Liliana Zaragoza

Professor Liliana Zaragoza is an associate clinical professor of law and the director of the Racial Justice Law Clinic. Professor Zaragoza and her clinic students engage in legal advocacy on behalf of and in collaboration with individuals, community members, and movements challenging racial oppression across a range of issue areas, including, but not limited to, policing, employment, housing, and open government/records requests. Professor Zaragoza teaches Critical Race Theory and movement lawyering methods as part of the clinic seminar.

Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Zaragoza was an assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), where she worked on federal civil rights litigation and appellate advocacy to advance racial equity in the areas of voting, policing and the criminal legal system, and school desegregation. At LDF, Professor Zaragoza previously served as the inaugural John Payton Appellate and Supreme Court Advocacy Fellow. Before that, Professor Zaragoza was a Skadden Fellow and staff attorney at the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG). While at NYLAG, Professor Zaragoza represented domestic workers in federal and state employment claims and conducted Know-Your-Rights trainings and legal clinics at several community-based organizations supporting low-wage workers across New York City. She 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.

Professor Zaragoza received her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was the first Latinx Editor-in-Chief of the Columbia Law Review. She holds an A.B. in International Studies and Human Rights, with honors, from the University of Chicago.