Mimi Marziani

Biography

Ms. Marziani has more than fifteen years of experience in constitutional law and civil rights advocacy, and is a nationally recognized expert in voting rights and Texas politics. Ms. Marziani is commonly featured in the press, and has appeared in the Texas Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, Austin American-Statesman, Washington Post, Guardian, NPR, CNN, and ABC News in recent years alone. She is a frequent speaker in a variety of public forums, and has testified before the U.S. Congress and other governmental bodies on numerous occasions. In 2020, she was recognized with an “Austin Under 40” award. 

In 2023, Ms. Marziani co-founded Marziani, Stevens & Gonzalez PLLC, a boutique law firm providing battle-tested legal counsel to politically active nonprofits, candidates, election officials and similar clients, focused on legal needs arising under Texas and federal law. For a decade, she has been a trusted lawyer and strategist for progressive candidates and campaigns in Texas, including running the first coordinated, statewide voter protection program for Texas Democrats in 2014. 

For years, Ms. Marziani has taught constitutional law and mentored young lawyers. Today, she serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law, an instructor at NYU Abu Dhabi (January 2023), and on the NYU School of Law Board of Trustees. She also proudly chairs the board of Way to Rise, a national hub for donors working toward a multiracial democracy; serves as a Senior Policy Advisor for Allied, a firm investing in a more inclusive and responsive American democracy through its donor network; and is Senior Policy Counsel for democracySENTRY, a unique national project laser focused on achieving federal democracy reform at the first politically viable opportunity. 

From 2016 to 2023, Ms. Marziani was the President of the Texas Civil Rights Project, a position she assumed in early 2016 at the age of 33. Under her leadership, TCRP tripled its budget and transformed into a national model for community lawyering, providing excellent legal representation to traditionally marginalized Texas communities and forcing the State of Texas to be accountable to the rule of law. Ms. Marziani has also worked as Counsel for the Democracy Program of the Brennan Center for Justice, and as a litigation associate of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.   

Ms. Marziani graduated cum laude from NYU School of Law, and clerked for the honorable James C. Francis, a U.S. magistrate judge for the Southern District of New York. She received a B.A., magna cum laude, from Vanderbilt University.