Maria Aquino-Duran is attorney with over 20 years of experience in litigation. She is a graduate of St. John’s University School of Law. She began working as an Assistant District Attorney in Queens County, and later switched to private practice, working on civil tort litigation for insurance defense firms. She joined the NYC Department of Transportation in 2007, where she helped supervise their Litigation Services Unit, before moving to Minnesota where she’s lived for the past 12 years. She has worked as a contract attorney for various firms representing clients in litigation, and most recently, for a public accounting firm on topics such as property valuation, compliance, and discovery for litigation.
Gun violence prevention has been one of her passions over the past decade. She founded the Woodbury chapter of Moms Demand Action, and also co-lead the Stillwater chapter. Moms Demand Action is a grassroots volunteer organization that endeavors to reduce gun violence in our country through gun safety education and advocacy of gun sense legislation. She is most proud of the advocacy efforts of the Moms Demand Action volunteers, which resulted in the passage of recent gun safety legislation in Minnesota: expanded background checks and Extreme Risk Protection Orders.