Laura Arandes

Deputy Managing Attorney

Before joining Democracy Forward, Laura was Fair Lending Market Specialist in the Enforcement Division and Special Counsel to the Enforcement Director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where she provided legal and policy advice related to fair lending and anti-discrimination laws, including algorithmic discrimination, access to credit, emerging credit products, and discriminatory targeting. Prior to the Bureau, Laura was Managing Associate General Counsel for the Fair Lending, Anti-Predatory Lending & Equity team at Freddie Mac, Deputy Director of Litigation at Civil Rights Corps, and a Senior Civil Rights Associate at Relman Colfax. She has supervised and litigated a broad range of federal civil rights cases challenging discrimination in housing, lending, public accommodations, education, and policing, the criminalization of poverty, and abusive prosecutorial practices. Laura clerked for Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and Judge Gladys Kessler of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She attended New York University School of Law and Harvard University.