Ana Maria Quintana

Of Counsel

Ana Maria Quintana was first retained by Leal and Trejo in 2010 and returned to work for us in 2015, primarily in the areas of Municipal Law and transactional work in Real Estate and School Districts.  She has expertise in the Public Records Request Act, FPPC Regulations, contract disputes, and has a firm understanding in bond finance and regulatory work.

Ana Maria’s professional experience includes working with families, initially as an Organizer with the United Farm Workers, UFW, AFL-CIO, and Service Employees International Union, SEIU, AFL-CIO, and later in the area of education with LAUSD’s Parent Community Services Branch and as a substitute teacher at her alma mater Bell High School and Southeast High School in the city of South Gate.  After graduating from law school, she participated in a litigation fellowship with the American Board of Trial Advocates and focused on real estate brokerage and development as Legal Counsel and as the Director of Development for Moctesuma Esparza’s Maya Cinemas North America, Inc.

In 2011, Ana Maria Quintana was elected as Councilwoman for the City of Bell and re-elected in 2013, both on landslide elections.  During her terms she has been an ardent advocate for education (organizing townhalls on Charter reform and Immigration; led efforts to save LAUSD’s Adult Education program; actively encourages students to go to college and obtain scholarships), promotes transparent government (brought livestreaming of all city’s public meetings to the community and proposed the creation of Citizens’ Committees for the I-710 project and review of the City Charter), emphasizes the importance of personal health and well-being (began a Monday night running initiative with members of the community), and encourages civic engagement (organizes beautification drives through her initiative Rebuilding Bell One Block at a Time/Reconstruyendo Bell Cuadra por Cuadra, brought the Cubs Scouts to Bell and is currently working to bring the Girl Scouts and other civic organizations like the Rotary Club and Kiwanis Club).

Councilwoman Quintana is a Boardmember of the League of CA Cities and served as Chair and Vice-Chair for their Employee Relations Policy Committee.  She also represents her city as an Executive Boardmember for California Contract Cities Association, the I-710 Project Committee and the Southern CA Edison Government Advisory Board.   She is a member of NALEO and a Boardmember of the Yale Latino Alumni Association and the Yale Club of LA.

Ms. Quintana received her J.D. from Columbia University, a Master’s Degree from the Universidad de Navarra’s Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales in Pamplona, Spain, where she also taught Practice Classes for Courses Theory of Probability and Statistical Techniques, and her B.A. in American Studies from Yale University.