JusticeSofiaRojas

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Sofia Rojas

St. Andrew’s Episcopal School
Class of 2024

Interned with The Law Office of Rebecca Bloch on a life-changing case.

Collaborated with top law professors and experts to prepare an expert witness for trial.

Advocated for an issue of national importance that directly affects the client and the criminal legal system on Capitol Hill to congressmen, senators, and congressional officials.

Learn more about Sofia here.

Sofia Rojas will be participating in the Advanced Law and Justice Reform internship. She is excited to have the opportunity to work for a better justice system and learn personally from distinguished lawyers. She is also hoping to help first-time offenders be released and gain deeper understanding of legal processes.

As a distinguished student from Saint Andrew’s School in Bolivia, Sofia has been involved in international clubs, such as BWB. Even being the president of said club for a year. She’s also stands out as an avid debater; having attended many MUN models, and winning the vast majority of them. For this same reason, she is now the Secretary General of the MUN of her school this year. Apart from her academic life, Sofia thoroughly enjoys dance, having donde ballet and jazz since she was a kid.

Sofia is excited to make a positive impact in the life of those who are going to be touched by the program. Additionally, she can’t wait to meet peers around the world and broaden her knowledge of cultures around the world. Working with people is something that Sofia has always loved doing, and hopes this internship gives her a wider understanding of the world around her!

Read more about Sofia’s achievements here.

My Law & Advocacy Training

IRAA Brief

Witness
Preparation

Congressional
Advocacy

Mentor & Expert
Collaboration

My YRA
Motion

Throughout the internship, I learned about different aspects of being a lawyer and explored the importance of legal writing as a central part of the profession. As a legal intern, I wrote an Youth Rehabilitation Act (YRA) motion to remove my client’s conviction from their record.

Rebecca Bloch of The Law Office of Rebecca Bloch walked me through how to write a proper motion in legal formatting and include all relevant content.

As part of an YRA motion, I sifted through legal documents, exhibits, and case precedent and conducted client interviews. I compiled pertinent information to put into a comprehensive briefing containing reasoned arguments about why my client deserved a sentence set aside under D.C. Code § 24-906 C2.

Oral Argument Preparation

The Basics of Oral Argumentation

To help the legal team prepare their YRA Motion, I had to create a compelling argument on various sections of the briefing, including the client’s history, community involvement, and rehabilitation, but also critically evaluate their strengths and weaknesses in terms of their effectiveness in a courtroom setting and their impact on a judge.

I learned about oral arguments from real lawyers and was able to work with my peers to develop strong legal strategies.

How We Prepared Our Oral Argument

At the end of the internship, I had the opportunity to present my argument to the legal team and my peers, which included my recommendations to strengthen the case.

I presented different facts of the case and the mitigating factors that could influence the outcome of the YRA motion and conviction set aside request. This part was crucial in demonstrating our problem-solving skills and contributed meaningfully to the legal strategy.

This is important because now the legal team has a variety of different perspectives to include in the briefing and has recommendations for the client to improve their standing in court.

My Congressional Advocacy

Throughout the internship, I developed skills to effectively advocate on behalf of my client to congressional officials. To prepare for my meetings, I developed informative briefing materials with my team, which focused on improving the criminal legal system.

On Capitol Hill, we highlighted an issue within the criminal legal system to congressional representatives and advocated for possible solutions to the harrowing issues present throughout the system. My team and I worked to ensure we had facts, statistics, and compelling stories to share with our representatives. After our meeting, we followed up with our representatives to call for further action.

Internship Highlights

Rebecca Bloch
Justice Policy Institute
Second Look
Free Minds
Prison & Justice Initative

Rebecca Bloch is the managing attorney for the Law Office of Rebecca Bloch.

Ms. Bloch has worked in the legal field since 2007 as a public defender in Colorado and the District of Columbia. Ms. Bloch has defended the rights of individuals accused of virtually every type of crime, from petty offenses to the most serious of felonies.

Currently, Ms. Bloch is drafting briefs on behalf of individuals serving prison sentences who are seeking IRAA release due to outstanding behavior, rehabilitation, and other factors under D.C. Code § 24-403.03.

Ms. Shekhinah Braveheart is the Justice Policy Institute’s Advocacy Associate and focuses on bringing communities impacted by the criminal legal system to the forefront and ensuring they have a voice in policy reform.

Mr. Braveheart hosted a conversation about the importance of partnerships between advocates, the legal field, and the impacted parties and the challenges within the field of reform.

I saw the importance of equipping communities with the tools to engage in policy reform efforts and ensuring that those impacted have a voice in reform.

Ms. Keah Beeftu, a Staff Attorney at the Second Look Project, has dedicated her work to helping provide representation for those eligible for resentencing under the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act.

Ms. Beeftu walked me and my fellow interns through the history of sentencing reduction in the District of Columbia and gave advice to me regarding the writing process of motions.

I learned more about the process of writing a motion and had the opportunity to ask thoughtful questions regarding sentencing reform in Washington, D.C.

Poet Ambassadors from the Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop, a DC-based nonprofit that uses literature and creative writing to build community with incarcerated youth and adults, spoke with us about how Free Minds has an impact on currently incarceration and returning citizens.

I learned about the importance of support systems during the IRAA and YRA processes and how Free Minds uses writing and book clubs as networks for people during and after incarceration.

The Poet Ambassadors have developed creative solutions to the issues that have ramifications on them and their communities which taught me to seek remedies for problems I identify.

Marc Howard is the founding director of the Prison and Justice Initiative at Georgetown University. Founded in 2016, the Prison and Justice Initiative has four programs that tackle criminal legal reform by focusing on incarceration and recidivism. Momolou Stewart was a part of one of these programs.

I learned about Dr. Howard’s passion for criminal legal reform and what inspired his work. Dr. Howard spoke with the group about the prison industrial complex and the impact private prisons have on mass incarceration.

I also learned that he truly believes that my generation is going to change the criminal legal system for the better.