.