Paola Vargas Daly
Attorney · Public Health Researcher · Writer
📍 New Mexico
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Attorney. Researcher. First-generation Latina. Writer. Mother. New Mexican.
Origin
Paola Vargas Daly is a first-generation Latina who built her academic and professional life without the institutional knowledge that many of her peers inherited. She navigated college, graduate school, and law school on intellect, determination, and a deep belief that systems can be changed from the inside.
She graduated first in her law school class — a distinction that carries extra weight when you understand what it took to get there — and served on law review, one of the most competitive academic honors in legal education. These accomplishments are part of her story, not the whole of it.
Public Health Research
Before law school, Paola spent years as a public health professional, contributing to peer-reviewed research through the Lupus Foundation of America. She appears as first or second author on multiple published studies — a prominent position that reflects the depth of her scientific contributions, particularly on lupus diagnosis accuracy and clinical trial equity.
Her public health background was not a detour from law — it was preparation. The ability to read evidence, interrogate data, and communicate complex findings clearly is exactly what makes a good attorney. Paola brought that discipline with her when she earned her JD.
Legal Career
Paola's legal career has been rooted in public service. Most of her professional work has been in service to communities and institutions rather than private clients, a deliberate choice that reflects her values. She came to law not as a career pivot but as a deepening of a lifelong commitment to social justice.
In 2021, she was awarded the Sidley Austin LLP / Neal Gerber & Eisenberg Scholarship through the Hispanic Lawyers Scholarship Fund, recognition of both her academic record and her potential for impact in the legal profession.
Creative Writing
Paola's writing life runs parallel to her legal one, not separate from it. She discovered creative writing as a medium for the same relentless passion for social justice that drives her professional work. Her writing appears in court filings, academic journals, and a poetry book — a range that tells you something about who she is.
Poetry, in particular, lets her say things that briefs cannot. It is a different kind of argument — one made through image and rhythm rather than citation and rule — and she is equally at home in both modes.
Life
Paola is a mother, a New Mexican, and someone equally comfortable in a city and the mountains. She has a particular affection for beautiful containers — especially for coffee — and a persistent belief that form matters as much as content, in law, in writing, and in life.
She is not a public figure by choice. She is a private professional whose work speaks for itself. This site exists to let that work be found by the people who are looking for it.