Betsy Lawrence

Betsy serves as Senior Counsel based in BAL’s Tysons office, where she focuses on account management and casework. She is also a member of BAL’s Government Strategies team.

Before joining BAL, Betsy served for three years at the White House as deputy assistant to the president for immigration, where she drove the implementation of the president’s domestic immigration policy agenda. In this role, she worked across White House offices and with various departments and agencies to develop and implement policies on employment-based and family-sponsored immigration, work authorization, humanitarian programs and more.

Prior to this position, Betsy served as chief counsel and counsel for the Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship in the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, working with committee leaders and staff to develop and execute the Democratic majority’s legislative agenda, including the American Dream and Promise Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. She also drafted and solicited support for original legislation, including measures to facilitate STEM immigration, create a visa pathway for founders of startup companies and reform the U.S. immigration court system.

Betsy’s private sector work includes 10 years in various roles with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, including director of government relations, where she directed the association's administrative and legislative advocacy efforts, with a focus on immigration benefits and employment-based immigration. She began her career as an attorney at a full-service law firm in San Francisco, where she represented and advised individual clients and companies with respect to all matters involving immigration and naturalization.