Lucia Damerau Selected as Fragomen Fellow to Provide Pro Bono Immigration Support

We are proud to announce that Lucia Damerau is the newest Fragomen Fellow.

The Fragomen Fellowship is a fully-funded, two-year rotating fellowship established by Fragomen to enhance the pro bono legal services provided to immigrants by the City Bar Justice Center, the pro bono affiliate of the New York City Bar Association.

The Fragomen Fellow focuses on advocacy to enhance the access to and quality of counsel for immigrants in New York. The Fellow is also responsible for training and mentoring pro bono lawyers, and for community education and outreach. The Fragomen Fellowship has evolved over the years to closely bind Fragomen’s and the City Bar Justice Center’s shared commitment to client-centered services that bridge the justice gap, to broader advocacy aimed at overcoming systemic barriers to more broadly equitable immigration relief.

“Our unmatched dedicated service to immigration is reflected by the Fragomen Fellowship, which provides legal assistance to immigrants trying to navigate the regulatory landscape while simultaneously providing an opportunity for new legal talent to make a lasting positive impact on their client’s lives,” said Austin T. Fragomen, Jr., chairman of Fragomen’s Executive Committee and former Chairman of the Board of the City Bar Fund. “The recent upheavals in Afghanistan and Haiti on top of the ongoing pandemic have created an exceptionally high demand for pro bono legal services that we are proud to offer in conjunction with the City Bar Justice Center.”

Fragomen Fellows help foster a pro bono community that is mindful and attuned to the growing needs of the clients the City Bar Justice Center serves. As Fragomen Fellow, Lucia will represent immigrants in removal proceedings and complex affirmative applications; organize and lead short-term pro bono clinics; participate in community outreach activities; and mentor pro bono attorneys from private law firms.

Lucia will also provide critical support for special projects and advocacy campaigns initiated by the City Bar Justice Center, thereby helping the organization to continue leveraging a robust fellowship that addresses the barriers clients face, including access issues in an increasingly remote environment.

Lucia has a strong background in immigration law. She has most recently served as a Staff Attorney with Legal Services NYC, where, since 2018, she has provided direct legal representation to low income individuals or crime survivors in removal proceedings in defensive and affirmative applications, including practice in family court for custody and guardianship proceedings and other government offices such as USCIS, DHS, and ICE.

“Lucia comes to us as a highly credentialed and experienced immigration law practitioner with both the passion and skills for making a difference in the lives of immigrant clients in need of high-quality, person-centered legal representation,” said Kurt M. Denk, Executive Director of the City Bar Justice Center, expressing his team’s enthusiasm about Ms. Damerau’s appointment. “We are deeply grateful for our longstanding partnership with Fragomen and believe Lucia will enrich the Justice Center with her notable experience, commitment and talent.”

Lucia follows in the footsteps of the most recent Fellow, Cecilia Lopez Santiesteban, who provided the City Bar Justice Center with invaluable support when the pandemic required a quick pivot to online services without diminishing resources for New Yorkers experiencing language barriers and technology access limitations.

“The Fragomen Fellowship embodies Fragomen’s commitment to helping all those in need of legal services for immigration support, regardless of economic status, while giving back to the communities which we serve around the world” said Lisa Koenig, partner at Fragomen who supervises the Fragomen Fellowship and is a member of the Board of the City Bar Fund. “We are thrilled to add Lucia to our team and offer her wide-ranging experience to counsel immigrants while mentoring other immigration attorneys. This is a time when high-level immigration knowledge and know-how is needed more than ever.”

Through the Fragomen Fellowship, the City Bar Justice Center has developed innovative practices to make critical immigration services more accessible by integrating new technology and media platforms into its legal services delivery models, successfully reaching hundreds of clients through online resources and a series of remote events.

Earlier in her career, Lucia served as a Staff Attorney at Sanctuary for Families where, for its Immigration Project, she represented noncitizens in diverse legal matters, including removal hearings, applications for U & T Nonimmigrant status, Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Self-Petitions, humanitarian waivers of conditional residence, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, Asylum, and consular processing. She is also an Attorney Volunteer for the LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York.