Like everyone else, 2L John Antia believes in giving back to society. But, Antia is taking his volunteerism a step further.
Antia will extern at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago (LAFMC) in the summer of 2012 under the Public Interest Law Initiative grant. Antia will work with an organization that provides civil legal services to low-income or disadvantaged people. As a extern, Antia expects to be doing a lot of research, drafting legal memoranda and potentially applying his 7-11 license in immigration court.
It’s a lot like his work in the Fair Housing Legal Clinic at John Marshall, where he is currently a legal intern.
“Work at the Fair Housing Clinic is pretty intense,” Antia said. “You hear a lot of on-the-ground stories in Chicagoland.”
His experience that led him to his work with LAFMC includes the Clinic, an externship with Judge Sanjay Tailor of the Circuit Court of Cook County and a research assistantship with John Marshall Professor Stuart Ford. Antia also is treasurer of John Marshall’s Latino Law Students Association.
Antia hadn’t initially intended to pursue a career in law. After graduating from the University of Illinois at Chicago, he taught world history, Latin American studies, macroeconomics and mathematics at Latino Youth High School in Chicago. After completing a master’s degree in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Antia was an adjunct professor of American history—which he taught in Spanish and English—at St. Augustine College in Chicago.
“Teaching was my way of giving back to society,” Antia said.
His interest in immigration law began to grow, and in fall of 2010 he enrolled at John Marshall.
“Law comes in because I’m still affecting people’s lives, but it’s more direct—to be an immigration lawyer and determine whether you’re keeping a family together.” Antia is interested in being on the defense side of immigration law—from taking on deportation cases to putting immigrants on the path to citizenship.
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Antia still volunteers as a Spanish interpreter for the Cabrini Green Legal Aid Clinic and for the National Immigrant Justice Center.
