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Valerie Comenencia Ortiz, Relman Colfax PLLC Photo

Valerie Comenencia Ortiz

Attorney

Valerie D. Comenencia Ortiz is an Attorney at Relman Colfax. Valerie joined the firm in 2021. Her civil rights litigation practice includes cases concerning racial discrimination in housing and policing.

Valerie is part of a team challenging law enforcement officials’ excessive use of force and suppression of free speech in response to peaceful “Black Lives Matter” protests in the summer of 2020. She also works on various lawsuits challenging housing discrimination on the basis of race, familial status, national origin, and disability, including through racially motivated opposition to affordable housing and discriminatory provision of municipal services.

Prior to joining the firm, Valerie clerked for the Hon. Jesus G. Bernal of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Before her clerkship, Valerie worked at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein in San Francisco, California, representing plaintiffs in employment discrimination, consumer protection, and antitrust class actions.

Valerie graduated from Yale Law School, where she was an Executive Articles Editor for the Yale Journal of International Law, and a member of the Community and Economic Development Clinic and the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic.

Valerie also earned a master’s degree in Economic and Political Development from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Valerie is bilingual in English and Spanish.

Featured Cases

The Fortune Society, Inc. v. iAfford NY, LLC
The Fortune Society, a leading reentry organization, is challenging the exclusionary practices of a New York City-based affordable housing provider with a demonstrated history of banning applicants with a record of criminal legal involvement.
Banks v. Fredericksburg
This lawsuit, brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, challenges the excessive use of force and suppression of free speech by the City of Fredericksburg (“City”) and County of Stafford (“County”) government and law enforcement officials in response to peaceful “Black Lives Matter” protests in summer 2020.
Gilead Community Services v. Town of Cromwell
In October 2021, Relman Colfax obtained a precedent-setting $5.2 million jury verdict in a case involving the Town of Cromwell’s discrimination against a group home for men with mental health disabilities. Gilead Community Services, a non-profit serving people with mental health disabilities in Connecticut since 1968, sought to open a six-person home in Cromwell, Connecticut. Responding to the discriminatory opposition of neighbors, Cromwell waged a campaign that resulted in the closure of the home in August 2015.

News & Updates

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