MALDEF Fellow

Shaheena Ahmad Simons received her JD from Yale LawSchool in 2001 and her BA in English and political sciencefrom Yale College in 1997, graduating cum laude and withdistinction in her major.

Shaheena Ahmad Simons

While in law school, she served as student director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center forInternational Human Rights, was the Articles Editor for the Yale Human Rights &Development Law Journal and was awarded the Khosla Memorial Fund for HumanDignity Prize. As an undergraduate, Shaheena served as News Editor for the Yale DailyNews and was awarded the Yale English department’s John Hubbard Curtis Writing Prize.After college and prior to law school, she was an associate editor at U.S. News & WorldReport, where she covered politics and finance. After serving as regional counsel forMALDEF, Shaheena is currently Deputy Chief in the Civil Rights Division at theDepartment of Justice.

I became a lawyer because I believed in the law as an effective tool for social justice. Tothat end, I spent both of my law school summers working in the public sector. During myfirst summer, I interned in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division (Special LitigationSection), and I split my second summer between the American Civil Liberties Union’sNational Prison Project and the Federal Defender Association of Philadelphia (CapitalHabeas Unit). I never considered working for a large New York law firm until I learnedabout the Fried Frank MALDEF Fellowship Program. Initially I was drawn by the prospectof working at MALDEF, with its diverse and extensive civil rights docket.

Coming into the Fellowship Program, I hoped that Fried Frank would provide me with theskills I would need to hit the ground running at MALDEF. Indeed, my time at the firmexceeded my expectations for professional and personal development. The quality of mywork assignments was generally excellent, and pro bono assignments comprised a largeproportion of my caseload. I worked closely with partners and received the responsibilityand experience I needed to prepare me for my future work at MALDEF.

I was also very impressed by the collegiality and pro bono commitment of Fried Frankattorneys, with whom I cultivated good friendships and productive working relationships.During my time at the firm, I forged particularly strong bonds with the other MALDEF andLDF Fellows, to whom I still turn for support and advice.

My time at the MALDEF national office was also exceedingly rich and rewarding. I workedprimarily on immigrants’ rights and employment discrimination matters, including a largeclass-action lawsuit against a well-known clothing retailer. It was truly a pleasure and aprivilege to work with talented and committed attorneys at MALDEF and throughout myFellowship experience.

MALDEF Fellow

Carlos Becerra received his JD from the University ofWisconsin Law School in 2003 and his BA in public policyfrom Stanford University in 2000.

Carlos Becerra

While in law school, he worked on the Colonias Project at Texas Rural Legal Aid. AtStanford, Carlos worked as an intern for the California Public Utilities Commission,where he was responsible for giving policy advice to the Low Income Governing Board.He also worked as a program manager for the Mayfair Improvement Initiative in San Jose, California. Currently, Carlos owns the Becerra Law Group, LLC in the Chicago,Illinois area.

I discovered the MALDEF Fellowship in my third year of law school. I was immediatelyattracted to this Fellowship because it was so different from other fellowships. As aFellow, you get to both experience life as an associate at a large Wall Street law firm andwork at a premier civil rights organization. I saw this as an opportunity to dointellectually stimulating work in two very different environments. I admired the valuablework that MALDEF does in the Latino community but knew very little about Fried Frank.As I did my research, I found that the firm had a long history of doing pro bono work.

Although I never imagined myself at a large New York law firm, I am very pleased withmy decision to work at Fried Frank. The firm is extremely supportive of MALDEF’s effortsand the Fellowship. In addition, the firm provided me with excellent training that hasbeen extremely valuable at MALDEF.

At Fried Frank, I was afforded the opportunity to work on a variety of interestingassignments, including criminal defense work on a pro bono matter and a large U.S.Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. Aside from the Fellowship itself, Fried Frank is a great place to start a legal career.

At Fried Frank I had the opportunity to work with and learn from some of the mostrecognized and highly-skilled lawyers in business and securities litigation. I remain veryimpressed with the professionalism and dedication of everyone at Fried Frank. Mostimportantly, the people at Fried Frank not only work on complicated, high-profilematters, but they maintain a cordial work environment where a young attorney cangrow.

