Mary Anne Batiz

The Project

Mary Anne (she/her/ella) will focus on crime victims from communities with high levels of disinvestment. She aims to meet the individual legal and social needs of crime victims, and to purposefully unite stakeholders from the criminal justice system, civil legal aid, and victim services for the direct and lasting benefit of crime victims.

Fellowship Plans

Mary Anne will address this issue by providing high-quality civil legal services to BIPOC and immigrant crime victims, engaging in victim rights enforcement advocacy, and providing outreach, education, and partnership-building. In order to do so, Mary Anne will provide holistic, trauma-informed, and client-centered services. To accomplish her goals, Mary Anne will provide legal advice and direct representation in family law matters, including Protection From Abuse (PFA), Protection From Sexual Violence (PSVI), child custody, support, and divorce. She will also offer direct representation as victims’ counsel in the criminal justice system and create and oversee a crime victim referral network to address other civil legal needs and social needs. Mary Anne will also facilitate outreach, education, and collaboration efforts with local, culturally-specific victim services providers.

Mary Anne was inspired to do this work after seeing the struggle of crime victims within her own friends and family. Mary Anne’s own experience as a survivor of domestic violence and sexual abuse has led her to dedicate herself to advocacy. Mary Anne feels strongly about empowering those she encounters through trauma-informed advocacy.

The Project

Leslie’s (she/her/hers) Equal Justice Works Fellowship at the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center (NMILC) will provide direct representation to immigrant victims of crimes, such as in U Visa, T Visa, and Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) self-petition cases. Her Fellowship will also develop NMILC’s ability to provide holistic services specifically to victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.

Fellowship Plans

The project will identify and address the lack of legal services for immigrant victims of crime in parts of New Mexico. Leslie’s Fellowship will increase representation and access to resources for victims.

Leslie was inspired to do this work because she wants to ensure that immigrant victims of crimes feel safe reporting crimes and receive proper support. As an immigrant, she is immensely thankful that Equal Justice Works has afforded her the opportunity to serve immigrant populations in New Mexico.

The Project

Isobel Healy’s (she/her) project at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services will provide civil legal aid and assistance with victims’ rights enforcement to communities with high levels of disinvestment in the New Orleans metro area—particularly Black, Indigenous, and people of Color (BIPOC) who were disproportionately impacted by a spike in violent crime post-COVID.

The close connection between the social determinants of health and broad disparities in access to justice led Isobel to pursue her career in public interest law. Violent crime is a public health crisis in marginalized and low-income communities in New Orleans, particularly within BIPOC communities. Additionally, LGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities, older adults, veterans, and chronically homeless individuals are not only more likely to experience violence—they are less likely to access victims’ resources and legal remedies. Although New Orleans has a robust system for integrating civil legal aid as part of a coordinated community response to domestic violence, there is no such process for other crime victims. While law enforcement and non-profits offer services to folks impacted by violent crime, survivors are often unaware of the scope of help. They may not know how to access aid, or are reluctant to seek it due to distrust of systems entangled in historic institutional racism and outright discrimination.

Fellowship Plans

Isobel’s project will reduce barriers to accessing civil legal aid through a trauma-informed racial equity lens in collaboration with trusted community partners across the New Orleans metro area, which has one of the highest crime rates in the United States. Isobel will establish a medical-legal partnership with University Medical Center’s Trauma Recovery Center to provide direct legal services to a minimum of 120 violent crime victims. She will conduct outreach to trusted community-based organizations and victim service advocates to develop and refine a streamlined referral process and resources for crime victims. Additionally, Isobel will host quarterly “Know Your Rights” trainings and legal clinic events for clients and service providers on relevant topics such as crime victim reparation claims, protective orders, evictions, public benefits, and victims’ rights.

The Project

Holly T. Bird (she/her) will work collaboratively with United Three Fires Against Violence to provide accessible, high quality, victim-sensitive, and trauma-informed civil legal services to Tribal Members who are survivors of crime and reside within their Tribal service area.

Fellowship Plans

Holly’s Fellowship at Michigan Indian Legal Services will provide assistance with victims’ rights enforcement and civil legal issues cause by abuse for Tribal service area survivors. She will also conduct outreach or educational activities to ensure that survivors and service providers are aware of issues and available services. Additionally, she collaboratively with community partners to create a draft model code for Tribes to recognize victim’s rights.

