Nicole is a Managing Attorney at Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) with over a decade of experience in the nonprofit sector. She manages a team of 25 advocates that provides counsel advice in the areas of immigration, government benefits, domestic violence, housing, employment, and student loans across five offices.
Prior to joining the LAFLA, Nicole was a Kinship Care Attorney at Bet Tzedek Legal Services where she represented undocumented minors and relative caregivers in custody and immigration proceedings. She also worked at the LA Superior Court assisting litigants with child custody, visitation, and domestic violence cases. Nicole began her career as a staff attorney for Public Counsel’s Children’s Rights Project including co-managing a guardianship clinic, representing litigants in guardianship and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status proceedings, mentoring pro bono attorneys, and working on a seminal case involving the probate court’s jurisdiction to make factual findings for use in immigration cases.
Nicole received her Bachelor of Arts from UC Berkeley and her JD from USC Gould School of Law.
The mission of The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company is to mentor, educate, and enrich youth in under-resourced communities through the creation of collaborative, original theatre.
Latinos LEAD promotes more inclusive and effective civil society organizations by preparing and recruiting Latinos for nonprofit board leadership; helping nonprofit organizations to develop governing boards that reflect their constituents; and, collaborating with partners to increase ethnic diversity in nonprofit governance.