Check in later for information on Fall '22 Speakers!
Spring '21 Speakers
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Engagement #2: Vanessa GonzalezVanessa Gonzalez is a partner at the law office of Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLP, in Austin, Texas. She leads the firm’s employment law litigation group and is Board Certified in Labor and Employment Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. She regularly defends private and government employers through litigation and jury trials in state and federal courts and through government administrative audits and investigations. Ms. Gonzalez has tried numerous jury trials in state and federal courts, but enjoys counseling employers on how to avoid lawsuits the most. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication from Texas A&M University and J.D. from The University of Texas School of Law.
Fun Fact: I play guitar, bass and drums and I play bass with a band with my kids and other bands around town from time to time. |
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Engagement #4: Ranjana NatarajanRanjana Natarajan directs the Civil Rights Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law. Students in the Civil Rights Clinic represent low-income clients in a variety of civil rights matters including police misconduct, jail mistreatment, debtors prisons, and disability discrimination. She has directed the Civil Rights Clinic from 2013 to the present. From 2009 to 2013, she directed the law school's National Security Clinic, in which law students worked on cases and projects relating to national security, terrorism, and constitutional and human rights.
Prior to clinical teaching, she worked as an attorney with the ACLU of Southern California, where she litigated and advocated on a variety of civil rights and civil liberties issues, including immigration detention, civil rights post 9/11, gender equity, and prisoners' rights. She also held a Clinical Fellowship with the Immigrant Rights Clinic at New York University School of Law, where she litigated minimum wage and overtime cases in federal court, and immigration cases in administrative court, and engaged in worker rights advocacy. She began her career as an attorney and Kirkland and Ellis Fellow with South Brooklyn Legal Services, representing low-income clients in cases involving housing and disability rights in state and federal courts. She received her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law and her B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin.This academic year, Professor Natarajan is on leave, working with States United Democracy Center, a non-profit working with state leaders to protect free, fair and secure elections and promote and preserve democracy. |
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Engagement #5: Jo Ann Torrez Born and raised in Austin, Texas, Jo Ann Torrez graduated from Crockett High School in 1989 and attended the University of Texas from 1989 to 1993. At the University of Texas, Jo Ann majored in Government. After attending the University of Texas, she worked at several law offices and government agencies including the Office of the Attorney General of Texas and the Texas Workers’ Compensation Commission. In her last job before becoming a lawyer, our principal attorney, Jo Ann Torrez, was employed as a judicial aide with the Travis County District 39 Judge's Office. Her familiarity with the Travis County courts is evident not only upon watching her legal maneuvers in court, but also speaking with her outside of court. As a trained family-law mediator, she sees opportunity in every case to reach common ground, and advises clients on the pros and cons of litigation. Her approach to the practice of law is the same one she takes when volunteering in Austin: she stays focused on solutions, while remaining compassionate and collaborative.
Each year, Ms. Torrez participates as a volunteer judge for UT’s LSAC (Law School Admission Counsel) PLUS Online Summer Program.. She remains active in other community events sponsored by the Travis County Women’s Lawyer Association, having herself been a recipient of the Farris-Cisneros Scholarship sponsored by TCWLA. She supports the Boys and Girls Club of Austin, she is a donor for the Paramount Theatre, and an active member of the Climate Reality Project which is a non-profit that promotes awareness of the climate change problems in our world, especially those polluted areas of America that are predominantly poor and where many minorities reside. Ms. Torrez is bilingual, which is helpful to many of her clients that speak Spanish as their primary language. She is also a mother/grandmother, which provides her a unique perspective when pursuing cases related to areas of family law. Our goal at J. Torrez Law PC is to minimize the stress from divorce litigation and personal injury/car accidents, and empower our clients to take control of their lives, through effective legal representation. Fun Fact: I was interviewed once for a COURT TV judge, but the producer wanted me to be a "spicy, loud Latina", a stereotype I certainly don't approve of nor is it my style. However, it did pay around $10-20K per episode. |
Engagement #6: Judge Aurora Martinez Jones, 126th District CourtAurora Martinez Jones is the 126th District Court judge in Travis County (Austin), Texas and is responsible for the oversight and administration of all Travis County Termination of Parental Rights lawsuits filed by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Prior to that, she was the Associate Judge dedicated to the Travis County CPS Courts since January 2, 2015. Judge Martinez Jones is the presiding District Judge for the Travis County Family Drug Treatment Court: Parenting in Recovery specialty court and of the Crossover Program for Dual Status Youth.
Judge Martinez Jones has extensive experience advocating for parents and children in the child welfare system from her prior work as a litigator and currently runs a trauma-informed court. Judge Martinez Jones co-founded the Child Welfare Race Equity Collaborative in Texas and is committed to equitable, progressive, anti-racist, work and approaches to supporting the children and families who appear in her court. Currently, Judge Martinez Jones is leading a community effort in a local pilot to Re-Imagine the Child Welfare system and supports highlighting the voices of foster youth and people with lived experience to make this happen. She is currently the Secretary for the Child Protection Law Section of the State Bar of Texas, is the Secretary for the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), and is the Texas State Coordinator for the National Association of Counsel for Children (NACC). Judge Martinez Jones and her husband, Mitchell Jones, are the proud parents of two precious little girls. Fun Fact: Judge Martinez Jones is the founder of Minority Women Pursuing Law! |
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