I believe that the legal system is one avenue of social change in America. Lawyers havean opportunity to make a meaningful impact on the lives of their clients, and ultimatelyon the rest of society, through their work. Having access to the judicial system has apowerful impact on many communities, in particular, communities of color. This type ofpositive impact will only occur when lawyers who are well trained take their knowledgeand try to find remedies to our social ills. This Fellowship provides a unique opportunityto work with highly skilled litigators and then go on to do the valuable work of LDF andMALDEF.

MALDEF Fellow

Iván Espinoza-Madrigal received his JD in 2005 from NewYork University School of Law, where he was a Root-Tilden-Kern Sinsheimer Public Interest Scholar.

Iván Espinoza-Madrigal

He received his BA, summa cum laude, in Political Science and Latin American Studiesfrom the University of Pennsylvania in 2001, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.As an undergraduate, Iván was involved in community activism with several studentgroups and with Congreso de Latinos Unidos in Philadelphia. While in law school, Ivánlitigated employment, immigration and complex civil rights cases with the ImmigrantsRights Clinic, and served as a legal intern with Community Legal Services of Philadelphiaand American Friends Service Committee in Newark, New Jersey. Iván was a teachingassistant for Professor Derrick Bell in Constitutional Law and served in leadershippositions with the Latino Law Students Association and OUTLaw. Prior to joining FriedFrank, Iván served as a law clerk for the Hon. Eric Clay in the U.S. Court of Appeals forthe Sixth Circuit (2006 – 2007), and for the Hon. Ronald Ellis in the U.S. District Courtfor the Southern District of New York (2005 – 2006). After concluding his Fellowshipat MALDEF, Iván became a staff attorney at Lambda Legal.

I learned about the Fried Frank Fellowship program while serving as a law clerk in federalcourt. I was drawn to the Fellowship by the prospect of working with MALDEF, anorganization with a demonstrated history of serving the needs of the Latino community. Iwant to contribute to MALDEF's legacy by providing legal services to immigrants and low-income individuals. The Fellowship was an open door for me to use my passion, myvision and the law to help bring forth social change and access to justice.

The first phase of the Fellowship, at Fried Frank, was professionally and personallyrewarding. After completing two federal clerkships, I was eager to do substantive work insophisticated and cutting-edge cases. Fried Frank has afforded me the opportunity towork with accomplished litigators in complex matters. The billable work was interestingand substantive. Additionally, aside from the myriad opportunities the firm identifies forpro bono representations, the firm approved a pro bono immigrants rights case that Iproposed. This case was treated as a professional commitment of equal importance tobillable work.

Fried Frank attorneys are professional and collegial. The Fellowship program is a part of aunique community of lawyers dedicated to pro bono work at Fried Frank. There is astrong sense of community and a genuine commitment to social justice work. I havecultivated strong relationships with my colleagues. I continued my development as alitigator and applied these skills at MALDEF. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to be apart of the Fellowship.

MALDEF Fellow

Maureen Guadalupe Tellez is the 1999 recipient of theMALDEF Fried Frank Fellowship.

Maureen Guadalupe Tellez

She graduated from Yale College in 1996, majoring in political science. As anundergraduate, she was awarded the Wendy E. Blanning Memorial Prize and the J.W.Saxe Memorial Prize to fund her summer internships working with migrant farm workersand Native Americans in Arizona. In 1999, Maureen Guadalupe received her JD fromU.C. Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law. At Boalt, she received the Francine DiazMemorial Prize for her service in the public-interest and honorable mention for her workin the International Human Rights Clinic. Maureen Guadalupe clerked with MALDEF’sSan Francisco Office for a semester while in law school, and welcomed the opportunityto receive a fellowship that would allow her to gain “big firm litigation experience” whilehoning her skills for her ultimate career goal of working on behalf of the indigenous andLatino communities.

I have always been committed to effecting social change through the law. While atBoalt, I worked diligently in both my legal studies and in putting legal theory to practice.I had the invaluable experience of providing under-represented communities access to thejustice system. My various clerkships with notable organizations, including MALDEF, theImmigrant Legal Resource Center, California Indian Legal Services and the InternationalIndian Treaty Council allowed me to collaborate with attorneys and community leaders inshaping policy and effecting social change.