The Project

Claudia’s (she/her) Fellowship at Greater Boston Legal Services focuses on enforcing the civil workplace rights of low-income, immigrant, and BIPOC workers who have been victims of wage theft, labor trafficking, workplace physical or sexual assault, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice. While victim assistance services and resources have seen considerable growth in recent years, there still exists a significant lack of access to top-notch civil legal services and the enforcement of victims’ rights in the workplace, particularly for Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) and other individuals underserved communities.

Fellowship Plans

Claudia will support workers in their roles as witnesses during civil or criminal labor agency investigations. Claudia will be involved in private litigation against employers who have violated the law and ensure that victims’ concerns are addressed and their interests protected during legal proceedings. Claudia will engage in outreach activities and community legal education to raise awareness of individuals’ rights in the Greater Boston area.

Claudia sees her Equal Justice Works Fellowship as an opportunity to amplify their voices and create a more equitable environment for all of us. Born and raised in Mexico, Claudia came to the United States to pursue a doctoral degree in law, focusing on the labor dynamics of street sex workers in Mexico City. Her academic and professional experiences have solidified her conviction that, within the confines of capitalism, individuals, particularly immigrants, BIPOC, and those from low-income backgrounds, often face vulnerability in their employment relationships. She is committed to applying her honed skills and acquired knowledge from both academia and practice to offer steadfast support and foster an environment where others can truly prosper.

The Project

Cecilia’s (she/her/hers) project will focus on providing trauma-informed direct representation to survivors of sexual harm in Cook County, Illinois. The Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation supports victims and survivors of sexual assault, stalking, and trafficking in civil matters; it also upholds victims and survivors’ rights by advocating for survivors in the criminal justice system.

Fellowship Plans

At the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, Cecilia will work in partnership with survivors to ensure they are supported in ways they want and need through the civil and criminal processes that result. She will work to uphold the safety of victims by obtaining protective orders, pursuing civil remedies, and facilitating school and workplace support of victims through Title IX. Additionally, Cecilia will help survivors understand and navigate the criminal justice system by joining them at law enforcement interviews and advocating for their rights as in criminal proceedings.

The Project

Brennan’s (she/her/hers) project will focus on expanding Legal Aid of Arkansas’ capacity to provide civil legal assistance to survivors of human trafficking.

Fellowship Plans

Brennan will increase local awareness surrounding human trafficking through community engagement and by building strong partnerships throughout the state of Arkansas. She will do this by educating Legal Aid of Arkansas internally on how to identify the warning signs of human trafficking when interviewing clients. She will also develop and distribute informational resources to educate crime victims on their individual rights.

Brennan’s Equal Justice Works Fellowship allows her to begin her legal career by providing holistic legal services to some of Arkansas’ most vulnerable individuals. As someone who is passionate about trauma-informed lawyering, Brennan is eager to serve victims and survivors of human trafficking by helping them gain a sense of safety and security.

The Project

Anna (she/her) will work with the Texas RioGrande Legal Aid Domestic Violence and Family Law team to increase access to legal aid for survivors of crime by providing holistic, survivor-centered legal services. 

Though Texas law provides that survivors have rights during the investigation and prosecution processes, most survivors are unaware of these rights, causing many rights to go unenforced as a result. A 2019 study by the Alliance for Safety and Justice found that six in 10 violent crime victims were unaware that Texas offers crime victims compensation and that only one in 10 received it. The same survey also found that nearly half of survivors felt “not at all supported” or only slightly supported by the criminal justice system. There is also an increasing need for representation in civil suits filed against survivors for speaking out about the abuse they experienced. Legal representation in civil suits is critical to ensuring victim rights and free speech are protected. 

 Fellowship Plans

During her Fellowship, Anna will increase survivors’ knowledge of the criminal justice process and their rights. She will provide legal services to victims, focusing on obtaining protective orders, custody, and divorce while also helping victims of domestic violence in civil cases where the perpetrator has filed a defamation case against them. Finally, she will work with the local domestic violence shelter and other community partners to provide outreach and training on crime victims’ rights. 

As a child of divorce, Anna’s firsthand experience of how difficult it can be to navigate the family court system guided her into choosing Family Law. However, after several internships she discovered there was a vulnerable population who often went underrepresented and were victimized even more through the legal system. Identifying that population prompted her to work for victims of domestic violence in order to prevent them from being victimized again. Anna’s Equal Justice Works Fellowship allows her to play a crucial role in helping affected people leave dangerous situations. Clients are often times starting their lives over, which can be a very difficult process. Anna’s goal is to empower and guide clients through the legal process so they have one less thing to worry about as they navigate the challenges that their experience with crime has left them with.