Staff

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Jenny Chou

Executive Director
Jenny Chou joined the CLCM as Director in October 2023. Most recently, Jenny was the Deputy Director of South Coastal Counties Legal Services. She was Senior Attorney and Racial Justice Fellow at the Center for Law and Education (CLE) where her legal work focused on ensuring a quality education for public school students in Massachusetts, particularly those who were most affected by exclusionary policies and practices of various school districts. She also represented low-income, mostly court-involved students while at the EdLaw Project. Jenny has been in private practice, has served as the consulting attorney for the education team at Medical-Legal Partnership Boston, was an associate at Stern, Shapiro, Weissberg and Garin and at the Criminal Defense Division of the New York Legal Aid Society. Her community-based legal services experiences included projects of the Harry Dow Memorial Legal Assistance Fund and based in the Asian Outreach Unit of Greater Boston Legal Services. Jenny is a graduate of Wellesley College and Boston College Law School.
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Emily Paradise

Senior Attorney
Emily joined the CLCM in September 2017. Emily focuses on representing children in care and protection cases, at both the trial and appellate levels, and in delinquency cases. Before joining CLCM, she practiced on her own handling care and protection cases and criminal appeals, served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General, and worked as an Assistant District Attorney in the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office . She is a graduate of Cornell University and The George Washington University Law School.
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Dan Wells

Staff Attorney
Dan joined CLCM in September 2025 and represents youth in immigration matters. Prior to joining CLCM, Dan was an Associate at Ropes & Gray LLP, where alongside his corporate work he maintained an active pro bono immigration practice representing clients in areas such as asylum, special immigrant juvenile status, humanitarian parole and removal defense. During law school, Dan interned with Greater Boston Legal Services Immigration Unit, Oxfam America and Ropes & Gray. Before law school, he built a successful career in financial services as a Chartered Internal Auditor. Dan’s commitment to advocating for young people began before his legal career and includes ten years’ volunteering with the Youth Adventure Trust, a UK non-profit, where he helped run adventure camps, mentored young people, and co-founded the organization’s Volunteers Committee. He holds a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law, where he served as Managing Editor of the Northeastern University Law Review, and a B.A. (Honors) in Modern History from the University of Bristol (UK).
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Alyssa Schnoor

Staff Attorney
Alyssa joined CLCM in December 2023. At CLCM, Alyssa represents child victims of crime in need of legal assistance throughout Massachusetts. Alyssa is a graduate of Tulane University and Suffolk University Law School. While in law school, Alyssa was a student attorney in the Family Advocacy Clinic, representing survivors of domestic violence in family law matters. Prior to joining CLCM, Alyssa was an Associate at the Boston law firm of Berluti McLaughlin & Kutchin LLP, practicing in the areas of business succession and estate planning.
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Claire Valentin

Managing Director of Innovation and Advocacy
Claire Valentin returned to CLCM as Managing Director of Innovation and Advocacy in January 2025. Claire started her career in legal services at CLCM in 2013 representing unaccompanied children and youth in immigration and state child welfare matters. In 2019, Claire joined the Immigration Impact Unit of CPCS, the public defender agency in Massachusetts, where she advised public defenders on the immigration consequences of criminal conduct and on immigration-related matters in family defense/child welfare cases. Prior to re-joining CLCM, Claire was Managing Director of the Boston Field Office of Kids in Need of Defense (KIND). She has taught an experiential immigration law course at Boston College Law School and co-authored sections of the Massachusetts Continuing Education Manual for criminal defense and family defense attorneys. Claire holds a BA in International Studies and Ethnic Studies from Brown University (2006) and a J.D. from Harvard Law School (2011). Claire is a naturalized US citizen, and believes more humane, equitable, and generous immigration laws would benefit us all.
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Senior Attorney
Jackie joined the CLCM in January 2018. She represents children in federal immigration proceedings as well as before the Asylum Office. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California (B.S. 2006) and Northeastern University School of Law (J.D. 2010). Prior to joining the Children’s Law Center, Jacklyn practiced in San Antonio, Texas, where she represented both children and adults in immigration proceedings, focusing on asylum and removal defense.
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Jacklyn Gurany