As an advocate in the public interest sector from California, I had no idea what big firmlife in Manhattan would be like. However, my experience as a litigation associate atFried Frank proved to be an exciting one. During my two year tenure at the Firm, I hadexcellent mentors and met many extraordinary people. Fried Frank gave me the chanceto work on a diverse array of cases ranging from high-stakes securities fraud litigation topro bono death penalty representation.

Subsequently, in 2002, I entered the second phase of the Fellowship at MALDEF’sregional office in Los Angeles, California under the leadership of Antonia Hernandez andThomas Saenz. My time at MALDEF was amazing. There, I worked on several casesdefending Latinos and many monolingual Spanish speakers. For example, I worked witha team of brilliant lawyers defending janitors in a high-profile class-action against severalsupermarket chains for unpaid wages.

My time at Fried Frank and MALDEF prepared me to become an effective lawyer andleader for my communities. Today, I am a mother of four and continue my work with theLatino and indigenous communities. I opened my own practice in Los Angelesrepresenting indigenous Mayans, Mexicans and immigrants in removal proceedings beforethe U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) and the Executive Office ofImmigration Review (EOIR). The Fried Frank / MALDEF Fellowship gave me the litigationskills and courage to address the pressing legal needs facing my communities today.

MALDEF Fellow

David Herrera Urias received his JD, cum laude, from theUniversity of New Mexico School of Law in 2001.

David Herrera Urias

He received his BA in criminology and political science from the University of New Mexicoin 1997. Prior to coming to Fried Frank, David clerked for the Hon. Vanessa Ruiz, Districtof Columbia Court of Appeals (2001 – 2002). While in law school, he served as SeniorStaff Writer for the Law Review and received the Tort Scholar Award and the Dean’sAward for outstanding contributions to the law school and the local community. Davidwas a litigation associate in Fried Frank’s New York office from 2002 – 2004. Hejoined MALDEF as a staff attorney for the second phase of his Fellowship and remainedat the organization in that role until 2008. He is currently an associate in privatepractice in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he practices civil rights law, election law,antitrust and class action law.

Community involvement is very important to me. As lawyers, we have an obligation toparticipate in our social environment and to strive to find solutions to the myriad social illsthat plague our underprivileged communities today. The problems I am most interestedin addressing during my law career are those associated with societal racism, includingunequal opportunity in education, employment discrimination and inequitable criminaljustice systems.

The experience I had at Fried Frank was not only challenging but instrumental inshaping my career and outlook as a lawyer. The training I received was extensive andprepared me to participate actively in all aspects of litigation practice. My primarypartner contact was with the lead litigation partner involved with Fellowship matters,who was very supportive of my interest in pro bono work. As a result, I had theopportunity to assist in the drafting of an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, haverepresented families of victims of the World Trade Center attacks in their petition forcompensation from the Victim Compensation Fund and drafted and filed a habeascorpus petition on behalf of an indigent client in the U.S. District Court for the SouthernDistrict of New York. Perhaps my most memorable experience, however, was havingthe opportunity to work with MALDEF in preparing for the trial of one of the mostimportant Texas school finance cases in a decade. I hope that, just as the firm hascontributed greatly to my professional growth, I contributed to the diversity of the firm,both in respect to ethnicity and life experience.

MALDEF Fellow

Gladys Limón received her JD from Stanford Law School in 2003.

Gladys Limón

While at Stanford, Gladys interned at the A.C.L.U., was active in the Stanford Latino LawStudents Association and engaged in grassroots activism with several student and localcommunity organizations. She received her B.A. in Chicano Studies and Sociology fromthe University of California Santa Barbara in 1999, where she received the university’shighest honor for outstanding scholarship and extraordinary community service. Prior tocoming to Fried Frank, Gladys clerked for the Hon. Lawrence K. Karlton in the EasternDistrict of California (2003 – 2005). After completing her Fellowship at MALDEF, she iscurrently in private practice in Pasadena, CA.

