Of Counsel
Peter Isbister (he/him/el) has been practicing law for over twenty years, and became an immigration specialist in 2009. He has represented clients in immigration courts around the country, at the Board of Immigration Appeals and in federal court. He practices the full range of family-based, humanitarian, and removal defense immigration, with a focus on clients in removal proceedings and in immigration detention. He loves advocating for his clients in court.
A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, Peter started as a criminal public defender in Washington State. After moving to Georgia he was the legislative staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). He spent eight years in private practice at the Atlanta based immigration law firm of Vasquez and Servi, PC, where he was partner. More recently he served for seven years as Senior Lead Attorney with the Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Just before joining Diaz & Gaeta he was an Interim Managing Attorney at Kids in Need of Defense, Atlanta.
Peter is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and has spoken at AILA conferences in Georgia and Arizona. A member of the Georgia bar, he is admitted to practice before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and the Middle District of Georgia.
Peter was first exposed to immigration law as an intern at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First) asylum project. His dedication to immigrant justice grew during the year he spent as a human rights volunteer in Guatemala in 1999. As a law student he interned at the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project in Arizona and at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica.
Peter was one of the founders of the Georgia Detention Watch Network. He also founded Metro Atlanta TransParent, a peer support group for parents of transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming kids. He is the President of the Board of Directors of Congregation Bet Haverim, Georgia’s only Reconstructionist synagogue.
Born in Santa Cruz, California, Peter moved to Decatur, Georgia with his wife Robyn, the owner/principal at the education advocacy law firm of Painter Legal, LLC in 2008. Together they have three kids, one huge dog, one cat and a varying number of chickens. One of their kids has a leopard gecko. When they’re not tending to their furry, feathered, and scaly friends, Peter and his family love to travel, see live music and theater, and host gatherings at their home.