Nina Carr

Program Associate
Nina Carr joined CLCM in January of 2025 as Program Associate. In this role, Nina maximizes internal efficiency, engages in outreach and fosters community connections. Nina contributes to the CLCM mission by working both internally and externally to attract clients who are most in need of our services. Before starting at CLCM, she worked for two years as a high school English teacher in the north of France. Nina enjoys working with youth, as she believes that giving people support and equal opportunity from a young age is crucial to building a just and prosperous society. Nina has a long-standing interest in social justice, and has volunteered with various non-profits over the years, as well as serving as president of the Human Trafficking Activism and Awareness Club for three years, during college. Nina graduated from the University of Vermont with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Science and Religious Studies.

Sophia Felix

Staff Attorney
Prior to joining CLCM, Sophia spent several years working in family law, assisting clients through complex and highly litigious cases. She has always been passionate about helping people navigate difficult moments with compassion and dignity, and has assisted in aggressive advocacy. During law school, she led a pro bono project for survivors seeking protective orders and served as President of her school’s National Lawyers Guild chapter, focusing on social justice and public interest. She also volunteered with Young Advocates for Fair Education, a nonprofit in NYC dedicated to advocating for students' educational rights. At CLCM, Sophia seeks to ensure every child and family feels empowered while overcoming educational and legal challenges.She holds a J.D. from New England Law | Boston and a B.A. in Politics and Philosophy (Honors College) with minors in Legal Studies and Africana Studies from the University of Pittsburgh, a foundation that deepened her understanding of systemic inequities and informs her zealous advocacy today.
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Shruti Peri

Senior Attorney
Robyn joined the CLCM in the fall of 1999. In addition to providing direct representation to her clients in the Lynn and Salem Juvenile Courts, she has coordinated and trained attorneys for CLCM’s pro bono program, and is involved with fundraising and event planning for CLCM. Robyn is a graduate of Wellesley College and Boston College Law School. Upon graduating from B.C. Law, she joined the Boston firm of Widett, Slater & Goldman as a corporate associate. After four years, she continued her business law practice at Bruker Corporation as in-house Corporate Counsel. While raising her two children, Robyn was an active volunteer at the New England Aquarium where she was an Overseer for 15 years. There, she engaged in outreach with children at Boston Head Start Preschools. This path led her to change her focus from corporate law to juvenile advocacy at CLCM.
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Robyn Laukien

Senior Attorney
Shruti has worked as a defender of youth rights for over 20 years, starting her legal career at the EdLaw Project in Roxbury, MA. She has continued her work as a post-conviction defender by supporting and advocating for youth throughout their commitment in the Department of Youth Services. Shruti serves as a Mentor Attorney for both the GCL Panel of the Committee for Public Counsel Services and the Special Education Panel of the EdLaw Project. She was recently awarded the DYS Commissioners Award for her commitment and tenacity on behalf of DYS committed youth. In her work at CLCM, Shruti represents students to maximize their opportunity to learn through a quality education and seeks to address the systemic barriers that hold low-income children, children of color, English learners and those who are disabled from attaining their full educational potential.
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Lauren Russell

Co-Director of Strategic Advocacy
Lauren joined CLCM in September 2024. As Co-Director of Strategic Advocacy, she will represent children on delinquency matters, at both the trial and appellate levels, and engage in systemic advocacy on behalf of court-involved children and youth. Lauren graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 2011. Following law school, she was an attorney with the Youth Advocacy Division of the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), where she represented juveniles on delinquency and youthful offender cases in Essex County. She received the Tenacious Initiative Award for Essex County from the Department of Youth Services in 2018. In December 2019, Lauren joined the Strategic Litigation Unit of CPCS. There, she pursued litigation at the trial and appellate levels, aimed at challenging injustices across CPCS’s practice areas, including systemic violations of the right to counsel. Most recently, Lauren was in private practice, where she handled delinquency trials and post-adjudication matters and cases at the Parole Board and Sex Offender Registry Board.
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Alexis Williams Torrey

