Caren Short, Liliana Zaragoza, Angel S. Harris, and Ajmel Quereshi. (Chris Kemmit not pictured)
LDF is pleased to welcome several new impressive hires to our team this summer. Caren Short, Ajmel Quereshi, Lily Zaragoza, Angel Harris, and Chris Kemmit bring a wide range of legal expertise critical to supporting LDF’ s work.
- Caren E. Short is an Assistant Counsel based in DC. Prior to joining LDF, Caren was as a Staff Attorney in the Voter Protection Program of Advancement Project. She has also worked with the Southern Poverty Law Center and investigated conditions faced by youth and adults in Alabama’s overcrowded jails and prisons. She has a B.A. in political science from Purdue and graduated magna cum laude from Howard University School of Law.
- Ajmel Quereshi serves as an Assistant Counsel at LDF in DC. Before joining LDF, Ajmel worked as Staff Counsel at the ACLU National Prison Project, co-directed the Civil Rights Clinic at Howard University School of Law, received a Skadden Fellowship, and directed the Immigrants’ Rights Project at the ACLU of Maryland. Ajmel is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School.
- Liliana Zaragoza is our first John Payton Appellate and Supreme Court Advocacy Fellow and is based in our New York office. Prior to joining LDF, Lily was a 2013-2015 Skadden Fellow, a Staff Attorney at the New York Legal Assistance Group, and a law clerk at LatinoJustice PRLDEF. Lily graduated with honors and distinction from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in International Studies and Human Rights, and received her J.D. from Columbia Law School.
- Angel S. Harris joins LDF as an Assistant Counsel in our NYC office. Prior to joining LDF, Angel served as a Staff Attorney in the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project in Durham, NC; a felony trial attorney with the Calcasieu Parish Public Defender’s Office in Lake Charles, LA and in the Orleans Public Defenders in New Orleans, LA. Angel graduated summa cum laude from Hampton University with a B.A. in English and from Georgetown University Law Center.
- Chris Kemmitt joins LDF as Senior Counsel in DC. Before coming to LDF, Chris spent seven years as an attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS), conducted trainings on various topics for the D.C. defense bar, and co-founded the PDS Criminal Law Blog. Chris graduated magna cum laude from Williams College with a B.A. in History and received his J.D. from Yale Law School.
