LAUREN A. BURKE, ESQ.
Residence in CT, Commutable to NYC, Open to Relocation and Travel.
SELECT AWARDS, HONORS, AND RECOGNITIONS
Echoing Green: Global Fellow, Skadden Arps: Public Interest Legal Fellow, Forbes: 30 Under 30, Law and Policy, New York University: Recent Graduate Award (Law School), Distinguished Young Alumnae (University-Wide), Connecticut College: Mach Arom ’98 Alumni Award for distinguished achievements in the professional field, New York Law Journal: Rising Star in Legal Fields, New Leaders Council: Forty Under Forty Leaders.
CONSULTANT, THE POSSIBLE LAB
Provide coaching, facilitation, mentoring and program ideation for non-profits, social enterprises, and educational institutions looking to create a better world. Projects include providing fundraising trainings for social entrepreneur fellowship, designing and facilitating leadership retreat for 100+ college students entering their Sophomore year, coaching and designing materials for nonnrofit boards, and offering weekly coaching to start up founders. Clients include Claremont McKenna College’s Kravis Center for Social Impact, ImmSchools, Sacred Generations, Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, Heartbeat Opera, Coaching for Change, Big Brother’s Big Sister’s, and Valley Venture Mentors.
CO-FOUNDER AND COO, CAMP EQUITY
Conceptualize, design, and execute vision of developing virtual programs to teach young people about social justice during the coronavirus pandemic. Oversaw entire concept including designing sessions, recruiting instructors and counselors, developing sliding scale equity-based model for tuition and raising philanthropic funds to support staff costs. Create staff policies rooted in Black feminist principles of intersectionality and humanity, assemble advisory board including youth members, oversee relationships with fiscal sponsors and provide curricula support. Manage the creation of a Social Justice Dictionary for youth, creating a first-of-its kind reference guide for young changemakers, to be published in April 2022. Develop and facilitate workshops, trainings and courses, on aspirational allyship and uprooting white supremacy for children ages eight and up as well as families, parents and educators.
FOUNDER AND CEO, NOTEHOUSE
Ideator and founder of Software As a Service (SAAS) platform for simple, intuitive and customizable note-taking software aimed at the small team and solo practitioner market. Design product and oversee coding and design teams. Recruit and oversee beta-process to get product market-ready. Conceptualize marketing campaign, strategize business plan, and take lead in investment procurement and product sales. Product launched in July of 2019 generating revenue in first month.
FELLOW IN RESIDENCE, ECHOING GREEN
Create and pilot Echoing Green’s first-ever Fellow-in-Residence program aiming to provide direct support to alumni, create programming to better connect fellows and alumni, and provide thought leadership around the creation of a more robust and just Echoing Green community. Provide one on one coaching to more than forty social enterprise leaders from over a dozen countries across the globe in areas from fundraising, program development, partnerships and management.
CO-CREATOR, IMMIGRATION NATION
Created and executed six month long cross country volunteer road trip providing free legal services and trainings to immigrants and their communities in the wake of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. Traveled to 14 states, trained over 1300 community members and allies, and provided more than 200 individual legal consultations, mainly to those in rural areas who otherwise would not have access to an attorney. Completed all fundraising, media, and partner outreach.
CO-FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ATLAS: DIY
Co-founder and director of Atlas: DIY, a cooperative empowerment center for immigrant youth and their allies. Developed concept of cooperative NGO model as applied to combat the isolation and discrimination faced by a majority of undocumented immigrant youth in NYC. Oversee all operations including grant writing, legal team development, media marketing, program development, intern and volunteer coordination and know your rights trainings and multimedia projects and the supervision of 15 full time staff members. Developed and led programs for young adults to learn leadership and advocacy skills including the Immigrant Youth Peer Educator Program, DACA-Squad, and College CAMP. Led the charge to raise over $2,000,000 in first five years of operation. Recognition regarding leadership in the immigrant and youth space featured in the New York Times, on All Things Considered, and by Forbes.
