Finance Monthly Global Awards 2018 Edition

CRIMINAL DEFENCE LAWYER OF THE YEAR About Amber Vazquez Bode Amber Vazquez Bode has handled many criminal and bankruptcy cases through the years in almost every county in Texas. She attended the University of Texas at Austin and received a Bachelors degree in Government in 1996. After graduating college, Amber started an adventure tour company taking groups through South America and worked at an oil and gas company in Austin. Amber later went attended law school in Colorado at the University of Denver College of Law, where she represented her entire class in the student government, founded two student organizations and won the American Jurisprudence award for International Human Rights. She went on to be a visiting student at the University of Texas law school in order to participate in the Death Penalty Clinic. After graduating Amber worked in the Law Enforcement Defense section of the Texas Attorney General. In 2004 she decided that she wanted to start her own law firm and advocate for justice on her own terms. The Vazquez Law Firm opened in 2004 in Hyde Park, a central Austin neighborhood. Since the opening, Amber has handled numerous high profile cases, such as State v. Linda Polley, which involved an elected county official, and Ramon Hernandez v. Austin Police Department, a federal civil rights case. Amber is currently the Chairman of the Criminal Justice Section of the Austin Bar Association, where she organizes classes and events for prosecutors and defense attorneys alike. Amber is actively involved it the Austin Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, the National Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, Austin Young Lawyers Association, Bankruptcy Section of the Austin Bar Association, Travis County Women’s Lawyers Association, National Association of Consumer Advocates and the National Hispanic Bar Association. Amber is a passionate and zealous advocate who always outs her clients interests first. She has built her firm around the idea that every client deserves the best representation possible, and is always willing to take cases to trial if necessary. Amber cares about how criminal justice affects our community, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Truth Be Told, a non-profit organization that assists women in prison get the counseling, education and support to transition out of prison. In addition, she is actively involved in the Hispanic Bar Association of Austin, the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and the National Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. She is also well connected in the legal community and currently serves as Chairperson for the Criminal Justice Section of the Austin Bar Association as well as serving as Vice-President of the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section YLD. AMBER VAZQUEZ BODE Owner of Vazquez Law Firm PLLC Finance Monthly Global Awards 2017 www.finance-monthly.com 68 USA