Ashly Villa-Ortega

Ashly Villa-Ortega received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado Boulder, where she majored in Ethnic Studies and earned a minor in Arabic. Ms. Villa-Ortega attended Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, where she graduated in 2023.

Prior to enter the legal field, Ms. Villa-Ortega worked as a community organizer in her hometown of Denver, Colorado, where she prioritized serving and empowering communities like hers through policy advocacy and transformative justice. As she transitioned to law school, Ms. Villa-Ortega’s commitment to making change for these communities never faltered. Ms. Villa-Ortega served as the Director of Policy Initiative for the National Latina/o Law Student Association, and she served on the Executive Boards for both the Latinx Law Students Association and National Lawyers Guild chapters at Loyola New Orleans.

While in law school, Ms. Villa-Ortega worked as a research assistant to Professor Andrea Armstrong, where she assisted in building a data-driven foundation for ensuring humane and constitutional conditions in Louisiana jails, prisons, and detention centers. As a Rule XX Student Practitioner in the Youth Justice Clinic for the Stuart H. Smith Law Clinic and Center for Social Justice, Ms. Villa-Ortega advocated for the special education rights of students with disabilities and litigated in a two-day, expediated due process hearing before an administrative tribunal, where she and her team were able to get a resounding victory for their client.

Ms. Villa-Ortega has been an integral part of V. James DeSimone Law where she interned while studying for the bar exam. Now that she has passed the bar, she is ready to provide vigorous advocacy and compassionate care to our clients.

Ms. Villa-Ortega is fluent in Spanish. She is looking forward to advancing equity and advocating for justice in civil rights and employment law cases at V. James DeSimone Law and Bohm Law Group.