George D. Adames graduated with his bachelor’s in history from the College of Staten Island in 2016. Thereafter, he attended CUNY Law School where studied public interest  and received his J.D. in 2019. Throughout his academic career, he was a College Assistant at the College of Staten Island’s Library for six years, first in the Circulations-Reserves department, then later at the Technology Support Center. 

He is currently a felony Assistant District Attorney in the appeals bureau, and the first LGBT Community Liaison, at the Richmond County District Attorney’s Office.

Ishrath Ahmed is a first generation Bangladeshi-American attorney, born and raised in Queens, New York. She graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 2013 and went on to attend CUNY Baruch College where she majored in Political Science and minored in History and Sociology. At Baruch, Ishrath was actively involved in the Pre-Law Society and served as President in her junior year. Ishrath was also involved in the Max Berger Pre-Law Fellows Program, and through the Max Berger program, she received stipends that provided financial support during her unpaid internship at the Kings County District Attorney's office and funded her LSAT prep course. Ishrath graduated Magna Cum Laude from Baruch in December 2016 and then spent a year working part-time at a publishing company while preparing to apply to law school. 

She went on to graduate from Duke University School of Law in 2021 where she was President of the South Asian Law Students Association and a Staff Editor on the Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy. During her first year of law school, Ishrath received an offer to join Clifford Chance US LLP's New York office as a 1L Summer Associate. She returned to Clifford Chance for her 2L summer and is currently working at the firm full-time as 2nd year transactional associate.

Evangeline M. Chan, Director of the Immigration Law Project at Safe Horizon, has over a decade and a half of experience practicing immigration and nationality law exclusively, with a focus on humanitarian-based benefits for survivors of intimate partner and gender-based violence, crime, abuse, trafficking and torture.  She has handled hundreds of applications for U/T visas, VAWA self-petitions, asylum and SIJ, as well as defensive applications for clients in removal proceedings.   

Ms. Chan engages in policy advocacy at the local, state and federal level, lending her expertise to inform the decision-making process. She has been widely quoted, appearing on FOX and in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and CNN, and authoring pieces appearing in Forbes, The Hill and MS Magazine, among others.  

Ms. Chan serves as a national spokesperson for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and currently serves as Chair of AILA National’s Media Advocacy Committee.  She previously taught Immigration Law at CUNY Hunter College, CUNY School of Professional Studies and for Marino Legal CLE.

Shauntrelle Conde, MPA, JD is a CUNY student through and through. 

Beginning at Hostos community college, she obtained an Associate’s degree in Public Administration, continuing to John Jay College of Criminal Justice where she obtained both a bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Public Policy and administration with a specialization in inspection and oversight. 

Finally Shauntrelle obtained her law degree from CUNY school of law in 2021. Shauntrelle is currently a Court attorney in the Bronx Supreme Criminal Court. She is a mother of 2 teenage boys, a pet mom to a cat and a dog, and she loves writing poetry, and travel in her free time.

Leandra Johnson is a graduate of York College and St. John’s University School of Law, where she was a Ron Brown Scholar. She joined Socotec US as its Associate Counsel in May 2021.  Socotec is a company with a mission to optimize the integrity and sustainability of critical assets within the construction and infrastructure sectors.

As Associate Counsel, Leandra provides a broad range of corporate legal advice across numerous technical, business, and operational units, with an emphasis on contract drafting, review and negotiation. Leandra began her legal career as a contract specialist, where she was able to not only sharpen her contract drafting and negotiation skills, but also learn about creating and implementing processes to increase efficiency within an in-house legal environment.

Michael Levario is a first generation Mexican-Italian American and first lawyer in his family. Currently, he is Senior Counsel in the Bureau of Legal Affairs at the NYC Department of Sanitation. Through 2022, he was Counsel to the First Deputy Commissioner of the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation (formerly the NYC Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications). He also served as Counsel to the Mayor’s Office of Appointments, where he trained and advised staff from the incoming Adams Administration. 

