Staff
Director
Tanya Fekri
Tanya Fekri has been the Student Legal Services Director since December of 2018. She was born in Tehran, Iran. She and her family emigrated to the United States towards the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Having personally experienced the immigration process first-hand, she became especially interested in immigration law. Tanya received two BA degrees in Political Science and Law, Societies, and Justice from the University of Washington.
Tanya later attended Seattle University School of law. She served as a summer law clerk at the Washington State Attorney General’s Office where she assisted the office in its juvenile dependency proceedings, child care licensing matters with the Department of Early Learning, and community college litigation.
During her second and third years, she interned with Catholic Community Services and Northwest Immigrant Rights Project where she assisted undocumented youth in their DACA applications and detainees in their asylum trials. She also interned with the Unemployment Law Project, providing direct representation for claimants in their appeal hearings. Tanya worked as an immigration attorney at Catholic Immigration Legal Services where she represented low-income immigrants and refugees, as well as survivors of domestic violence and other crimes in pursuit of lawful immigration status. Tanya is dedicated to leading a program that provides quality legal services and minimizes the financial and emotional burdens of the legal process for UW students. Since joining SLS, she has expanded the immigration program and has hosted several legal workshops and clinics across campus.
Tanya serves as the Legal Clinic Chair of the Middle Eastern Legal Association of Washington (MELAW). She is fluent in Farsi and has specialized knowledge of legal and policy issues impacting the Iranian American community. In her spare time, she enjoys the arts and loves traveling and spending time with her loved ones and her pup, Rumi!
Staff Attorney
Amanda Reynoso-Palley
Amanda Reynoso-Palley joined Student Legal Services as a staff attorney in November, 2020. Amanda grew up in the Bay Area in California. She attended UC Berkeley as an undergraduate receiving a degree in Latin American History.
Amanda attended Cornell Law School. She volunteered with the International Refugee Assistance Project throughout law school and spent three semesters working in the Global Gender Justice Clinic. During her summers, she interned with the East Bay Sanctuary Coalition representing asylees, and the ACLU Women’s Rights Project focusing on equal access to education. She spent her last semester externing with Judge St. Eve in the United States District Court in the Northern District of Illinois. Upon graduating, Amanda was awarded the Frank H.T. Rhodes Fellowship, awarded yearly to one Cornell Law School graduate who has shown exceptional commitment to the field of public interest law.
Amanda began her career as an attorney at Day One in New York City where she worked for three years with young survivors of dating violence. She represented clients in obtaining orders of protection, custody and visitation orders, immigration status, housing, and public benefits. She also trained youth-serving professionals across New York City on identifying and responding to dating violence. Amanda continued her work with young people at Bay Area Legal Aid in the Youth Justice Project where she represented youth aged 13-24 who were at risk of homelessness; she provided direct representation across a host of legal areas, including: dependency, probate guardianships, family law, immigration, housing, public benefits, and consumer rights. Amanda is highly proficient in Spanish and loves traveling and spending time with her dog, Pinto!
Licensed Legal Interns
Eight licensed legal interns provide legal advice and representation. As third-year UW law students who hold limited licenses to practice law in Washington under Rule 9 of the Admission to Practice Rules, each is supervised by the staff attorney and a volunteer attorney in private practice. After law school, the legal interns continue their careers in Washington and across the country as judicial clerks, legal services attorneys, public defenders, prosecutors, assistant attorneys general, corporate counsel, and private practitioners.
Legal Assistants
Our two legal assistants are undergraduate UW students with backgrounds and interest in law. At SLS, they learn about the practice of law in a hands-on way, collaborate with staff on administrative and client matters, and attend client meetings and court hearings. Some of their management responsibilities include training staff on office procedures and technology, collaborating on the budget process, and spearheading promotional efforts. SLS legal assistants commonly go on to attend law school or graduate school.
Outreach Intern
Our outreach intern is an undergraduate UW student with interest in law. As an intern, they assist SLS in increasing outreach in underrepresented minority communities, accessibility to resources and information, and strengthening partnerships with UW entities and stakeholders. Much of this is done through work in tabling, connecting with campus organizations, running SLS social media, designing promotional materials, and holding presentations.
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