About Us

The Law School Democrats of America (also LSDA or Law School Dems) is a national network working to bring law students into the critical work of defending democracy and advancing progressive electoral politics while still in law school.

LSDA was launched in 2023 ahead of the 2024 election cycle with the goal of mobilizing progressive law students while also providing professional development opportunities for students who want to make progressive legal activism and policy work part of their careers.

The LSDA national board serves as the hub for students to get involved, for campaigns to get in touch, and for collaboration across regions. The LSDA board can help you set up a Law School Dems chapter on your campus, get connected with local campaigns, or answer any general questions about the work we do. If you’re not sure who to reach out to, please contact us through our website or at general@lawdems.org and we can direct you to the right place.

Board Members

Machmud Makhmudov

Founder

Hi! I’m a law student and Knight-Hennessy Scholar at Stanford. My family
immigrated from Uzbekistan when I was one and I lived the dream growing
up eating good fried chicken and playing baseball, both of which I got to do in
college at Oberlin. After graduating I studied abroad for the first time and
went to grad school at Oxford before working for several years in
speechwriting, on campaigns, and in the government, including on the White
House COVID Team. When I got to law school I thought there should be a way
for law students to organize and help Dems win inside and outside the
courtroom, and thus LSDA was born! Please feel free to reach out to me with
any organizational questions or just to say hi.

Amir Jones

Vice President of Political Outreach

I’m at Columbia and excited to ride the blue wave with y’all as LSDA’s VP of Political Outreach. I was born/raised in Northern VA and grew up in a multicultural, multi-faith family. After graduating from George Mason University, I organized/fundraised in the 2020 cycle for Buttigieg in Iowa/Texas and for Rep. Malinowski in NJ. Then, came back home to the DC-area to do some cool comms/policy work with a progressive social impact consulting firm. Now, keeping that progressive drum beat going in law school. If you have any ideas for potential LSDA partnerships with political orgs, elected officials, lawyers working in progressive politics, etc., hit me up and we’ll get the ball rolling!

Darby Hopper

Vice President of Communications

Hi all! I moved to NYC to attend NYU Law, but I’m a Midwesterner through and through. I grew up in Michigan and spent the last seven years in Chicago, first for college and then as chief speechwriter and associate communications director to Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.

My dad’s a history teacher and my mom’s a public infrastructure engineer and I knew from the get-go that I wanted to do work that helped people. In the meantime, torts and civpro it is! Talk to me about great books, great food, and Great Lakes.

Levi Bevis

Director of Digital Strategy

Hey, I’m Levi! I am a law student at Arizona State University. I grew up on a cattle farm in rural Alabama, and I attended the University of Mississippi. After graduating, I worked in law and politics for a while in Washington, D.C. and on a campaign in Portland, Maine.

I then took a communications job in Boston, Massachusetts, and later attended graduate school at Boston University (Go Terriers!). I am thrilled to join the Board and to support Democrats up and down the ballot across the country!

Paul Jones III

Director of Alumni Relations

Hello! My name is Paul Jones II and I currently work as a public defender at the Cook County Public Defender’s Office. I graduated from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in 2020 and received my undergraduate degree from DePaul University in 2015.

Before law school, I began my career as organizing fellow in 2016 for Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx and then became a union organizer for Amalgamated Transit Union Locals 241 and 308 in Chicago. I am a former President of the Northwestern Law School Democrats and I currently serve as the President of the Young Democrats of Illinois

Oliver Shirley

Northeast Regional Director

At Columbia, I’m involved in the CLS Democrats, the CLS chapter of ACS, and the CLS softball team. I studied Theatre at Pomona College and earned my M.F.A. in Acting at the American Conservatory Theater in SF (I still miss the breakfast burrito from Taqueria Cancún). While pursuing acting in New York, I also worked in education and political organizing, including working with Sister District Project on their volunteer recruitment efforts, building out the leadership of volunteer teams across the country, as well GOTV efforts in the recent VA and PA state legislature races. If you want to chat about phonebanking best practices, or speculate about how many home runs Aaron Judge is going to hit this year as the Yankees win the World Series, feel free to reach out!

Sean Kaczmarek

Northeast Regional Director

Hi! I’ m a law student at Harvard. I’ m originally from Buffalo, NY, and stayed home for college, attending the University at Buffalo, while also serving as a school board member at my old high school. I then studied in London for grad school, and returned to Buffalo two years later as a 2nd grade teacher. After a couple years of teaching I moved to New York City working at Columbia Business School on social psychology and innovation.

There hasn ’t been a time when I wasn ’t involved in politics at some level, and I can ’t wait to strengthen the party in the Rust Belt, the Northeast, and beyond. I’ m thrilled to be part of LSDA, and please feel free to reach out!

David Jaffe

Southwest Regional Director

Hey folks! I’ve lived all over the US, but consider Mesa, Arizona to be my home. Arizona is where I fell in love with community leadership and where I got my first experiences in the Democratic movement. I spent the last few years working for AZ Dems, primarily Jevin Hodge, but also for Rep. Gallego and other local leaders. I went to law school in order to become a more effective advocate, and joined the LSDA Board in order to empower future leaders from the Southwest to play a role in the change-making process in their community and country.
If you ever wanna talk AZ races or my favorite band from the Southwest, The Killers, I’m yours.

