Vanessa Turley is a trial lawyer at Claggett & Sykes Law Firm and handles personal injury cases. Vanessa is the daughter of a retired naval officer and lived around the United States before settling in Temecula, California. While in high school, Vanessa competed with the mock trial team across the state. During her senior year, Vanessa was in a serious car accident where she broke her hip and sustained several other injuries. The other vehicle’s driver was uninsured and, not knowing anything about legal options available to her, Vanessa was left uncompensated for her injuries and life-long impairments. Since then, Vanessa has been a zealous advocate for others.

After high school, Vanessa obtained her Bachelor of Arts degrees in Psychology and Chicano Studies at the University of California, Irvine. While at UCI, Vanessa volunteered for America on Track’s mentoring children of prisoner’s program and Upward Bound. Vanessa also participated as a student researcher in studies relating to mandatory curfews for suspected gang members and motivating factors for first-generation college students. She immediately entered graduate school at UNLV to pursue a Master of Social Work degree. During graduate school, Vanessa worked monitoring supervised visitations with parents and their children and taught therapeutic interventions to children with maladaptive behaviors.

Upon graduation, Vanessa worked as a social worker in a skilled nursing and long-term care facility. The next year, Vanessa began law school at the William S. Boyd School of Law as a part-time evening student. She was the first graduate from the health law certification program. Her capstone paper, “The Bioethics of Medical Repatriation,” won 2^nd prize in the ABA Health Law Student Writing Competition and the American College of Legal Medicine Student Writing Competition. Vanessa witnessed first-hand this obscure patient dumping technique while working as a social worker in the trauma unit and emergency room at Sunrise Hospital. Vanessa also worked in the first response team the evening of the devastating events of October 1, 2017.

Following law school, Vanessa began practicing in insurance defense and medical malpractice defense. She continued to volunteer with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada and was recognized as Pro Bono Attorney of the Month in September 2022. Vanessa has represented clients in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Nevada Supreme Court. In 2022, Vanessa prevailed in oral argument before Ninth Circuit, preserving a multi-million-dollar deed of trust for a banking client.

Vanessa is dedicated to serving others and her community. In her spare time, Vanessa enjoys bowling with a local bowling league, being a dog mom to her cavapoo “Keno,” and cheering for the Las Vegas Raiders.