Twenty years later, as a partner at Davis Polk, she remains true to promise. She finds gratification in serving her clients at her firm but stays deeply connected to The Legal Aid Society through pro bono work and a seat on our board. 

Giving back was the reason I got into law in the first place, and now I’m able to use the resources I have at Davis Polk to help with criminal defense matters.

Lara spent years on a task force alongside fellow board members and Legal Aid leadership that advocated for caseload caps and greater funding and staff at a time when our criminal defense attorneys were spread too thin.

“There were just too many cases and not enough lawyers, and we had to figure out how to fix it,” she says.

Still drawing on her formative experience as a summer intern, Lara is eager to connect aspiring law students and new associates to Legal Aid so they too can give even more meaning to their work. 

“If you know what you want to do as a lawyer to help people, Legal Aid does it. And if you don’t, Legal Aid is structured to deal with today’s problems and future problems that New York faces.”