Paulina Vera, Professorial Lecturer in Law and Legal Associate in the Immigration Clinic, was recognized by both the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia and the District of Columbia Courts with awards for her leadership in the Latinx community and the legal profession at-large.
In October, Ms. Vera was awarded the District of Columbia Courts’ Community Agency “CORO” Award, which is presented to prominent individuals and organizations serving the DC community.
In November, Ms. Vera was awarded the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia’s (HBA-DC) Rising Star Award. The HBA-DC award recognizes active members of the legal profession with 10 years or less experience for principled service, outstanding contributions to the legal profession, and gives preference to leadership service in local or Hispanic affinity bar associations.
Her passion for public interest work, in particular, immigration law, comes from seeing her family and community struggle with the realities of being immigrants in America.
“Both of my parents are immigrants and growing up in Tucson, Arizona, I witnessed how contentious immigration issues were,” Ms. Vera said.
Her first internship in college was with Congressman Raul M. Grijalva (D-AZ). During her time in the Tucson congressional office, Arizona’s controversial SB-1070 "show me your papers" law passed. Ms. Vera spent all summer fielding constituent calls and articulating the congressman’s opposition to the bill. She also worked with a caseworker to learn more about the hurdles immigrants must overcome to become US citizens.
“I credit that experience as the catalyst for me going into immigration law,” Ms. Vera said.
A graduate of George Washington University with a BA in International Affairs, she went on to pursue a JD at GW Law, graduating in 2015. During law school, she was a student attorney at the Immigration Clinic. Now, she supervises students and provides legal representation to asylum-seekers and respondents facing deportation in Immigration Court.
“Working with students who are interested in public interest and immigration law, you see the passion for the work,” Ms. Vera said. “That’s the passion that propelled me through law school, so it’s really inspiring to see students learn and work their cases.”
She now works alongside Professor Alberto M. Benítez, who was a mentor to Ms. Vera during her time as a student in the Immigration Clinic.
"Paulina is a star and I’m proud to be her friend, colleague, and supervisor. One of the many great things about Paulina is that she challenges everyone around her to be better. The status quo doesn’t work for her,” Professor Benítez said. “She brings passion to our work. Our clients and student-attorneys are people first and Paulina always focuses on that, followed by whatever legal needs her clients have or educational issues our student-attorneys are confronting. Paulina is the best that GW Law has to offer."
Her passion project is managing an online community called Hermanas In The Law, where she features Latinas thinking about law school, Latina law students, and Latina lawyers. Through this platform, she wants aspiring attorneys and established professionals to be able to connect and share experiences.
“I think as a Latina lawyer the idea of always being the first and being the only, I understand what a lonely feeling that can be,” Ms. Vera said. “I feel a sense of responsibility as someone who’s been successful in her career to reach behind me and pull up the next generation.”
While the online community first started as just DC-based, she said the following is now nation-wide. Hermanas In The Law currently exists on Instagram and Facebook, but Ms. Vera said she has plans to grow the community into a 501(c)(3) organization in the future to continue encouraging and inspiring the next generation of Latina lawyers.
Ms. Vera is involved in a number of professional organizations. She is a co-chair of the Student Affairs Committee for the Hispanic Bar Association of DC (HBA-DC), a board member of the HBA-DC Foundation, and a board member of LEAD.Latinoamerica. Ms. Vera is also an active member of the Hispanic National Bar Association. Previously, she served as the only Immigration Staff Attorney at the Maryland-based non-profit, CASA.