Angélica César

Southwest Regional Director

Hi y’all! I’m a proud Arizonan and daughter of Mexican immigrants. My experiences with anti-immigrant policies, including AZ’s infamous SB 1070, led me to engage in community organizing and advocacy at a young age. I have led issue-based and electoral campaigns at the local, state, and national levels with organizations including the Latino Victory Fund, Aliento Education Fund, UnidosUS, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

There’s a lot on the line for us all this upcoming election cycle and I look forward to working together to drive meaningful change!

Angela Rofael

Southeast Regional Director

I grew up enjoying SoCal’s MANY amusement parks and beautiful beaches. I went to undergrad at University of Oregon for a B.S. in psychology and there realized that my Orange County hometown held a darker side of elitism, prejudice, and systemic injustice. Since then, I became devoted to undoing the systems of injustice that I both benefitted from and was the victim of. I chose law school in Georgia which was essentially ground zero for voting equity work and also a ground of reckoning for racial justice. During the height of COVID, I worked with grassroots activist organizations that focused mostly on policing and racial justice issues. In Oregon, whenever I wasn’t working or engaging in activism, I was enjoying the outdoors and hope to someday soon have the free time to enjoy Georgia’s outdoors as well.

Matthew Rein

DMV Regional Director

Hey there! My name is Matt Rein and I’m at GW Law. I was born and raised in Arizona, and graduated from the University of Arizona in 2019. Following graduation I moved out to DC to work at a law firm, but when the pandemic began, I knew I wanted to do more. I joined Organizing Together 2020, started a political TikTok (@Matthew.Rein if you want to check it out!), and committed to coming back to DC for law school. I’ve been interning at the DNC on their Civic Engagement and Voter Protection team since January, and I’ll be staying on through August. I’m so excited to be a member of LSDA and can’t wait to work with all of you. If you’re in the DMV area, and we haven’t connected, please feel free to reach out!

Bobby Mannis

Midwest Great Lakes Regional Director

Hello! I’m a student at the Illinois College of Law, starting here after four years in Illinois government focused on Alzheimer’s, opioids, gender-based violence, and criminal justice reform. I was born in Chicago, grew up in the suburbs, and had the greatest luck to move to New Orleans to study economics and political science as an undergraduate. While there, I worked in a restaurant and on a variety of campaigns, organizing young people to get involved in politics. I’m looking forward to continuing that kind of work with LSDA. As they say, ‘Midwest is Best,’ and I’m excited to organize in the heart of our nation and get more law students involved in the political process.

Lauren Sorensen

Midwest Great Plains Regional Director

Hello! My name is Lauren and I am at Harvard. I am extremely excited to be working with the Plains Midwest region as I was born and raised in Wisconsin and attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison (yes, cheese curds really are their own food group and the best drinking water comes from a bubbler). While there, I served as a state legislative intern, the 2020 Senior Class President, and studied abroad in Senegal. I spent some time working for the Wisconsin Department of Justice before moving to Washington, D.C. where I worked for Homeland Security. I am pumped to return to Wisconsin to work this summer and look forward to getting to know all of you! Don’t hesitate to reach out, even if it’s just to ask where the best curds are 🙂

Ashley Leon

California Regional Director

Hi, I’m Ashley! I’m a law student at Stanford Law School. I was born and raised in Southern California. For my undergraduate degree, I studied History at Occidental College, focusing on the collapse of democracy and the rise of authoritarianism. Throughout my college years, I gained experience in government, law, and international relations. After graduating, I pivoted to tech and worked at Netflix. Now, I’m hoping to combine all of my interests by pursuing a career, where I can counsel global tech corporations on their regulatory compliance strategies. I’m also hoping to further explore the intersection of tech and democracy. Looking forward to connecting with more LSDA members!

Noah Rosenberg

Western Regional Director

Hello there! I’m a law student at UC Berkeley. I’m originally from Salt Lake City, and grew up working in my family’s specialty grocery store.

After finishing undergrad at the University of Utah, I spent five years as a political consultant and community organizer, working on races from city council to statewide ballot initiatives.

I’m extremely passionate about VoPro, and I was the Utah Dems VoPro Director for 2020 and an intern with the DNC’s VoPro team for 2022. Know folks at a law school in the western U.S.? Send them my way!

Sonia Marton

Consultant

Hey there! I’m a law student at Columbia and super passionate about electing Dems, especially Democratic women, up and down the ballot. I’m from the Boston area, spent a bunch of time in California during and after college, and have lived in NYC for over five years. I’ve been fortunate enough to support some amazing force-multiplying organizations over the years like SisterDistrict and VoteMama in addition to national and local campaigns in the Northeast. I’m thrilled to be part of the LSDA team and work with you all to support the candidates who will make sure we all can thrive!