Academy Participants

Samuel Ball is a 2L interested in workers’ rights, employment law, and immigration issues. Originally growing up in Utah and California, Samuel lived across the country and abroad before moving to New York to attend NYU Law. Last summer he worked for Catholic Migration Services in the Workers’ Rights Program and this summer he is excited to be working with Make the Road New York.

My name is Maxine Bennett, and I am currently a 1L at Fordham Law. I am originally from Los Angeles and went to college at Texas Christian University. I like running, reading, Harry Potter, and spending time with my friends. I am very excited to be interning at the Urban Justice Center this summer!

Michelle is currently a 2L at Fordham Law, where she is a Stein Public Interest Scholar. Before coming to law school, Michelle worked as a paralegal and did a service year as a volunteer coordinator at Make the Road NY. Michelle hopes to continue serving her community in Queens, York, after law school by pursuing a career in immigration law.

By day, Rachel is a Harm Reduction Policy Planner at the Center for Justice Innovation; by night, she is a part-time law student at Brooklyn Law School and an Urban Planning Master's candidate at Hunter College. She is passionate about housing and food justice, and any free time is spent with her family, knitting, or tending her indoor garden. If this bio didn't give it away, Rachel is a triple Capricorn who loves to keep her hands busy.

Hello! I just completed my first year of law school at Fordham. Prior to law school, I taught high school English in public schools for 7 years, primarily in Chicago. In my free time, I enjoy pottery, podcasts, theater, and taking my dog to Prospect Park.

Shivani Desai (she/hers) is South Asian leftist, feminist, organizer, and 1L at CUNY Law. Before law school, she organized legal observers and clinic escorts for independent abortion clinics facing hostile anti-abortion extremism in the Midwest and South; helped lead a campaign fighting for global vaccine equity by confronting the nationalism and corporate greed of patent hoarding through direct actions on the Biden administration and Moderna; and was a part of an international campaign to free Ramy Shaath–a Palestinian-Egyptian organizer and co-founder of BDS Egypt–who was imprisoned for his dissent and activist work (Ramy was freed in 2022!). These experiences made Shivani particularly interested in movement law, protecting the right to protest, and international solidarity legal work. During her 1L year at CUNY, Shivani has become involved with Students for Justice in Palestine and the National Lawyers Guild.

I am a 1L at Columbia Law School, and a member of Columbia Law School's Max Berger '71 Public Interest/Public Service Fellows Program. I accepted this opportunity because I am committed to advancing the public interest throughout my academic and legal career. My interests mainly revolve around government administration, specifically strengthening the integrity of our public institutions; ensuring that agencies can effectively respond to the needs of constituents; and engaging local communities such that administrative procedures and policies are transparent and allow for as much public input as possible. Essentially, I strive to ensure that the government is ethical, effective, and embracing. Born and raised in the Northwest Bronx, I attended Brooklyn Technical High School (a long commute) and earned my B.A. in the Program of Liberal Studies at the University of Notre Dame (an even longer commute). Before Law School, I worked at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), in that agency’s Division of Government Affairs, and for Housing Court Answers, at the Bronx County Housing Court, where I provided legal information to pro se litigants on court procedure and their substantive rights. I am a first-generation Dominican American, and the first in my family to attend law school.

Darcy Gallego (she/her) is a rising 3L at Fordham University School of Law. She has interned at Catholic Migration Services and LatinoJustice PRLDEF and looks forward to learning from and working with the MRNY workplace justice team this summer. Before law school, she worked in immigration policy in DC. She is from New Jersey and is proud to be the daughter of Colombian immigrants. She loves soccer, visiting bookstores, and taking care of her plants.

Mariel Gonzalez-Medellin is a student at NYU Law and is hoping to go into immigration law. They moved to New York from Phoenix, Arizona and became a NY resident fairly recently. Mariel is a foodie and their favorite type of dog is a schnauzer.

Hello! I am a rising 2L at CUNY Law who will be working as a public defender this summer. I am interested in abolitionist organizing on and off-campus, and have been a committed activist in NYC for over a decade. LPE has been a great way to meet like-minded people and to build a base of anti-capitalist law students and professors who are ready to wield the law in the service of building working class power. To that end I am excited to be here and to meet and learn from you all!

Pierina Hernandez is a student at Fordham University School of Law and is passionate about using her legal education to advocate for immigrants’ rights and economic justice. Prior to law school, Pierina worked as a researcher to help establish and sustain publicly funded immigration representation programs throughout the country. Pierina was born in Peru and graduated from the University of Maryland with dual degrees in economics and government & politics.

My name is Julissa Juarez (ju-lee-sah hwah-rez), and I am a rising 3L at Rutgers Law – Newark. As the child of immigrants, I came to law school to help my people better understand and navigate the complex and cruel american legal system. I have experience doing immigration and housing work, and this summer, I’ll be at Make the Road NJ in their worker’s rights division.

