May 8, 2019

Worcester Attorney named a 2019 “Rising Star” by Massachusetts Bar Foundation

For Immediate Release
May 8, 2019

Contact: Thomas Navin, Development Director
Community Legal Aid
Phone: (413) 727-7115
Email: tnavin@cla-ma.org

Community Legal Aid wishes to congratulate Staff Attorney Gina Plata-Nino, of our Central West Justice Center, for being chosen as the recipient of this year’s Massachusetts Bar Association Rising Star Award. This annual award is given to a public interest attorney who has significantly contributed to access to justice for an underserved population in Massachusetts. Attorney Plata-Nino is being honored for her passionate and effective advocacy in the SNAP/food security arena. She is also being lauded for the energy and dedication she brings to her community outreach, including, most recently, her outstanding efforts on behalf of the families who relocated to our service area after being displaced from their homes in Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria.

Attorney Plata-Nino is a 2012 graduate of Northeastern University School of Law. She served as a Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable Cynthia J. Cohen and Marc Kantrowitz of the Massachusetts Appeals Court, and later worked in Southeast Asia at an international law firm.

Central West Justice Center is the wholly owned subsidiary of Community Legal Aid, and focuses on cases involving humanitarian-based immigration law, employment rights, housing and homelessness issues, and access to public benefits. 

Community Legal Aid is the free civil legal aid provider for residents of the five counties of central and western Massachusetts and maintains full-time offices in Worcester, Springfield, Northampton, Pittsfield and Fitchburg. The organization helps low-income and elderly residents defend their most fundamental civil legal rights by providing free, quality legal representation to those who cannot afford it. 

For more information on Community Legal Aid, please visit www.communitylegal.org.

For more information on Central West Justice Center please visit www.cwjustice.org.