HLS in Focus

For prospective students interested in gender-violence and women’s rights, I want to highlight a recent presentation by Maya Raghu of Legal Momentum. A Senior Staff Attorney and Director of the Employment and Housing Rights for Victims of Domestic Violence Program, Raghu provided some valuable insight into navigating the public interest world. Note: No path of law is irreversible; she spent 4 years at a firm before heading back over to public interest!

Having gone to law school interested in international human rights and women’s rights work, Raghu interned with a federal judge in the Southern District of Texas for her 2L summer. “It was a great experience because the clerks were great about explaining their work; I got to read complaints, construct answers, watch trials, look at briefs, conduct discovery… the experience also piqued interest in litigation,” she said.

However, the most defining aspect of Maya’s law school career was the clinic she did during which she represented an ethnic Chinese Uighur for asylum before an immigration judge. “It was the best and worst experience… most cases finish in a semester; ours went on for 4 years, and it gave me a very real picture of what litigation is like.”

Upon graduation, Maya clerked for two years and spent the next four at a firm where she further honed her litigation skills before refocusing on public interest work. “I had done lots of pro bono work at the firm, particularly on the side of domestic workers who were undocumented,” she said. “The best thing you can do if you want to move from firm to public interest is to focus on skills such as litigation, taking depositions, and discovery work you learned at firm and demonstrate long-standing interest in public interest work.”

It was in large part her litigation experience, Maya claims, that contributed to her getting the job at Legal Momentum. As one of the few multi-issue women’s organizations, Legal Momentum (formerly known as NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund) deals with instances of sex discrimination and harassment, and focuses on issues of national importance as they relate specifically to women. “We’ve been looking at welfare and the gendered effects of poverty,” Maya explained, “as well as maintaining a longstanding focus on the economic security of women in such nontraditional jobs as construction workers, firefighters, and mechanics.” The legislative advocacy of the organization also serves victims of domestic violence who stand to lose their jobs or homes because their employers or landlords fear personal harm to their business or property.

“When taking cases, we have to be very strategic; we think: will this advance our cause? We look for policy changes and we seek to alter the structure of the way the law approaches domestic violence issues.”

Check them out on the web!