Sara Ghadiri serves as Chapman and Cutler LLP’s Pro Bono Counsel, where she supervises and administers the firm’s pro bono programming, services, and partnerships across all offices. She serves as a mentor and supervising lawyer on pro bono matters in various areas of public interest law and maintains a substantive pro bono case load, much of which focuses on matters related to humanitarian immigration. In her role, Sara seeks out new partnerships and strengthens existing ones, both with legal service partners and with business clients, to identify strategies for growth in pro bono work and launch new pro bono initiatives.
Sara is the recipient of numerous awards for her immigration work, including the American Bar Association Business Law Section’ s National Public Service Award in 2024 for her pro bono immigration work on behalf of evacuated Afghans, and the National Immigrant Justice Center's Human Rights Practitioner of the Year Award in 2021 for her work representing detained individuals in removal proceedings. Sara is also a member of the 2023 State Bar of Wisconsin Pro Bono Honor Society.
Rachel Zoghlin Bautista, Esq. is the Associate Director, Pro Bono & Partnerships at HIAS, where she develops trainings and other resources to support and mentor volunteer attorneys representing refugees, asylum-seekers, and other forcibly displaced persons. Prior to joining HIAS, Rachel worked at a boutique immigration litigation firm in Bethesda, Maryland, where she represented immigrants seeking asylum, defended them against deportation, and applied for humanitarian relief. She also represented abused, neglected, and abandoned children seeking Special Immigrant Juvenile status in proceedings before the Maryland Circuit Courts, as well as before U.S. immigration authorities.
Rachel has served on various committees with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), including the Pro Bono committee, Afghan Response Task Force, the committee on humanitarian visas for victims of crime, trafficking, and domestic violence (Us, Ts, and VAWA – including as Vice Chair of the Committee), and the liaison Committee to the USCIS Vermont Service Center. Rachel earned her B.A. in American Culture from Vassar College, and her J.D. from American University Washington College of Law. She is admitted to practice law in Maryland.