National Latina/o Law Students Association

Your Regional Directors are committed to local outreach.

Larry Banda | Central Region
Loyola 2011
lbanda@luc.edu

Larry is a second year student at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, where he is the Alumni Relations Chair for the Latino American Law Students Association (LALSA).  He is also a staff editor for the Consumer Law Review and a member of the National Hispanic Bar Association moot court team.  Last summer, Larry worked as a legal intern at Kraft Foods Global, Inc. in Northfield, Illinois.  He received his B.B.A. in Finance from the University of Notre Dame with a certificate in International Business in 2005.  Upon graduation, Larry worked for Moody’s KMV as an associate in the Global Client Services department.  Born in Cameron, Texas, he is a 2001 graduate of C.H. Yoe High School.  Larry plans to pursue a career in corporate law upon graduating from law school.  

As regional director, Larry serves as liaison between NLLSA and Latino law student organizations from the 32 law schools comprising the central region.  He hopes to promote the organization’s mission of providing a forum where issues important to Latino/a law students can be addressed.  Larry also hopes to increase the central region’s participation at NLLSA’s annual conference in 2010. 

Amanda Zubiate | Mid-Atlantic Region
Howard 2010
aszubiate@law.howard.edu

Amanda will graduate from Howard University School of Law in 2010.  She is self-identified Mestiza female, with both Apache and Mexican-American heritage.  This is the second year she will serve as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Director.  At Howard she works as a Student Attorney for the Civil Rights Clinic, where she has written multiple briefs and has represented the National LGBT Bar Association on Don't Ask Don't Tell legislation.  She also serves as Chair for the Future Leadership Council of the Nation's Capital-American Civil Liberties Union. 

Nicanor Pesina | Mountain Region
Texas 2012
nicanor.pesina@mail.utexas.edu

Nicanor is a 1L at the University of Texas at Austin.  At UT-Austin, Nicanor was recently elected as the 1L Representative for the Chicano/Hispanic Law Student Association.  Upon earning a degree in political science and a graduate degree public administration, he served on staff for a Texas State Senator for the three years leading up to law school.  As a Senior Policy Analyst/Committee Clerk for the Texas Senate Committee on International Relations & Trade, Nicanor was able to work on issues directly related to the predominantly Latino community along the Texas-Mexico Border and other rural parts of the state.  His passion lies in positively affecting public policy for the betterment of all communities, especially the Latino community.  He plans on bringing a similar passion and energy to the Mountain Region constituency.  In order to further galvanize a very strong area of NLLSA, he hopes to host a successful regional event in Austin and expand the organization’s presence to as many law schools as possible within the region.  

Carel Alé | North Atlantic Region
Yale 2011
carel.ale@yale.edu

Carel intends to have a career as a public prosecutor using prosecution as a tool for social change.  Since receiving a BA and MA in Latin American studies from UCLA -- where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated magna cum laude -- she is now a second year JD student at the Yale Law School and was recently selected as a 2009 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow.  At UCLA, she founded and served as president of the university’s Make-A-Wish Foundation chapter, organized volunteer tutors at Jordan High School in Watts and was active in the campus Darfur Action Committee.  Carel’s research and thesis focused on the philosophical and ideological underpinnings of the Mexican Revolution and its manifestations within the governance of the Partído Revolucionario Institucional. She has also done extensive work on Caribbean female migration.  Carel interned this past summer with the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office and has previously worked at the California Lieutenant Governor’s office and Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund where she headed a national research initiative addressing issues of higher education for undocumented students.  Among other activities at Yale, she contributed to the writing of an amicus brief for a Louisiana death row inmate and is currently a student supervisor for the Federal Complex Litigation Clinic at Yale that provides legal assistance to Connecticut inmates.  Now 22, she was born in Mexico City to Mexican and Cuban parents and then moved to southern California when she was a young girl.  Her family lives in Anaheim, CA.

Maria Bocanegra | Northwest Region*
Seattle 2011
bocanegr@seattleu.edu

Maria was born in Guatemala. When she was eight years old, she immigrated to Washington State with her mother.   She completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Washington in 2008, majoring in Philosophy and Latin American Studies. She chose to attend Seattle University School of Law because of its commitment to social justice and diversity. Currently a 2L, she is involved with the Student Bar Association, the Public Interest Law Foundation and the Latina/o Law Students Association. This past summer she interned at the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, where she provided direct legal representation to victims of domestic violence seeking immigration relief. She hopes to pursue a career in the international human rights field. 

Emily Gonzalez | Northwest Region*
Seattle 2010
gonzal14@seattleu.edu

Emily is originally from the small, agricultural migrant town of Sunnyside, Washington.  She was able to attend the University of Washington by receiving the Safeco Diversity Scholarship.  She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the U of W in 2007 with a major in Law, Societies, and Justice and a minor in Human Rights. As a third year law student at Seattle University School of Law, she serves as the President to the Latino/a Law Student Association.  This also is her second year serving as a part of National Latino Law Student Association. She is a part of the Seattle Journal for Social Justice and currently serves as the Journal’s Marketing and Events Editor.  Most recently, Emily’s interest in immigration issues and social justice has led to her article being published in the Seattle Journal for Social Justice.  Her article, Battered Immigrant Children Take The Beat, covers the struggle of abandoned, abused, and neglected immigrant youth who are faced with the problem of aging-out of Special Immigrant Juvenile Status.

Juan Carlos Gonzalez | Pacific Region
UCLA 2011
gonzalez2011@lawnet.ucla.edu

Juan Carlos is a second year student at UCLA School of Law.  He was born in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois and grew up on a horse ranch until he was eighteen. Juan Carlos earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a double major in International Studies / Sociology and a French minor. At UCLA School of Law, Juan Carlos serves as co-chair of La Raza Law Students Association. Juan Carlos is actively involved in the Workers’ Rights Clinics at Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, where he assists the Spanish-speaking community obtain compensation for wage and hour claims. He also represents litigants in appealing unemployment insurance benefit claims in front of administrative law judges.

Barbara Barreno | South Atlantic Region
Vanderbilt 2011
barbara.r.barreno@vanderbilt.edu

Barbara was born and raised in Covina, CA and graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in Social Studies in 2007. She is currently a second-year student at Vanderbilt University Law School and is President of La Alianza at Vanderbilt Law School, formerly the Latin American Law Students Association. As Regional Director for the South Atlantic, her goals for the 2009-2010 year are to foster greater participation among the law schools in the region in NLLSA events, particularly the national conference, and to increase chapter membership in the association. She also intends to coordinate with chapter schools to organize a southeast regional conference in 2010.

*The Northwest Region will be served by two Regional Directors this year

States Represented by Region:

Central:

Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Wisconsin

Mid-Atlantic:

Delaware
District of Columbia
Kentucky
Maryland
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Virginia
West Virginia

Mountain:

Arizona
Colorado
Kansas
Nevada
New Mexico
Oklahoma
Texas
Utah

North Atlantic:

Connecticut
Maine
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
Rhode Island
Vermont

Northwest:

Alaska
Idaho
Montana
Nebraska
North Dakota
Oregon
South Dakota
Washington
Wyoming

Pacific:

California
Hawaii

South Atlantic:

Alabama
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Louisiana
Mississippi
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee