Leandra Carrasco joined us in December as Administrative Director. We’re delighted that Leandra will be using her considerable skill and enthusiasm to support pro-bono and public-interest lawyers in their work.

With a background in community outreach and development, Leandra has always wanted to use her law degree to promote social justice. She received an Advocate for Justice scholarship to attend the University of the District of Columbia’s David A. Clarke School of Law and graduated magna cum laude. For Leandra, law school had two highlights: The first was completing over 750 hours of pro bono legal work at the Community Development and HIV/AIDS Family Law clinics. The second was working for the school’s founder, Edgar Cahn, as a teaching assistant and service coordinator for the mandatory Law & Justice class—which requires all 1Ls to complete 40 hours of law-related community service.

After law school, Leandra honed her ability to use social-science research to support public-interest causes. She studied in the Justice, Law and Society program at American University; while there, she published a paper in the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism on the intersection of religious freedom and pregnancy discrimination. She also taught several classes, including Fundamentals of Law and the Fourteenth Amendment in Theory and Practice. Leandra still loves to teach: she’s currently teaching Criminology at Marymount University.

Ever the public servant, Leandra is also active in her community of Takoma Park. She sits on several City Council-appointed committees and task forces, volunteers in her neighborhood association, and even founded an early-learning enrichment program. Her favorite pastimes, though, are homeschooling her two young daughters, camping on the beach, and making craft cocktails (which, alas, we have yet to taste).

Leandra is already making our trains run faster and more smoothly. Please join us in welcoming her to Washington Council of Lawyers!