Safa Peera

Safa Peera (BA 2013, Southern Methodist University; JD expected 2017) was born in Massachusetts but raised in Saudi Arabia, and likes to characterize her personal background as bridging across the East and West, the economic North and South, and Christianity and Islam. After getting her bachelor's degree from SMU, she spent one year working as the legal case manager at the Muslim Legal Fund of America. While in law school she has enjoyed working on pro bono projects involving criminal justice, including a project with the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition on juveniles mandatorily sentenced to life without parole. During her 1L summer, Safa interned at the Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America (CLCMA) as a Rapoport Fellow. The Center, headed by retired JAG Corps Officer Charles Swift, is dedicated to defending the civil liberties and legal rights of Muslims in American courtrooms and litigating issues that are important to the Muslim community. She hopes to pursue a career that integrates her passions in national security, criminal justice, and international human rights law.