From 2017 through late 2021, he worked in the de Blasio Administration's Mayor’s Office of Appointments, where he was Senior Counsel and Director of Vetting. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, he worked on various pandemic-related projects in City Hall, including the recruitment of medical personnel to public hospitals in March-April 2020. He is currently a member of the NYC Bar Association’s Election Law Committee. 

He graduated from Fordham Law School in 2016, where he worked as a Research Assistant for Prof. Zephyr Teachout and was a Stein Scholar from 2013-2016. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from The City College of New York and is a proud alumni of the Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Vincent Palmeri received his BA from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2017 and his JD form Cornell Law School, in 2022. He is currently a Legal Associate in the Litigation department of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.

Houston Porter is the son of Cuban and Filipino immigrants. He was born and raised in White Plains, NY in Westchester County. Houston was an athlete growing up and played many sports. Before law school he worked in the food industry for 9 years, from dishwasher to manager, from fast food to fine dining. 

Houson would like to practice real estate and land use law, food & agriculture, and commercial litigation. 

Katerina Robinson is a Ukrainian immigrant, a GED recipient, and a single mother that overcame numerous obstacles and obtained three degrees with a baby at her side. 

She first graduated from the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), then Brooklyn College, and finally Hofstra Law. 

After graduation, she went on to become a New York City Agency Prosecutor, Federal Prosecutor, and now serves as a New York City Administrative Law Judge. 

Katerina deeply cherishes the ability to advise, guide, and mentor students of all backgrounds through mentorships, mock interviews, speeches, and panels. She hopes to shed light on the process, obstacles, and benefits of obtaining a career in the law for the next generation of lawyers.

Kacia Wilson grew up in Southeast Queens, NY. 

She is a graduate from the Macaulay Honors College at John Jay Class of 2019.  She went to New York Law School and graduated in 2022. 

In her time there she interned and externed at New York County Defender Services where she now works as a Public Defender practicing Criminal Law representing indigent clients. She has always wanted to be a criminal defense lawyer and is passionate about helping others on their path to becoming attorneys as well.

Kadeen L. Wong is a member of the Trusts and Estates and Elder Law Practice Groups of Warshaw Burstein, LLP. She concentrates her practice on domestic and international estate and tax planning for high-net worth families and individuals. Her practice primarily involves drafting complex wills and trust agreements; preparing estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax returns; estate and trust administration; probate and ancillary probate proceedings; and related wealth transfer and charitable planning.

She is a graduate of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law (Pace Law School), 2012, BMCC and Concordia College, magna cum laude.

Sudha Setty joined the City University of New York School of Law as dean and professor of law on July 1, 2022. Previously, she served as dean of Western New England University School of Law, where she focused on enhancing social justice lawyering and increasing institutional commitments to racial justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion. She led the creation of its Center for Social Justice in 2019 and led the faculty in adopting a graduation requirement for racial justice coursework, adopted in April 2021.

Dean Setty is the first woman of South Asian descent to serve as dean of an ABA-accredited law school. In 2021, Dean Setty co-hosted the inaugural Workshop for Asian-American Women in Legal Academia, drawing over 100 participants to engage in professional development, scholarship support, and building community.

She currently serves on the Deans Steering Committee of the Association of American Law Schools and on the editorial board of the Journal of National Security Law and Policy. She has previously served on the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Standing Committee on Alternative Pathways to the Bar (co-chairing one subcommittee), on the Bipartisan Advisory Committee on Massachusetts Judicial Nominations to the U.S. District Court, on the Advisory Committee for the ABA Legal Education Police Practices Consortium, and on the board of Community Legal Aid, Inc.

Dean Setty is the recipient of the National Conference for Community and Justice 2021 Human Relations Award. She was WNE Law’s Professor of Year in 2009, 2016, and 2018; on the Lawyers of Color Power List in 2020; recognized as a Top Woman in the Law by the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly in 2019; named a Trailblazer by the South Asian Bar Association of Connecticut in 2015; and received the 2017 Tapping Reeve Legal Educator Award from the Connecticut Bar Association. In 2018, Dean Setty was elected to membership in the American Law Institute and as a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Dean Setty earned her J.D. with honors from Columbia Law School and her A.B. in History (concentration in comparative civil rights movements) with honors from Stanford University.