PRACTITIONER IN RESIDENCE, NYU SCHOOL OF LAW
Created position in Public Interest Law Center (PILC) to counsel law students in public interest legal careers including internship placement, interview skills, and fellowship proposals and projects. Develop weekly informal program for recent alumni to meet with small groups of students to encourage “real world” conversations about social justice careers and to
make the path more accessible.
ADJUNCT PROFESSOR, BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL
Create clinical course on immigrant youth in the United States, focusing on the implementation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Teach weekly seminar at the law school and supervise students during twelve weekly hours of case work at Atlas: DIY. Develop curriculum, provide career and educational mentorship and arrange guest speakers.
MANAGER OF LEGAL DEPARTMENT, WOMANKIND (FORMERLY NYAWC)
Received contract from New York City’s Department of Youth and Community Development to develop
and implement the Center’s first legal program. Duties included training 30+ staff members on legal tools, developing legal program from the ground up, and supervising interns and attorneys. Provided comprehensive know your rights trainings, consultations and representation to the population of domestic violence and human trafficking survivors currently being served by the Center. Appeared in family and immigration court to represent women and children in VAWA, U and T Visa, Battered Spouse Waiver, SIJS, and other immigration cases. Worked with law enforcement to address issues facing
immigrant populations in New York City.
SKADDEN FELLOW, STAFF ATTORNEY, THE DOOR
Provided holistic legal representation to youth ages 12-21 at The Door. Cases ranged from housing and family law, to emancipation and education. Primarily represented unaccompanied immigrant youth in Special Immigrant Juvenile Status cases, as well as U Visa, Asylum, and T visa advocacy. Special outreach is focused on case management and services provided to unaccompanied Chinese youth who have been trafficked or who are vulnerable to trafficking. Widespread collaboration and expert advisory on issues pertaining to Chinese youth with state and federal agencies, locally based NGO’s across the U.S., and Human Rights Watch. Developed and supervised weekly immigration clinic as well as Immigrant Youth Peer Educator Program.
SELECT PANELS, PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA
Moderator and Curator: Community Lawyering Through a Youth-Led Immigrant Cooperative, Harvard Law School
Author The Martyr Mentality: How a 30 Under 30 Lawyer Qualifies for Public Housing, Forbes
Moderator and Curator The Latino Child and the Law: Keynote Panel, NYU School of Law
Guest Lecturer: “Disrupting the Status Quo: Creating a Youth Empowerment Model for Undocumented Immigrant Youth”, Westfield State University,
Speaker: “Empowering Trafficked Youth,” Tedx Columbia Teacher’s College
Author: “DACA-Lamented? Spared Deportation, Immigrant Students Still Face Higher Ed Barriers,” The New England Journal of Higher Education
Subject: Voices of Immigrant Youth: Interviews with Lauren Burke and Arielle, Family Court Review, Vol. 50, Issue 4, pp 662-665.
Author, PS JD The Ten Biggest Mistakes You Can Make While Interviewing At A Career Fair”
Author: “It Was(n’t) My Choice”: Identifying Human Trafficking in the Chinese Youth Populations, VERA Institute for Social Justice.
Co-Author, Lead Researcher: "I Will Fight to My Last Breath": Barriers to AIDS Treatment for Children in China, Asia Catalyst
SELECT PRESS
Connecticut College Magazine, “Out Of The Shadows: Forbes 30 Under 30 Lauren Burke is on a six-month van trip across the country to provide legal on-demand services to immigrants,”
Forbes, “This Woman Crushed Her Goals, And Then She Put Herself Out of Business,”
Documentary, “No Les Digas A Nadie: Don’t Tell Anyone,”
NYU Law Magazine, “A Dedicated Server,"
Documentary, “Walking Merchandise: Child Trafficking and the Snakehead Trade,”
EDUCATION
NYU SCHOOL OF LAW, New York, New York J.D. Received, May 2009
CONNECTICUT COLLEGE, New London, Connecticut, B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature and International Relations, magna cum laude, May 2006
SKILLS AND CERTIFICATIONS
Licensed to the bar in New York State
Highly proficient in Mandarin, basic knowledge of written Chinese.
Licensed foster parent in Connecticut.