In the News — Project Laura

Boise, Idaho-July 10, 2017 – Nicole R. Derden with the Law Office of Nicole R. Derden in Eagle will receive an Idaho State Bar Service Award on July 13 at the Idaho State Bar Annual Meeting in Moscow. Derden is the founder and a board member of Project Laura, an entity providing pro bono representation on cases that are facing deportation in Boise’s Immigration Court, specifically Latin American individuals arriving on the southern U.S. board seeking asylum or who are unaccompanied minors.

Service Awards are given each year to lawyers and non-lawyers for exemplary service to the Idaho State Bar and/or Idaho Law Foundation.

For more information about the Idaho State Bar Service Awards or the 2017 Idaho State Bar Annual Meeting, contact Mahmood Sheikh at 208-334-4500.

https://isb.idaho.gov/blog/nicole-r-derden-selected-to-receive-idaho-state-bar-service-award/

Students from Concordia Law University, University of Idaho – School of Law, and Boise State University are collaborating with local immigration attorneys to represent individuals in the Boise immigration court who seek asylum, protection under the convention against torture, and special immigration juvenile status as part of Project Laura.

Project Laura is Boise’s legal community’s response to the Latin American refugee crisis. Since 2014, the number of Latin American families fleeing violence in the U.S. has significantly increased, and as of 2016, unrepresented refugees facing deportation total approximately 2/3 of all Boise’s non-detained removal cases. Until Project Laura, no pro bono program existed in Boise to provide legal representation of these individuals.

Nicole Derden, founder of Project Laura, is the instructor of record for the Immigration Clinic at Concordia Law School, and Fatima Cornwall, Department of World Languages, is the instructor of record for the Spanish program.

Students from Boise State University assist with bilingual interpretation during attorney-client visits, as well as with document translation.

https://worldlang.boisestate.edu/2017/01/17/boise-state-concordia-law-partner-project-laura/