Eva M. Plaza

Eva M. Plaza came to the United States from Mexico when she was two years old with her parents and three siblings. She grew up in El Paso, Texas.

Ms. Plaza graduated cum laude from Harvard College in 1980. Ms. Plaza studied law at the University of California Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, where she served as Associate Editor of the California Law Review.

After graduating from law school in 1984, Ms. Plaza was selected to the highly acclaimed Attorney General Honors Program of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. where she was trial counsel in the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch.

>> Join me as I speak with Ms. Plaza about how her career led her to Washington, D.C.

Subsequently, Ms. Plaza entered private practice in Washington, D.C. as a litigation trial attorney in the Washington, D.C. law firms of Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson and Arent, Fox, Kinter, Plotkin & Kahn from 1986 to 1993.

While her private practice focused on government contracts, she also served as one of the lead counsel in the well-known class action immigration litigation initiated as Ayuda v. Meese, where a certain standard for amnesty was clarified in favor of applicants.

Ms. Plaza served in the Clinton administration in Washington, D.C. from September 1993 to January 2001.

>> I’ll be asking her about her experiences serving in the Clinton administration and what she learned.

From 1993 to 1997, Ms. Plaza served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General over the Torts Branch at the U.S. Department of Justice, in charge of all tort litigation cases brought against the United States and its agencies nationwide, managing and supervising a staff of 254 employees. She managed several civil litigation offices with jurisdiction over aviation, admiralty, constitutional torts, environmental torts, medical malpractice, AIDS litigation, banking litigation, vaccine and radiation litigation.

She personally argued a variety of significant cases involving these issues. Moreover, she served as chief tort litigation advisor to the Justice Department, and was responsible for conferring, advising, and making recommendations to the Attorney General and the U.S. Attorneys concerning the defense of the Government’s interests in all torts legal matters, including intelligence, investigations and constitutional matters.

Ms. Plaza also chaired the Torts Branch’s Representation Committee where it was her responsibility to ensure uniformity and equal treatment for federal employees in providing representation.

In September of 1997, President Clinton nominated Ms. Plaza for the position of Assistant Secretary of Fair Housing & Equal Opportunity at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Ms. Plaza was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in to this four-year appointment on November 8, 1997. As Assistant Secretary, Ms. Plaza vigorously enforced the Fair Housing Act of 1968, and its amendments, and waged aggressive education and outreach campaigns in communities across the country. Additionally, Ms. Plaza provided oversight and counsel to the Administration in connection with housing and redevelopment issues, as well as congressional budget and inspector general investigations.

After this presidential appointment, Ms. Plaza served as Chief Deputy City Solicitor for the Solicitor’s office of the City of Philadelphia. In this role, she was in charge of the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative Unit.

Ms. Plaza is currently a Partner in California at the firm of Garcia, Calderon & Ruiz.

Ms. Plaza has received numerous awards for outstanding achievement, including the Albert Arent Pro Bono Award, 1989; the National Conference for College Women Leaders, Woman of Distinction Award in 1998; the American Immigration Lawyers’ Foundation Immigrant Achievement Award in 1999; and the Hispanic Bar Association’s Equal Justice Award in 2002.

She has been recognized as one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in America, and is a lifetime member of the American Bar Association’s American Bar Foundation.

>> I’ll be discussing with Ms. Plaza, her career path, challenges and motivations, as well as her strategies for success.

Join me for this exciting interview!!!