LEGAL NEWS PHOTO BY CYNTHIA PRICE
By Cynthia Price
Legal News
“I’m very social justice-minded,” says Varnum attorney Luis Avila. “It’s the way my parents raised me.”
He was speaking of the twists and turns on the career path that led him to being a labor and employment, as well as immigration lawyer for a large firm.
After he graduated from Calvin College as a business major, Avila worked for JP Morgan as a banking analyst. “But I really didn’t like it. After a couple years I didn’t feel like I was helping anyone.”
He returned to get his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School, concentrating on international law, and from there went to a “dream” position working for the United Nations Office of the High Commission for Human Rights. His responsibilities there included oversight of human rights monitoring around the world, work on human trafficking, and at times assisting some of the special rapporteurs with negotiations on passing country-by-country resolutions, including the right to food.
But it also entailed moving to Switzerland. He took along his wife and young baby, but as time wore on, he began to feel like the great professional move for him was a bad decision for his family. “We wanted our kids to have grandparents around,” he says.
The family moved back, first to Detroit, where Avila worked for a small firm in immigration law, and then to Grand Rapids and Varnum.
“I never thought I’d want to be at a big law firm,” he says, “but I tried Varnum just to see if was a good fit and it’s ended being just a wonderful firm. They offer tremendous support for all different types of community service.”
Avila’s community involvement has now resulted in a Diversity Award from Wedgwood Christian Services.
Wedgwood is a faith-based agency that helps “hurting children, youth and families” with problems in the areas of sex trafficking, abuse and neglect, sexual abuse and sexual behavior issues, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, developmental delays and learning difficulties, and school-related issues.
On giving the award to Avila, one of several given out at a celebration May 14, Wedgwood’s Diversity Coordinator, Pastor Arlan Palmer, said, “As an agency, we take the time out to recognize and celebrate with those individuals who share in our vision for diversity.”
Though Avila modestly says, “After hearing the stories of what each of the other award-winners has done, I told everyone, I’m so undeserving,” for Avila the admiration is mutual. “It’s just a great organization, very easy to support,” he comments.
Wedgwood’s Manasseh Project, about which Avila is especially excited, helps heal victims of sex trafficking or other severely sexually abused young people, including a shelter and trauma recovery center. According to its separate website, www.
manassehproject.org, the residential center had served 13 sex-trafficked girls as of January 2014.
This dovetails with Avila’s background in human trafficking while at the U.N. “Wedgwood takes a very broad approach in this area,” he says, “doing everything from dealing with the victims — giving them shelter to get them off the streets, trying to reintegrate them through giving them an education — to working with police departments on how to handle these types of cases, to prevention. It’s very sensitive work.”
Avila himself was born in Mexico, the son of a Presbyterian pastor who received his master’s degree at Calvin Theological Seminary in 1980, and two Ph.D. degrees in Mexico. Avila lived in Philadelphia and Miami as well as various places in Mexico as his father, Mariano Avila, pursued a variety of international positions and worked on scholarly projects. Luis Avila decided to attend Calvin College because his father was appointed to a professorship at the seminary, which he still holds.
“My parents were always involved in social justice matters. They would take us regularly to interact with ‘children of the street,’ as they’re called, at a place similar to Wedgwood — though less organized.” Avila says. “That does something to you. You see these kids, you know you’re going to go home that night to a warm dinner, but often they were high on drugs, they had pimps they still met with... You can’t help but think, I want to be able to help.”
Though 80% of his practice is in labor and employment, Avila sings Varnum's praises for allowing him to continue some of his immigration work pro bono or at reduced fees. For example, when the sole attorney at the immigrant rights organization Justice for Neighbors took a three-month maternity leave last year, Varnum allowed Avila to fill in for her even though it might mean reduced revenues for the firm.
He got deeper into labor and employment because immigration was part of Varnum's labor and employment practice group, and he discovered he really liked employment litigation. “You can’t make those stories up,” he says with a smile. “It’s been my decision to fade out of immigration law for the most party, and I’m very happy.”
Avila, who also interned with the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and the Florence Immigration and Refugee Rights project in Arizona while at law school, also serves on the boards of Grand Rapids Ballet Company, West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and on committees for the Grand Rapids Symphony, Grand Rapids Community Foundation and Dwelling Place, as well as the American Bar Association’s Committee on the Development of the Law under the NLRB and Committee on Practice and Procedure under the NLRB.?He is a member of Asociación de Profesionistas Mexicanos en Michigan and the Latin American Bar.
A recent appointment to the Michigan Board of Medicine came after he applied to the state without any specific board in mind, and underwent an interview. “My wife is a nurse, so maybe that’s what they saw in me,” he comments.
Avila hopes to continue to bring together his past experience and his current expertise to remain in service to the community, possibly expanding on work with organizations like Association for a More Just Society. “To make a bigger impact, you have to think larger,” he says.
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