Co-Director of Strategic Advocacy
Alexis joined CLCM in September 2024, as the Co-Director of Strategic Advocacy. In this role, she will represent children and young adults in Essex County Juvenile Court, as well as pursue systemic efforts to keep children out of substitute care and improve the conditions of those children involved with the family regulation system and other carceral systems. Prior to joining CLCM, Alexis represented parents, young adults, and children in care and protection, guardianship, permanency for young adult, and child requiring assistance matters in the Essex County Juvenile Courts, first as an attorney with the Committee for Public Counsel Services’ Children and Family Law Division (CAFL), and then briefly in private practice. Alexis co-facilitates CAFL’s Client Advisory Board and assists as faculty in CAFL attorney trainings. In addition to her family defense experience, Alexis spent seven years clerking for the Honorable William E. Smith of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, and she clerked for the Honorable Paul A. Suttell of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. Alexis holds a J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law, and a B.S. in Psychology and Management from Boston College.
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Samantha Cardwell

Staff Attorney
Samantha joined the CLCM in October 2022. Samantha holds a Master of Public Health from Tufts University School of Medicine and a Juris Doctorate from Northeastern University School of Law where she received a full-tuition scholarship as a Health Law Scholar. Before attending law school, Samantha served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo, where she worked as a Community Health and Malaria Prevention Specialist before extending her service for a third year as Peace Corps Togo’s National Malaria Prevention Coordinator. During law school, Samantha interned with the Immigration Unit of Greater Boston Legal Services where she advocated for asylum seekers, with the Health Care Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office where she worked on policy and litigation matters, and with the Northeastern University Program for Human Rights and the Global Economy where she contributed to water rights research. As the Medical-Legal Partnership Attorney at CLCM, Samantha will work with the Mass General Brigham Chelsea Health Care Center to provide legal aid to children who face barriers to educational access or are at risk for school exclusion.
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Nora Doherty

Staff Attorney
Nora joined CLCM in September 2025 and represents youth in immigration matters. Most recently, she served as an Attorney Advisor at the Boston Immigration Court. Her legal experience spans removal defense, family- and employment-based immigration, and policy advocacy, through positions at Greater Boston Legal Services, Palmer Polaski PC, Las Americas Advocacy Center, and the Program for Human Rights and the Global Economy. Before becoming an attorney, Nora taught middle school math in Lawrence and Chelsea, MA, and was awarded a Fulbright grant to teach English at La Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Bucaramanga, Colombia. She holds a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law, an M.Ed. from Boston University, and a B.A. in Psychology and Peace and Justice from Villanova University. Nora is fluent in Spanish and is committed to advancing immigrant rights and challenging the injustices embedded in our current immigration system.
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Jack Diaz

Operations Associate
Jack is the Operations Associate, a role they began in March 2024. They have played a key role in restructuring internal processes and database management. Jack brings a wealth of diverse experiences to their role. Before joining CLCM, Jack worked in a variety of positions across industries that honed their operational, administrative, and project management skills. While working at Metro Housing Boston, they supported the HR department and MIS refining their logistical, administrative and coordination skills. At Allandale farms, they were the office assistant, in charge of handling financial data and invoices. They worked at Rescuing Leftover Cuisines where Jack had single handedly rescued and redistributed 17,574 pounds of food, accounting for 14,645 meals.
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Shauna King

Paralegal
Shauna King joined CLCM in September 2024 as an AmeriCorps Legal Advocate of Massachusetts. AmeriCorps Legal Advocates of Massachusetts is a one-year service program that embeds advocates into legal aid programs to open doors to justice, invigorate organizations and cultivate the next generation of public leaders. Shauna works primarily with the Immigration team and is passionate about helping low-income youth navigate a complex legal system. Before exploring her interest in law through her AmeriCorps service, she worked at a public relations agency and taught English in Spain. Shauna graduated summa cum laude from Virginia Tech with Bachelor of Arts degrees in International Public Policy and Public Relations.