Claudia Quintero

SPRINGFIELD — On June 2, Central West Justice Center Director Claudia Quintero received the Legal Services Award from the Massachusetts Bar Assoc. Quintero was honored as a champion of the clients she serves in her role as director of Central West Justice Center (CWJC), where she oversees a team of lawyers, paralegals, and staff who assist low-income and elderly clients with immigration, housing, and employment benefits in the five counties of Central and Western Mass. (Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester).

Since 2021, Quintero has also led the Fairness for Farmworkers Coalition, a group engaged in legislative advocacy to support a law that would entitle farm workers to a minimum wage and overtime pay. She has also taught students at Western New England University School of Law in Springfield since 2022.

“To the Mass. Bar Association, I would like to thank you for this recognition and celebrate the other award recipients for their great work to our legal community,” Quintero said. “Access to justice is an integral part of my identity as a lawyer, and the reason I have spent my entire career as a legal services attorney engaged in community lawyering representing farm workers in direct legal services and legislative policy making. As director of CWJC, I am proud of the team I work alongside every day and honored to be doing this work in this moment, and to be recognized for it.”