Empathy.
Expertise.
Persistence.
This is what you can expect with us on your team.
Every death penalty case carries the immense weight of knowing a human’s life is on the line—and that families, friends, and a community are grieving.
Our firm is staffed by licensed social workers with specialized expertise working in psychotherapy practices, medical settings, and inpatient psychiatric facilities. We marry this clinical foundation with more than a decade of mitigation experience, grounded in our commitment to the highest level of capital representation and empathy for every person we encounter.
When you bring us onto your defense team, you can expect timely communication and frequent updates to keep the team aligned. No matter how daunting the circumstances, we fight to uphold each client’s constitutional rights through persistent, scorched-earth investigations.
AMY WILLIAMS, LCSW-S
Founding Principal, Mitigation Specialist
Amy is a licensed clinical social worker and the founding principal of Williams Mitigation and Consulting, LLC. She provides mitigation investigation services and serves as a mitigation consultant for the Texas Habeas Assistance and Training Project (TxHAT) and the NACDL. She also serves as a mitigation mentor for the Scharlette Holdman Mitigation Mentorship Program, sponsored by the ACLU. Prior to these roles, she was the CHU Chief Investigator at the Federal Public Defender of the Northern District of Texas in Dallas, Texas. She has practiced capital mitigation in trial, state, and federal post-conviction proceedings for over a decade.
While attending the University of Houston, she researched parent-child dyads’ contributions to the development of anxiety and depressive disorders in children and later in graduate school, co-sponsored a study focused on African-American women’s needs for trauma-informed, culturally competent mental health care. Amy is published in the Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health and has worked as a psychotherapist in inpatient and outpatient treatment settings in New York and Texas since 2018.
ELEANOR BECERRA, LMSW
Junior Mitigation Specialist
Eleanor is a proud Spanish-speaking Houston native. As the daughter of a Colombian immigrant, Eleanor brings a deep appreciation for the cultural, linguistic, and systemic barriers faced by marginalized communities. After leaving law school, she gained hands-on experience as a paralegal, legal advocate, and policy analyst, and came to recognize that her passion lay in social work.
She went on to earn her Master of Social Work from the University of Houston, where she interned with the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of Texas. Upon graduation, she deepened her mitigation skills through record collection and analysis, juror interviews, and master document preparation before joining WMC full-time in 2025.
Eleanor also brings experience as a former hospital social worker for one of the largest healthcare systems in Texas. This experience expanded her understanding of the intersection between untreated mental illness and the criminal legal system. She is currently under clinical supervision with Ms. Janett Rodriguez
KALEIGH CORTEZ, MBA
Practice Coordinator
Kaleigh is a certified operations specialist with 6 years of experience leading business strategy, project management, and systems development.
With a degree in Economics & Business and a background as a business strategist, she has a history in streamlining operations across diverse teams. Starting her career in non-profit project management, she strengthened her skills when transitioning to her role as Chief of Staff for a management firm. There, she managed the company’s production projects by bridging teams with cross-functional clarity, building scalable systems, and leading strategic initiatives.
She joined Williams Mitigation & Consulting in 2024 and now leads backend operations to ensure the firm achieves its goals and consistently delivers high-quality results for clients. Her role spans practice oversight, supporting business planning, growth strategies, and helping the firm push towards its mission.
Our work is grounded in the American Bar Association (ABA) Guidelines for the Mitigation Function in Death Penalty Cases.
The ABA Guidelines
These nationally recognized standards outline the minimum requirements for competent representation in capital cases—from investigation and mitigation to client advocacy and ethical responsibility.
We uphold these guidelines not just as a baseline, but as a foundation for excellence.
They reflect the gravity of death penalty representation and the critical need for a defense team that is thorough, compassionate, and unrelenting in the pursuit of justice.
