Maya Zegarra, J.D. '15
UB’s student-attorneys are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and fight for clients. In 2014, when Central American refugees began to stream into the city, the Immigrant Rights Clinic (IRC) began assisting with intakes at Baltimore’s Esperanza Center. Student-attorneys like Maya Zegarra continued to volunteer after their semester with the clinic ended. Zegarra is now an attorney with HIAS, a refugee resettlement agency, and president of the Maryland Hispanic Bar Association.
“In the clinic I worked with unaccompanied minors from Central America,” says Zegarra. “Learning of their painful struggles, both at home and in the U.S., helped me realize this was the kind of work I absolutely had to continue.”
More recently, IRC student-attorneys have been among those offering screenings for immigrant families whose children are patients at Baltimore’s Kennedy Krieger Institute. Clinic student-attorneys also presented research that led to the passage in 2014 of Maryland’s Wage Theft Law, which bans payroll practices that especially shortchange immigrants.
“There are problems in the world that seem insolvable, and it makes us tired,” says Prof. Elizabeth Keyes, director of the IRC. “But when I see the energy and optimism of our students, I am filled with hope.”
Inspired by the profound impact of the clinical program, UBalt Law alumnus Barry Chasen, J.D. ’80, his wife Lyn and their family made a significant financial commitment to the school in 2020. They created the Lyn and Barry Chasen Fund for Racial and Social Justice as a tool for the law school to continue to fight injustice in the community.