My desire and commitment to work for social justice are rooted in my own background.While I have worked in several areas, I am especially concerned with providing sociallyand economically marginalized communities equal access to the political and educationalsystems.

I have always been drawn towards the law as a tool for effecting social change and beeninspired by organizations such as MALDEF and the NAACP LDF, which have been theleading forces in doing so. While critical to social justice work, my experiences taught methat policy and grassroots organizing efforts alone can be limiting and that a multi-facetedapproach is imperative to create long-lasting social change. Historically, MALDEF’sapproach has been just that, combining impact litigation, community outreach, educationcampaigns, and policy work.

Towards my goal to be an effective civil rights lawyer, I have always actively pursuedopportunities that could best provide me with the necessary training and skills. TheMALDEF/Fried Frank Fellowship is one of those unique opportunities. While, in allcandor, I never imagined myself at a large law firm, I was and continue to be impressed

with Fried Frank’s commitment to pro bono work and its alliances with MALDEF and LDF.I am pleased with my decision to join Fried Frank through the Fellowship program andhave already begun to reap its benefits.

After only my first month with Fried Frank, I worked on a pro bono matter in which Fried Frank served as co-counsel with MALDEF representing a family whose home waswrongfully raided by the federal government and local police officers. I conducted researchfor and wrote substantial portions of briefs filed in support of the plaintiffs’ application forover $1 million in attorneys’ fees based on the government’s bad faith litigation. I alsorepresented a young person from Guatemala in an immigration matter. My billable workwas equally as interesting and challenging. I worked on multiple complex litigation matterswith talented attorneys who demonstrated a high level of professionalism and commitmentto their clients. My tenure at Fried Frank provided me with the opportunities to hone anddevelop skills that prepared me to join the ranks of MALDEF as an effective advocate.

During the last two years at MALDEF, I worked on significant civil rights impact litigation instate and federal courts. I was lead attorney for MALDEF on a complex class actionemployment case representing over 3,000 Latino construction workers which was eventuallysettled for $8.5 million. I also worked on a class action composed of participants in animmigrants rights march and rally who alleged that the L.A.P.D. violated their First, Fourthand Fourteenth Amendment rights when it unlawfully terminated the demonstration andused excessive force. I have drafted pleadings and briefs, taken and defended depositions,conducted factual investigations, and argued before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.Working on civil rights matters at MALDEF entailed getting a daily dose of intellectualstimulation, challenges, and inspiration to continue to work towards social justice.

MALDEF Fellow

Maribel S. Medina was the first recipient of the MALDEF FriedFrank Fellowship. She received her JD from the University ofCalifornia at Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law in 1995.

Maribel S. Medina

As an undergraduate, Maribel was co-chair of MEChA, a student organization dedicated toproviding and securing educational opportunities for Latino students. During her summerbreaks in college, she returned to the community of her upbringing, the migrant laborcamps of Watsonville, California, to teach second and third grade students. She went onto receive her JD from U.C. Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law and as well as an MPAfrom Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1994. Maribel spent the firsttwo years of her legal career at Fried Frank in the corporate department and completedthe second phase of her Fellowship at MALDEF’s Los Angeles office. Thereafter, she joinedthe Los Angeles law firm of Richards, Watson and Gershon, and later served as anAssistant City Attorney for Pasadena, California. Maribel is currently chair of the EducationLaw Practice Group at Los Angeles law firm Meyers Nave, and is Deputy General Counselof the Fontana Unified School District. Previously, she served as General Counsel for theSan Francisco Unified School District and as special counsel to the Los Angeles UnifiedSchool Districts’ Board of Education. Among her many leadership roles, she is a pastpresident of the Mexican-American Bar Association and has served as General Counsel tothe Hispanic National Bar Association.

I credit the amazing partnership between Fried Frank and MALDEF for inspiring me tosearch for a legal position where I would get to work on compelling social issues whilesimultaneously handling cutting edge legal issues. The Fried Frank MALDEF Fellowship isplaying a key role in shaping members of the legal profession who respect and value thework of corporate law firms as well as public interest organizations.

