María G. Mendoza is an experienced lawyer and her practice focuses on a wide range of immigration matters and other complex civil litigation and appellate matters. Internationally, and in El Paso, Texas, Ms. Mendoza represents clients in all facets of the employment-based immigration arena, including routine and complex immigrant and non-immigrant matters, as well as family-based immigration matters, naturalization, removal defense, and waivers of inadmissibility.
In the District of Columbia and Maryland, she advises real estate developers on Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (“TOPA”) compliance and counsels developers on how to structure housing and mixed-use developments to accommodate TOPA. She also represents tenant associations seeking to exercise their rights under TOPA. Ms. Mendoza also briefs and argues civil and criminal appellate matters and extensively litigates Individuals with Disability Education Act (“IDEA”) matters.
Ms. Mendoza started her legal career as a judicial law clerk to the Hon. Vanessa Ruiz of the D.C. Court of Appeals. Before founding The Mendoza Law Firm, she worked as a litigator at a boutique firm in the District of Columbia, where she successfully litigated over fifty IDEA matters and represented clients in litigation before the District Court for the District of Columbia. She also was a trial lawyer at a local non-profit where she represented some of the District’s most vulnerable members in housing litigation matters. She was a 2009-2010 law fellow to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and she co-presented a white paper on Voter Identification laws with Congressman Charles Gonzalez at the 2009-2010 Congressional Hispanic Caucus policy summit.
Before finishing law school in 2009, Ms. Mendoza was a member of the Ninth Circuit Appellate Team and she successfully briefed and argued an important asylum appeal, Cinapian v. Holder, 567 F.3d 1067 (9th Cir. 2009), before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. As a law student, she also worked in Schering Plough’s legal department, where she worked on complex pharmaceutical and labor law litigation disputes, and she was a summer associate at a major law firm in the Southwest.
A staunch advocate of public service, Ms. Mendoza is involved in a number of national and local civil organizations. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and served on the Board of Directors for the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia for several years at the beginning of her career. She currently serves as a Board of Director for the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia and previously held leadership positions with the D.C. Bar and Gateway Community Development Corporation. She is originally from the greater El Paso, Texas, community.
Education:
University of Arizona, College of Law
New Mexico State University
Bar Admissions:
District of Columbia
Maryland
Memberships:
American Bar Association, 2010 – Present. Appellate Committee, 2012-2013.
District of Columbia Bar, D.C. Bar Leadership Academy, Inaugural member, 2013, Publications Committee, 2014 – Present.
District of Columbia Defense Lawyers Association, 2013 – Present. Publications committee, 2013- Present.
Gateway Community Development Corporation, 2014 – Present. Board of Director, 2014 – Present.
Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia, 2009 – Present; Vice President for External Affairs, 2014; Vice President for Internal Affairs, 2013; Board of Director, 2012; Secretary, 2011. Task Force on Advancing Latino Attorneys, Co-Chair; Employer Outreach Committee, Co-Chair; Endorsement Committee, Board Liaison; Professional Development Committee; Legislative Affairs Committee; Public Interest Committee; Equal Justice Awards Committee, Co-Chair
Hispanic National Bar Association, 2006 – Present. DREAM Initiative Task Force, Secretary; Collaborative Bar Leadership Academy, Inaugural Member; 39th Annual Convention Plenary Subcommittee Co-Chair, Immigration Reform and General Counsel roundtable plenary sessions, 2014
Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia, 2009 – Present. Secretary, 2014; Amicus Committee, Chair, 2012-2013; Diversity Committee, Co-Chair, 2013; Mentoring Committee, Co-Chair, 2013
Publication:
María G. Mendoza, Very Few Latino Attorneys Argue before the Supreme Court, NAT’L L.J., Feb. 8, 2012