2019-2020 BOARD
OMAR NUR
President
Omar Nur is an Attorney and Managing
Partner at Nur Law PLLC, where him
and his staff represent people with claims
stemming from car crashes,criminal
charges, and traffic tickets. Mr. Nur is very
active in the legal community having
previously served on the Young Lawyers
Committees for the Washington State Bar
Association and Snohomish County Bar
Association, the Washington State
Association for Justice Board of Governors, and the MELAW board (of which he was President in 2014) to name a few. MR.When he is not working or volunteering, Mr. Nur enjoys spending his time outdoors with his wife and daughter.
ALICE NOMAN
President-Elect;
Annual Event Chair
Alice Noman is an attorney with the
Department of Public Defense in the
Northwest Defender's Division. Prior
to becoming a public defender,
Alice practiced as an eviction defense
attorney for a year, providing on-going
representation for indigent clients
facing homelessness. She graduated
cum laude in 2017 from the Seattle
University School of Law. Alice is also an active member of her legal community and serves as the Publicity Chair for the Middle Eastern Legal Association of Washington. She has also spent many hours volunteering with the Housing Justice Project, providing day of representation for clients with eviction hearings. In her free time, Alice enjoys hiking and camping with her friends, family, and beloved dog, Riley.
SAFA PEERA
JAJEC Co-Chair
Safa Peera is a Public Defender at the
King County Department of Public
Defense – Northwest Defenders Division
(NDD). She graduated from the
University of Texas College of Law in
Austin in 2017 and obtained her
bachelor’s degree from Southern
Methodist University in Dallas. She enjoys
her job, working on behalf of wonderful
clients by challenging a system designed
to silence them. She considers herself a global citizen, having grown up
overseas and with parents of different nationalities.
DUA ABUDIAB
JAJEC Co-Chair;
Treasurer;
Previous President
Dua M. Abudiab is a Public Defender at the
King County Department of Public Defense –
The Defender Association (TDA). Prior to her
joining TDA, she worked as a public
defender at the Colorado State Public
Defender’s Office. Ms. Abudiab serves on
the Lawyer’s Helping Hungry Children (LHHC)
board to help fight against child hunger. She is
the co-vice president of Diversity on the Washington Women’s Lawyers’ Board. She serves on the University of Washington Heart Health Campaign board. She volunteers at Seattle Children’s Hospital in their Child Life division where she gets to play with patients and siblings to minimize the impact of hospitalization. She also volunteers with North East Seattle Together (NEST) to help community members stay independent, active, and connected. She holds a B.S. from Texas A&M University Corpus Christi in Biochemistry and received her J.D. from South Texas College of Law.
TANYA FEKRI
Legal Clinic Co-Chair
Tanya Fekri was born in Tehran, Iran and she
and her family immigrated to the United States
in hopes to pursue the American dream.
Tanya personally experienced the immigration
process first-hand and that is why she became
interested in immigration law. She attended
UW as an undergraduate student receiving
a double degree in Political Science and Law,
Societies, and Justice; and a minor in
Diversity studies. She went on to become an
ESL teacher and citizenship instructor for the Refugee Resettlement Office in Seattle. Tanya is the Co-Directing Attorney of the Student Legal
Services at the University of Washington and she manages her own solo immigration practice in Kent.
MOHAMED KHALIL
Legal Clinic Co-Chair
Mohamed is a first generation Libyan
American. He graduated from Seattle
University School of Law in 2012, where
he focused on employment and labor
law. Mohamed currently serves as a
contracts compliance specialist for an
IT company based out of Seattle, WA.
He also consults/works part-time as
corporate counsel for a healthcare IT
company. Mohamed is an active member in the Libyan and Muslim community. He enjoys traveling, playing sports, and spending time with his family and friends.
TALYA WEST
Secretary
Talya Gonca West was born in
Turkey and studied law there. She
moved to the United States after
earning scholarship to study an LLM.
She studied LLM at the
University of Oregon. In addition,
she attended UW Law School for a
second LLM and to be prepared for
WA Bar. She worked as a public defender in Marysville, Snohomish County. She is a WSBA Civil Rights Committee member. She volunteers as a pro bono counsel in several nonprofit organizations including NWIRP, NWIRP, TURKCHA, WIDEN and KCBA Neighborhood Clinics. Talya manages her own solo criminal defense and immigration practice in Bellevue, WA.
MAHA JAFAREY
Publicity Chair
Maha is an attorney for Communities Rise,
a nonprofit that provides pro bono legal
representation to small businesses and
nonprofits. Maha also works with
organizations and government officials in
King County on racial equity issues and
policies. She is an at-large member of the
Young and New Lawyers committee at the
Washington State Bar Association.
Maha was born and raised in Pakistan, then lived in Singapore before moving to the U.S. She holds a British law degree and Masters of Laws (LLM) in Intellectual Property and Policy from the University of Washington. When she is not working, she can be found at a park spending time with her five-year-old son or reading a book.
