In an April 25 forum co-sponsored by the Puerto Rican Agenda, the Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, the Puerto Rican Bar Association and the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois, Rolando Emmanuelli Jiménez and Jessica Méndez Colberg presented to a receptive group of community leaders, lawyers and judges their “David” battle against the “Goliath” Fiscal Oversight and Management Board (“la junta”).
From their mighty two-lawyer office in Ponce, they recently succeeded in the First Circuit Court of Appeals, Aurelius Inv., LLC v. Puerto Rico, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 4645, which found unconstitutional the appointments of the seven board members. At the same time, they are opposing the junta’s application for a stay and its petition for a reversal at the U.S. Supreme Court level, Rolando and Jessica are litigating four other cases also challenging the constitutionality of PROMESA.
While they work in the courts, their main preoccupation is with the colonial nature of PROMESA and its devastating economic consequences for the people of Puerto Rico.
The legal community and others in the diaspora have much to offer our valiant colleagues, in the way of assisting with legal research and otherwise collaborating – and we have much to learn from them. Contact Rolando at rolando@emmanuelli.law, http://bufete-emmanuelli.com/.
Farolan is a 1L at Northeastern University School of Law and a proud daughter of Filipino immigrants. After graduating from Northwestern University with a degree in Social Policy, she completed an AmeriCorps year of service for the Legal Assistance Foundation. At LAF, she organized volunteer opportunities for attorneys and law students and assisted in management of a pro bono legal services clinic in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. In law school, she is a co-chair of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. She is also a member of the Criminal Law Project, with whom she has been researching campus police authority and misconduct. Christine hopes to use her career to further criminal legal reform and is eager to work with the Chicago Community Bond Fund as a Haywood Burns fellow.
