Lambda Legal Announces Hire of Iván Espinoza-Madrigal as Staff Attorney in National Headquarters

(New York, April 25, 2011)—Today, Lambda Legal announced that Iván Espinoza-Madrigal has been hired as staff attorney in its national headquarters in New York.

Espinoza-Madrigal is developing an initiative on behalf of LGBT people of color, LGBT immigrants, and low-income LGBT communities. In this capacity, he will be expanding Lambda Legal's work addressing the legal needs of LGBT and HIV-affected people who identify across intersecting lines of race, ethnicity and socio-economic class through litigation, public education, and policy advocacy.

"I am eager to focus my efforts on challenging practices and public policies that discriminate across lines of sexual orientation, gender identity, HIV, and race," said Espinoza-Madrigal, Lambda Legal Staff Attorney. "I am honored to join Lambda Legal and I look forward to contributing my skills to the very distinguished and highly accomplished legal team."

Espinoza-Madrigal attended NYU School of Law, where he was a Root-Tilden Kern Sinsheimer Public Interest Scholar and a teaching assistant to noted constitutional law professor Derrick Bell. After graduating from law school, he served as a law clerk for Judge Eric Clay in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and for Judge Ronald Ellis in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

"Iván has impressive legal experience and a powerful commitment to furthering civil rights. We are very excited to welcome him to Lambda Legal," said Jon W. Davidson, Legal Director of Lambda Legal. "Having such a talented civil rights litigator and advocate join our team is sure to advance Lambda Legal's intersectional work."

Before coming to Lambda Legal, Espinoza-Madrigal was a Staff Attorney at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), in San Antonio, Texas. At MALDEF, he litigated numerous complex civil rights cases involving issues of first impression in federal district and circuit courts, focusing primarily on the constitutional rights of immigrants. He handled MALDEF's immigrants' rights docket in Texas and eight other states in the Southwest. He served as counsel in Friendly House v. Whiting, a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona's immigration law, SB 1070. He was also a member of the legal team that successfully litigated Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder, a U.S. Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

Prior to that, he was a litigation associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP. At the firm, he had an extensive pro bono practice in civil rights, including the successful defense of the municipal identification card of New Haven, Connecticut, against an attempt to dismantle the program. His work in New Haven, Conn., had a direct impact on the implementation of similar programs in cities across the country, including Trenton, N.J., and San Francisco.

Espinoza-Madrigal is fluent in Spanish.

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