Juan A. Arteaga '99

Attorney Juan A. Arteaga has made service to others the focus of his career in law. As an associate in the Litigation Department of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, he represents clients nationally and internationally and in 2010, was successful in overturning the sentence of a client falsely convicted of murder. Through his work in the firm’s pro bono practice, Arteaga has regularly represented clients referred by inMotion, a non-profit organization that assists low-income, and often battered, women obtain legal aid. InMotion recognized his work with their Commitment to Justice Legal Team Award, and Arteaga twice received an award from the Legal Aid Society for his outstanding pro bono work with immigrants threatened with removal. Arteaga serves on the advisory boards of inMotion and also of Legal Outreach, a non-profit organization that assists underserved urban youth in gaining admission to highly selective colleges and graduate schools.

In 2011, Arteaga was appointed to the Criminal Justice Act panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, where he serves as pro bono counsel for indigent defendants appealing their criminal convictions. He is a member of his firm’s Diversity Advisory Council and of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity’s Fellows Program. Arteaga is a member of the New York City Bar Association’s Judiciary Committee and the former Chair of the Association’s Minorities in the Courts Committee.

In addition to his BA from BC, where he was the recipient of the Archbishop Oscar Romero scholarship, Arteaga holds a JD from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and managing editor of the Columbia Law Review.