GENEVRA W. ALBERTI

Genevra is The Clinic’s attorney and a fearless litigator in Immigration Court. She grew up in North Carolina, and graduated with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005 and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. After spending three years working in New York City as a paralegal and traveling, Genevra attended law school at Washington University in St. Louis, from which she graduated cum laude in May 2011.

Even before graduating, Genevra was able to obtain experience in immigration law, working for an immigration firm in St. Louis, Missouri, and later interning for the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) in Brussels, Belgium.

Genevra moved to Kansas City in August 2011. She initially began working for Sharma-Crawford Attorneys at Law, and then transitioned to The Clinic when it opened in January 2012. She focuses her practice on representing low-income noncitizens facing removal proceedings in the Kansas City Immigration Court, and has worked on a wide array of complex and nuanced immigration cases. She also regularly presents on a variety of immigration-related topics at national and local immigration conferences and frequently provides Know Your Rights presentations in the community. She is a contributing author to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Litigation Toolbox, 5th Ed. (2016) and 6th Ed. (2019).

She is a member of AILA, serving as the Missouri-Kansas AILA Chapter’s Chair-Elect, as one of the chapter’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) liaisons, and also serves on AILA’s national EOIR liaison committee. She won her chapter’s Pro Bono Champion Award in 2020 and 2022, and has been selected as a Super Lawyers Rising Star since 2019. Genevra is licensed to practice law in Missouri and Kansas, and is also admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States and the Federal Appeals Court for the Eighth Circuit.

Jennifer Rodriguez

JENNIFER LOPEZ DE GONZALEZ

Jennifer was born and raised in Kansas City and joined The Clinic in 2014 and is its only paralegal. The Clinic has become Jennifer’s passion, and her energy and enthusiasm for helping indigent clients facing removal proceedings is a force to be reckoned with. In 2016, inspired by so many of The Clinic’s clients and wanting a better future for herself, Jennifer worked to graduate high school. She spends her free time caring for her three children and her family. Although Jennifer was born in the United States, the majority of her family is from Durango, Mexico. Jennifer is fluent in both Spanish and English.

REKHA SHARMA-CRAWFORD

Rekha is the President of The Clinic’s Board and a passionate advocate for immigration rights as it applies to the fair application of the law. With broad experiences as an assistant district attorney and practicing attorney, Rekha is a frequent speaker and lecturer on matters of immigration law. Representing clients whose cases garnered high-profile media attention, Rekha has the ability to articulate the law and its implications to all audiences.

Rekha received her Juris Doctorate from Michigan State University College of Law in 1993. She has been an assistant district attorney in Sedgwick County, KS and in Douglas County, KS. Rekha is licensed to practice law in the states of Kansas, Texas, and Michigan, and has been practicing in the immigration litigation field since 2000. She is admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court, District of Kansas, Western District of Missouri, and the Federal Appeals Courts for the Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, Tenth and Eleventh Circuits. Rekha is also a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Texas Bar Association, Kansas Bar Association, and Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association.

Rekha is a frequent instructor at the American Immigration Law Foundation Litigation Institute. She has also lectured about immigration law to the Johnson County Bar Association, Kansas Bar Association, and Kansas and Missouri Public Defenders.

Rekha has been involved with cases in municipal, state and federal courts, the Circuit Courts of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. She has been successful in appeals before the Board of Immigration Appeals and has successfully argued before the Circuit Court of Appeals. Rekha has also been successful in litigation against a law enforcement agency that was detaining immigrants beyond their statutory authority.

W. MICHAEL SHARMA-CRAWFORD

Michael is the Treasurer of The Clinic’s Board and is an aggressive litigator and compassionate advocate of fairness in immigration law. As a former law enforcement officer, Michael has a deeper understanding of the challenges of immigration law enforcement, detainment issues and litigation. Michael frequently handles complex immigration proceedings where current statutes require greater experience and understanding.

Michael received his Juris Doctorate from Washburn University in 2002. The practice of law, while a second career, was not far from his beginnings as a law enforcement officer. Michael “served and protected” the citizens of Sedgwick County, Kansas for 15 years before he went on to fulfill his dream of becoming a member of the Bar. He is admitted to the District of Kansas, to the Federal Appeals Court for the Second, Seventh, Eighth and Tenth Circuits, and to the Supreme Court of the United States. Michael also serves on the Board of Directors for Kansas Legal Services. His past service includes the Advisory Committee for the ABA Commission on Immigration and as a member of the USCIS Field Operations Liaison Committee for AILA.