Maria is licensed to practice law in Virginia and Washington, D.C., and is an active member of the Virginia State Bar, the District of Columbia Bar, and the Bar Association of the City of Buenos Aires. She is also admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA). Maria earned her law degree from the Catholic University of Argentina and was admitted to the Bar of the City of Buenos Aires in 1994. She began her legal career in Argentina at one of the largest law firms in Latin America, where she represented U.S. companies in complex international matters.
She later earned a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from George Mason University, along with a Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion. Maria also holds a Master of Science in Criminal Justice from Virginia Commonwealth University, where her academic work focused on the relationship between Hispanic youth and the U.S. criminal justice system.
Maria has contributed scholarly work to the Encyclopedia of Juvenile Delinquency and Justice, authoring an entry on the role of the prosecutor in juvenile court proceedings. She also presented research on discrimination against Hispanics in the U.S. criminal justice system at a graduate symposium at Virginia Commonwealth University. Prior to founding her own firm, Maria practiced at an immigration law firm in Richmond. She has further demonstrated her commitment to the community through her work with the Sacred Heart Center of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, where she coached Latin American immigrants preparing for the General Educational Development (GED) exam administered by the Virginia Department of Education. In academia, Maria has served as an Adjunct Professor of Advanced Spanish at Virginia Commonwealth University and has taught Legal Spanish at James Madison University.
Maria is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and has published an article on Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) in the AILA Law Journal.
Fluent in Spanish, English, French, German, and Italian, Maria brings a multilingual and multicultural perspective to her practice.