At MALDEF, I had the incredible opportunity of playing a vital role in the fight againstProposition 227 (the English Only Initiative) by preparing information pamphlets for thecommunity, debating the proposition’s author, and appearing on numerous English andSpanish language programs, including CNN and Life Times, to discuss the merits ofbilingual education.

I have spent the last five years working as lead counsel for school districts. I representedthe second largest school district in the country (Los Angeles) and currently represent thehighest performing urban school district in the state (San Francisco), a district that is alsofacing the daunting challenge of having the largest achievement gap between its Latinoand African American students and its non-minority students.

MALDEF Fellow

Diana Sagorika Sen received her JD from the EmoryUniversity School of Law in 2000.

Diana Sagorika Sen

She received her MA in Political/International Relations in 1997 and her BA in PoliticalScience in 1996, both from the University of Florida. While in law school, she served aspresident of the Hispanic Law Student Association and was the recipient of the NationalAssociation for Public Interest Law – National Service Legal Corps Grant. Diana was alegal intern with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, CARE, the U.S. Immigration andNaturalization Service, the Carter Center and the Atlanta Legal Aid Society’s HispanicOutreach Project. Diana completed the second phase of her Fellowship at MALDEF’sAtlanta office and returned to Fried Frank following the end of her Fellowship. While atMALDEF, Diana was Vice President and a Board Member of the Georgia HispanicNetwork. Diana is currently Senior Counsel at LatinoJustice PRLDEF where she heads theSoutheastern practice. She is the former President of the Hispanic National BarAssociation.

I have always aspired to be the impetus for social change in the Latino community. I became a litigator to further this goal, because I believe the law is the most effectiveavenue to implement social justice. Because of the Fried Frank MALDEF Fellowship, I now have the tools and direction to accomplish this lifelong goal.

Right from the beginning, I knew that Fried Frank was not a typical law firm. Not onlywas its commitment to diversity and pro bono work immediately obvious, but I have alsocome to realize that it is unparalleled.

My experience at Fried Frank was invaluable and impactful. I worked on myriad litigationmatters, from intellectual property to white-collar crime. The definitive highlight was animmigration case resulting in our client’s receipt of asylum, providing him protection frompotentially fatal persecution had he returned to Sierra Leone.

While at the MALDEF office in Atlanta, I had the unforgettable and unique experienceof serving as a founding staff member. I built relationships with the southeastern Latinocommunity, engaged in investigations of civil right abuses, developed litigation andlitigated cases. Most memorable was the opportunity to serve as lead counsel for several EEOC charges that victoriously resulted in favorable findings of discrimination. My aspirations of serving the southeastern Latino community in which I grew up came to fruition.

Fried Frank is a prestigious international law firm committed to the advancement of civilrights. MALDEF is the nation’s leading advocate for the protection of Latino civil rights. I amproud to be part of its civil rights heritage. Together, my desire for change, Fried Frank’sabundant resources and MALDEF’s progressive activism form a partnership that transcendsthe traditional segmentation of the private and public sectors. The Fellowship has providedme with inestimable experience and has made me a better attorney.

MALDEF Fellow

Leticia Saucedo received her JD, cum laude, from HarvardLaw School in 1996 and her BA in political science, cumlaude, from Bryn Mawr College in 1984.

Leticia Saucedo

She clerked for Chief Justice Thomas Phillips, Texas Supreme Court (1996 – 1997).While at Harvard, Leticia interned at Texas Rural Legal Aid, was active in Alianza and theHarvard Latino Law Review and served as president of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau.Before entering Harvard, she worked for 10 years as a community organizer. Followingthe end of her Fellowship, Leticia officially joined the staff of MALDEF. Leticia leftMALDEF in 2003 to join legal academia. She is now a Professor of Law and Director ofClinical Legal Education at the University of California, Davis School of Law, where sheteaches immigration law, employment law and directs the school's clinical program. Shewas previously on the law faculty at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and was aVisiting Professor at Duke Law School in 2009. Leticia is also a research scholar withthe Chief Justice Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity at the UC-BerkeleyLaw School.

