January 28, 2025

Attorney Claudia Quintero to lead Central West Justice Center

BY Berkshire Eagle

SPRINGFIELD — Central West Justice Center, an affiliate of Community Legal Aid, has named Attorney Claudia Quintero as its director. In this role, Quintero will oversee a team of lawyers, paralegals and staff who assist low-income and elderly clients with immigration, housing and employment benefits in the five counties of Central and Western Massachusetts.

The center, which has offices in Worcester, Fitchburg, Northampton, Springfield and Pittsfield, also houses the statewide Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers Project. Quintero replaces Kristen Williams, who has been named chief operating officer of Community Legal Aid.Quintero joined the center in 2017 as the staff attorney for the Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers Project, where she assisted farmworkers in immigration, employment, housing, benefits and family law cases. A frequent presenter and educator around the community, Quintero has provided “know-your-rights” trainings to community members and organizations on immigration and workers’ rights.

Since 2021, she has also led the Fairness for Farmworkers Coalition, a group engaged in legislative advocacy to support a law that would entitle farmworkers to a minimum wage and overtime pay. She serves as an assistant professor of law at Western New England University School of Law in Springfield, teaching first-year law students the foundational lawyering skills of legal research and writing. She will continue to teach Law and Social Change as an adjunct professor at the school.

Quintero received her law degree, cum laude, from the Western New England University School of Law. While in law school, she was a Public Interest Scholar and a member of the Law Review. She also led the National Lawyers Guild student chapter and founded the Latino/a Law Student Association.

Quintero, a native Spanish speaker, earned a bachelor’s degree in communication studies with a minor in music from California State University, Los Angeles, and a master’s degree in rhetoric from the University of Utah.

For more information about CWJC, visit cwjustice.org.