Originally from Los Angeles, CA, Claudia Quintero L'17 is a staff attorney at Central West Justice Center,
a subsidiary of Community Legal Aid. In her role, she leads the Migrant and
Seasonal Farmworkers Project, representing farmworkers
throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She is also involved with the Fairness for Farmworkers Coalition and has contributed to the proposal and passage of the Fairness for Farmworkers
Act, pushing for legislation that would entitle farmworkers to earn the
state minimum wage and overtime pay.
Active in the western Massachusetts community, she is an adjunct professor
teaching Law and Social Change at WNE School
of Law and has previously served on the Pioneer Valley Workers
Center boards; the Rosenberg Fund for Children; the coordinating
committee of the ACLU of Massachusetts' Immigrant Protection Project; the
board of the Massachusetts Bar Association; and was regional director for Young Lawyers Division, in Hampden County. She has also served on the editorial board of
The Young Lawyer and as chair of the Minorities in Profession Committee of the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division.
In recognition of her distinguished service
and outstanding commitment to providing pro bono legal services, Attorney Quintero was awarded the Adams Pro Bono Publico
Award from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s Standing Committee on
Pro Bono Legal Services in 2017. She also received the Student of the Year Award from the
Massachusetts Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild in 2017. Additionally, she published an article relating to asylum
and immigration law with the University of Massachusetts Law Review in 2018 and was recently selected for the 2021 Businesswest
40 under 40 class for her professional contributions.
During her time on campus, Attorney Quintero was an active leader in a number of
student organizations including serving as a member of the WNE Law
Review, the head of
the National Lawyers Guild student chapter, and was the founder and
president of the Latino/a Law Student Association.
Attorney Quintero was a Public Interest Scholar and graduated cum laude from WNE School of Law. She also earned her bachelor of arts in 2010 from California State University, with a degree in Communication
Studies, and a master of science in Rhetoric from the University of Utah in 2013.