Cara Vasquez

Associate

DLA Piper

Q: Why did you join Tahirih's Pro Bono Network?: A: My mentor at the firm, Allissa Pollard, has always motivated me to do pro bono work since my very first day. Getting involved with tremendous organizations like Tahirih is one of the benefits of having a great mentor. Tahirih offers attorneys an outlet to wear a new hat, like an ENT surgeon trying pediatrics for a month, with very low risk and a high probability to change someone’s life.
Q: Can you share a highlight from a memorable case?: A: The real highlight is yet to come in my pro bono case with Tahirih—U visas for my client and her daughter. But, I will share this. In one of the meetings with my client, she must have gone through an entire box of Kleenex while telling her story. It was the power of her sharing that was significant. In her culture, women to do not talk about their home life. At the end of the day, the client felt safe enough to open up about intimate details of her life and left with a little relief, knowing that she was one her way to having a legal relief.
Q: How has your pro bono service impacted you?: A: There could never be a single impact, a single reason that pro bono work is so appealing. Lately, I have been noticing news about mass assaults and abuse against women and children. Pro bono work makes me pause an extra second to appreciate the fact that I was born in the United States and can help fleeing children and not the other way around.

Meghan Leibold Lidster

Staff Attorney

Richards Kibbee & Orbe

It has been humbling to work with a client who, despite extreme hardship in her past, has been able to increasingly open up to me.
Lindsay Wright Brett

Associate Attorney

Baker & McKenzie LLP

The women and children I've worked with over the years inspire me to take on new cases.
Alicia Balthazar, Deborah Wei, Maria A. Arboleda, & Marta Thompson

Hogan Lovells US LLP

Realizing the impact of the case’s outcome not just for our client but for her son, shows how these cases can be completely life changing for a family’s future.

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