78 | MAY 23 • 2024 
J
N

J

aimie Lerner always 
wanted to be in a 
profession where she 
could help people. 
In her senior year of 
undergrad at the University 
of Michigan, she did a 
hands-on course at Freedom 
House Detroit where she 
taught ESL to French-
speaking refugees from 
Africa. It was an eye-opening 
experience for her. 
“It was the first time I felt I 
could actually do something 
where I could make a 
difference, but also where I 
could connect to people on a 
personal level,” Lerner says. 
She was frustrated that for 
many of the people she was 
working with, their big issue 
was a legal issue, specifically 
immigration. Lerner wanted 
to help. 
She attended the Cardozo 
School of Law at Yeshiva 
University in New York City, 
hoping to find an avenue to 
help those people in need. 
Lerner never strayed 
from immigration. Helping 
people in that realm was her 
purpose. 
Today, Lerner is a 
committed immigration 
advocate who uses the Jewish 
experience of displacement 

and oppression to help guide 
others fleeing persecution. 
She is passionate about 
incorporating her Jewish 
values into her daily work 
as a nonprofit immigration 
attorney with the Michigan 
Immigrant Rights Center 
(MIRC).
Lerner is devoted to 
helping create a voice for 
marginalized communities. 
At MIRC, she spearheaded 
a religious leave policy 
through the Diversity, Equity 
& Inclusion committee 
to allow individuals from 
all religious and cultural 
backgrounds to accrue leave 
for holidays not included on 
the typical leave calendar. 
She also recently published 
an article in the Michigan 
Bar Journal to help educate 
other attorneys on the 
importance of cultural and 
language competency and 
inclusion when working 
with people from different 
language and cultural 
backgrounds. 
“Whenever I have the 
privilege of being able to 
see something that someone 
else doesn’t in terms of an 
inequity, I feel like it’s my 
responsibility to either try to 
fix it or teach other people 

Lerner incorporates her Jewish 
values into her daily work as a 
nonprofit immigration attorney.

Voice of the 
Voiceless

DANNY SCHWARTZ SENIOR STAFF REPORTER

NEXT DOR
VOICE OF A NEW GENERATION 

Lerner and a colleague 
after giving an oral 
argument at the Board 
of Immigration Appeals 
in Falls Church, Virginia, 
a case which they won.

Lerner and her 
family at her son’s 
graduation from 
Temple Emanu-El’s 
Early Childhood 
Community program.

