Claudia De Palma joined the Law Center in 2018 and works across several practice areas, primarily education and employment.

Some of Ms. De Palma’s recent representations include our school funding case challenging Pennsylvania’s failure to provide a constitutionally adequate system of public education, and a variety of lawsuits to stop discrimination against people with criminal records, including a challenge to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s criminal record ban for Paycheck Protection Program loans.

Before joining the Law Center, Ms. De Palma was a litigation associate at Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller, where she successfully defended the City’s implementation of the Philadelphia Beverage Tax. Before moving to Philadelphia, Ms. De Palma worked on civil rights issues in New York City, including as a legal fellow at Sanctuary for Families, and clerked for the Honorable Vanessa L. Bryant in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.

Ms. De Palma graduated cum laude from Yale University with a BA in American Studies (2005) and received her JD cum laude from the NYU School of Law (2012), where she served on the editorial board of the NYU Review of Law and Social Change.