As a community organizer, I worked on a number of campaigns, ranging from affordablehousing to economic democracy. While this work proved an invaluable experience, it wasoften frustrating. I found I lacked the skills and training necessary to effect social changeon a broader scale. I first applied to law school with the hope of acquiring these skills.

While at Harvard, I quickly gravitated toward public interest work. The Fellowshipseemed to offer the best of two worlds. At Fried Frank, I could work on a variety ofcases in a challenging environment and be exposed to an array of legal styles. AtMALDEF, I would be working for an organization devoted to social change.

At Fried Frank, I was exposed to all aspects of litigation, and my responsibilities includedresearch, brief writing, discovery and motion practice. On one case, I worked with apartner on securities arbitration, drafting briefs, handling discovery issues and preparingwitnesses for hearings. On a pro bono case, I helped draft a certiorari petition to the U.S.Supreme Court, as well as the merits brief after the Supreme Court granted our petition.I helped prepare the litigation partner for and attended oral arguments and celebratedwith the rest of the firm when the Supreme Court ruled in our favor.

At MALDEF, I applied my Fried Frank training in a variety of contexts, including co-counseling a five-week education discrimination trial in San Antonio, Texas;prosecuting a Plant Closings Act case and negotiating a settlement that benefitedhundreds of laid-off workers in El Paso, Texas; and developing several class-actionemployment discrimination cases that promise to break the glass ceiling for Latinos inthe workplace. I continued to work alongside MALDEF and Fried Frank pro bonoattorneys on MALDEF’s school finance litigation, helping to ensure that all children inTexas have equitable access to educational resources.

I have spent the most recent years of my career in academia, reflecting on myMALDEF/Fried Frank experiences and passing on to new attorneys the valuable lessonsthat I learned. I will always be grateful that I worked with distinguished litigators at Fried Frank and MALDEF, who are proud of the skills they offer to effect true change in our communities.

MALDEF Fellow

Hector Villagra received his JD from Columbia UniversitySchool of Law in 1994 and his BA in philosophy fromColumbia College in 1990.

Hector Villagra

Prior to joining Fried Frank in 1996, he was a law clerk for the Hon. StephenReinhardt, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit (1995 – 1996), and for Chief JusticeRobert Wilentz, Supreme Court of New Jersey (1994 – 1995). While in law school,Hector held summer internships at the American Civil Liberty Union’s Death PenaltyProject in San Francisco and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Educational Fund inNew York. Following the end of his Fellowship, Hector joined the staff of MALDEF,where he focused on education reform litigation. He is currently Executive Director ofthe ACLU of Southern California, becoming the first Latino executive director.

The Fried Frank MALDEF Fellowship provides a unique opportunity to develop and hone ayoung attorney’s skills as a litigator. When applying for the Fellowship, I believed that noother could provide as much structure, practical experience and training.

As I look back on my time at Fried Frank, I am happy to say that the firm managed toexceed all of my expectations. I had the opportunity to work on substantial matters thatexposed me to virtually every aspect of litigation – from preparing a complaint to draftingdiscovery requests, from writing motions and briefs to taking depositions and preparingwitnesses to be deposed. I was also able to work on a variety of rewarding pro bonomatters, including a death penalty case argued in the U.S. Supreme Court in March 1999.

The training I received at Fried Frank enabled me to hit the ground running at MALDEF ina way that would not have been possible had I come straight from law school or from myclerkship. I was able to take a leading role in my cases at MALDEF because I workedwith and learned from attorneys at the firm, whose work ethic, judgment andcommitment to their clients I truly respected. Now, looking back, I can see clearly howmuch I learned at Fried Frank, without even realizing it at the time.

I am proud to have been a member of a firm dedicated to establishing and maintainingdiversity and committed to pro bono work, as evidenced by its longstanding relationshipsand its Fellowships with MALDEF and LDF.

After a lot of soul-searching, I decided to remain at MALDEF, taking the position ofRegional Counsel for the Los Angeles office. I am immensely grateful for this opportunity,one that I know would never have been possible but for the experience of working atFried Frank. As a proud alumnus of Fried Frank, I hope to maintain my relationship withthe firm and with the many good friends I have there.