Ep.2/ The First Latinx Editors-in-Chief of Columbia Law Review
INTERESTED IN LEARNING ABOUT LAW REVIEW? HOW DO YOU BECOME EDITOR-IN-CHIEF? LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE featuring liliana and jeff.
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The second episode focuses on Liliana Zaragoza and Jeff Rivas, the first Latina and Latino Editors-in-Chief of Columbia Law Review. Listen to how their families and shared Latinx identity have influenced their legal journeys. Gain insight into the gist of law review, from the write-on process to how Liliana and Jeff have utilized their platform as Editors-in-Chief to uplift diverse voices in a historically-privileged space. Listen to how CLR has opened up incredible opportunities for advancement in their legal journeys, from public interest work at NAACP LDF, academia, and clerkships to sports law and corporate law opportunities.
Liliana Zaragoza (pronouns: she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Law at the University of Minnesota Law School, where she will be launching the law school’s Racial Justice Law Clinic in Fall 2022.
Prior to joining the U, Liliana served as an Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), where she worked on federal civil rights litigation and appeals in the areas of political participation, education, and policing and the criminal legal system. Representative matters include a legal challenge to Texas’s 2021 voter suppression law, SB 1, on behalf of Black and Latinx voters in Houston Area Urban League v. Abbott; People First of Alabama, et al. v. Merrill, a case challenging Alabama’s absentee and curbside voting restrictions for the November 2020 election on behalf of Black and disabled voters with a higher risk of experiencing complications or death from COVID-19; advocacy challenging the NYPD’s “gang labeling” practices and gang database, which target predominantly Black and Latinx young men and boys; and a suit against the City of Philadelphia for tear-gassing protestors and residents of West Philadelphia in May 2020, following the murder of George Floyd.
Previously, Liliana was a John Payton Appellate and Supreme Court Advocacy Fellow at LDF and a Skadden Fellow at the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG). At NYLAG, she represented domestic workers in federal and state employment cases. As a Payton Fellow at LDF, Liliana co-wrote numerous amicus briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court. Liliana also served as a law clerk to Judge L. Felipe Restrepo on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and to Judge Victor Marrero in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Liliana is a 2013 graduate of Columbia Law School, where she was the first Latinx Editor-in-Chief of the Columbia Law Review, the Director of the Society for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, and a proud member of LaLSA. Liliana received her A.B. in International Studies and Human Rights, with honors, from the University of Chicago.
Liliana is originally from Tucson, Arizona and resides in Minneapolis. She loves to bake, cook everything from thai curry and pad thai to her homemade Sonoran flour tortillas; run, bike, hike, and enjoy the outdoors; and spend time with her family, including a dog, cat, and three chickens.
Jeff Rivas (he/him/his) is a rising 3L at Columbia Law School and the current Editor-in-Chief of the Columbia Law Review.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Jeff spent his formative years in a small, rural town in the Dominican Republic. Jeff moved permanently to New York when he was six years old, as his parents sought to expand the opportunities available to him and his older brother. Jeff follows in the footsteps of his mother, who was a lawyer in the Dominican Republic. While law school was not always in his cards, Jeff appreciates the "full-circle" nature of choosing the profession that his mother chose but ultimately sacrificed for a better life for her kids.
Graduating from Columbia College as an Economics major in 2017, Jeff's Sports Economics senior seminar piqued his interest in sports and the law. He worked as a tour guide for the New York Yankees for a number of years before law school, where he met players and other prominent sports figures and learned more about legal issues within sports.
Jeff loves to bike, exercise, spend time with family, eat, and travel. He is also an avid sports fan. Unfortunately, he has been regularly dismayed by the performance of his New York sports teams.