Anjali is a rising 2L at Harvard Law School interested in climate justice and labor. At HLS she is a member of the Harvard LPE student association, the Labor and Employment Action Project, and a tenants rights canvassing group. Before law school she pursued her master’s in interdisciplinary climate studies and was a researcher at an environmental justice non-profit, Stand.Earth. Anjali is originally from unceded Coast Salish Territory (Vancouver, Canada).

Hi, I’m Kathleen! I’m a rising 3L at Cardozo. I’m originally from Minnesota, but I went to college in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’ve been loving my time on the east coast and look forward to a career out here!

Rooted in her experiences as an undocumented immigrant from Uruguay, Belen is fiercely committed to applying the law in the interests of marginalized peoples and struggles for liberation and justice. She has worked extensively with disempowered immigrant communities at the intersections of criminal and immigration law, and is particularly interested in imperialism, elite capture and people power. She is excited to learn about how to better serve political and social movements at the Center for Constitutional Rights this summer.

After a career as a freelance writer, Nick decided to move into law to explore interests in criminal defense, tenants’ rights, and labor law. Nick lives in Brooklyn with his two cats and 40+ houseplants. He loves reading and bikes and has recently been baking a lot of banana bread.

Daniella Nitza Lopez graduated from Fordham University at Lincoln Center in 2023 with a B.A. in Art History and a double minor in Spanish and Political Science. As an undergraduate, Daniella was a student worker at Fordham Law’s Office of Development and Fordham Law Clinic. She worked closely with Spanish-speaking clients as an interpreter and worked on Fordham Law’s Parole Advocacy Project by redacting parole interview transcripts and risk assessment instruments to protect the privacy of those seeking parole. Since graduating, she has completed a summer legal internship at the Fordham Law Immigration Advocacy Clinic and the International Cooperation and Justice Clinic. These experiences reaffirmed her commitment to protecting underrepresented demographics from policies disregarding a person's fundamental rights based on citizenship and socio-economic status. Daniella is excited to join Stein Scholars and hopes to help produce a more meaningful introduction to public interest law for prospective law students.

Hello, my name is Alice and I am a rising 2L at CUNY School of Law. My areas of interest are criminal defense work, labor/employment law, and election law. My electoral work incudes canvassing, serving as a poll worker, and managing a 2022 State Assembly primary campaign. In addition, I have spent much of my free time over the last several years advocating for sex work decriminalization and greater labor protections for people working in the adult industry. I wish to see existing organizing campaigns in NYC expanded to actively include stigmatized and criminalized workers who are often overlooked or excluded from more mainstream efforts.

JD Mireles is a rising 3L at NYU Law and will be interning with the Bronx Defenders, Civil Action Practice. Originally from Southern California, they graduated from UC Berkeley in 2020. As a law student, they are the Development Director for Unemployment Action Center and Colloquium Editor for NYU Review of Law and Social Change. They are passionate about abolitionist tech justice and social safety net programs.

Fumika Mizuno is a rising 2L at Yale Law School. She is broadly interested in reimagining communities of care, decoupling the provision of care from surveillance and punishment, and defending families against unjust separation. She has lived in Portland, Chicago, and Japan.

Catherine Murcek is an advocate and organizer for workplace democracy, yoga therapist, and movement artist based in New York City. She is currently in her second year of CUNY School of Law’s evening program while working for the NYC Network of Worker Cooperatives, the Oasis Solidarity Collective (offering training and support for worker-owners), and her co-op, the Samamkaya Yoga Back Care & Scoliosis Collective. She is passionate about systems change toward a new solidarity economy and in her rare free time loves to dance, make music, and travel.

Alia Nahra (she/her) is a JD/PhD student in Sociology at Columbia University. Her work centers around violence and power within the criminal legal system, with a focus on sexual violence and the experiences of incarcerated women. She also researches social movements, particularly organizing and solidarity-building inside carceral facilities. Alia acts as a sexual violence crisis advocate at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center and spends her free time boxing and baking.

Conor is a rising 2L at CUNY School of Law. He is passionate about housing rights and is excited to work in Brooklyn Legal Services’ (part of LSNYC) Housing Unit this summer. A life-long New Yorker, Conor’s recently been volunteering with the Legal Aid Society’s Housing Justice Helpline. He’s a Mets fan, film buff, and enjoys finishing last in bar trivia!

Sunny Osment is a rising third-year law student at the University of North Carolina School of Law. In law school, she serves as board member of the UNC chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and has completed internships with human rights organizations Palestine Legal (Spring 2024), El Centro de los Derecho del Migrante (Fall 2023), the Center for Death Penalty Litigation (Summer 2023). This summer will be working as an Ella Baker Intern at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Sunny’s dedication to contesting criminalization as a legal weapon designed to destabilize liberation movements undergirds her commitments inside and outside of law school. As a steering committee member of the Refund Raleigh Freedom Committee, Sunny tries to commit much of her time to organizing for the investment of public money in life-affirming programs and divestment from the criminal legal system and military industrial complex.

Miles is an organizer and law student originally from rural Appalachia. After working as an investigative journalist in DC, then as a union organizer and voting rights advocate in Maine, Miles came to law school to build a legal career working to support radical organizing around labor, economic justice, and the abolition of the carceral state. Miles has a BA in Biology from Oberlin College and an MA in Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism from The New School. He spends his spare time reading, running, and quilting.

Shreya is a rising 2L at Columbia Law School with a passion for movement lawyering and integrating legal practice with community advocacy. She is originally from Minnesota and graduated from the University of Chicago with degrees in Economics and Political Science. At CLS, Shreya is the Social Justice Chair for both Empowering Women of Color and the South Asian Law Students Association and a member of the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Team. She also participates in campus organizing efforts through Law and Political Economy and the National Lawyers Guild. In her free time, Shreya enjoys swimming in lakes, trying new food spots in the city, and participating in book clubs.

Hello, All! I grew up here in NY and partially in CT. I came back to NY for my undergraduate studies in 2015 and I have been here since. I have a Bachelor and Master of Arts in Government and Politics from St. John’s University. Before my law school career at CUNY School of Law, I was working as a civil servant for Bowery Residents’ Committee for three years helping people suffering from homelessness, substance abuse, and or domestic violence. Happy to be joining the team!

Marwa is a second year law student at CUNY Law. She is interning in the Ella Baker program at the Center for Constitutional Rights. She is interested in privacy, surveillance, and First Amendment issues. In her very limited spare time, she loves to cook and go on Wikipedia deep-dives.

Zahra (she/her) is a 2L at CUNY School of Law, having previously earned a B.A. in sociology and philosophy from Boston University. Before law school, she spearheaded a research project on low-income community solar and worked as a case manager in reentry. At CUNY she is involved in Books through Bars, the South Asian Law Student Association, and the National Lawyers Guild. In her leisure time, she enjoys hiking, surfing, exploring the city's culinary scene, baking galettes, and reading fiction.

Hi there! I am a 2L at Northeastern, hoping to work in the field of crim-imm. Before law school, I lived in D.C. where I spent four years working mostly at an immigration services provider (CAIR Coalition) for adults and children in immigration detention, and my final year as a tenant organizer at Housing Counseling Services. I am a native New Yorker but went to college in Vermont, so I identify both as a city girl and granola-crunchy. I have always been interested in the intersection of law and organizing, and am very excited to be participating in LOA!

I am a rising 3L at Columbia Law School. Prior to law school, I worked on racial and economic justice issues, including working on a winning ballot initiative to allow for rent stabilization in Minneapolis. In law school, I’ve been active in NLG and Palestine Organizing. I externed at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest this past fall semester, working on Environmental Justice issues through a community lawyering model. I’m excited to join the Law and Organizing Academy this year!

Samara Trilling is a 2L at Harvard Law School interested in strengthening anti-monopoly law, building worker power and regulating discriminatory machine learning algorithms. In her seven years as a software engineer, Samara built anti-eviction tools at Justfix, city master-planning software at Sidewalk Labs and digital divide and democratic news reporting tools at Google. Samara has a degree in computer science from Columbia University with a specialization in AI and a concentration in history. Samara loves hiking, collects books on the history of computing, and plans to build a queer land co-op with friends after law school.

Rachel Vogel is a rising 3L at Yale Law School interested in workers rights and movement lawyering. She is a board member of her school’s National Lawyers Guild chapter and the LPE student group. She also helps train and coordinate legal observers for Connecticut NLG. Prior to law school she completed a PhD in linguistics and worked in endangered language documentation and revitalization.

Reakash is a Canadian lawyer and graduate student. During law school, Reakash published a multi-generational study detailing the history of Black female activists in Canada’s anti-racism movement throughout the mid-20th century. After receiving her J.D., Reakash worked as a criminal defense lawyer in Toronto and litigated criminal and constitutional law cases at all court levels, including at the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC). Reakash then clerked with Justice Sheilah Martin at the SCC before commencing her Master of Laws at Columbia University as a Fulbright Scholar. She is examining notions of public safety under racial capitalism.

Jules Weingarden is a current student at the CUNY School of Law and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Barnard College. She previously worked as an immigration paralegal and volunteered for pro se clinics assisting asylum and TPS applicants. Her commitment to seeking justice for immigrants has led her to join Make the Road’s immigration legal services team as an intern for the summer of 2024.

Madeline Wood (she/her/hers) is a rising 2L at Brooklyn Law School originally hailing from Georgia. Throughout undergrad, she interned with direct client service providers and organized for workers’ rights in the Boston area. Between college and law school, she worked in constitutional impact litigation and was a member of Gowanus Mutual Aid and Fort Greene/Clinton Hill Mutual Aid. She is excited to merge her passion for grassroots power with the toolkit that a law degree provides. Outside of school, she loves hot yoga, running, reading short stories, and chatting about Middlemarch with her book club.