During the course of her legal experience, Raquel has
represented clients in state and federal court and before the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Merit System Protection
Board (MSPB), Department of Labor (DOL), Office of Civil Rights of
the Department of Education (OCR), and the Texas Workforce
Commission (TWC). She has handled a variety of Title VII
discrimination cases in her career and has represented management
in over 170 Title VII matters. Her Title VII experience has
entailed defending claims alleging every kind of
discrimination as well as retaliation claims for engaging in some
protected activity under Title VII. She has also represented
management in cases involving alleged violations of the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Rehabilitation Act, the Uniformed
Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), the
Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Age Discrimination in
Employment Act (ADEA), and the Fair Labor Standards Act
(FLSA).
As an advocate for public schools, she has successfully assisted
district clients in several wage and hour investigations conducted
by the DOL and has conducted many internal on-site investigations
into employment related matters. Raquel is an accomplished
litigator; having tried over 40 bench trials of federal
public sector discrimination complaints in administrative hearings
before the EEOC and over ten bench trials of cases involving
adverse employment actions taken against preference eligible
veterans before the MSPB. She has represented clients in over
50 employment cases in the federal courts. The vast majority of the
federal court cases have been won on either summary judgment
motions or procedural motions to dismiss. She has also tried
several termination cases of educators before independent hearing
examiners from the Texas Education Agency and also several cases of
nonrenewal of contracts of educators before school district boards
of trustees. She is admitted to practice in the United States Fifth
Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States District Courts for
the Northern, Western, Eastern and Southern Districts of Texas.
Raquel is also an accomplished trainer and presenter on a wide
array of employment and governance related topics delivered to
school administrators, human resource personnel, teachers, and
school secretaries.
A Fort Worth resident, Raquel is originally from Springtown
Texas. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington
and earned her Juris Doctorate at St. Mary's University School of
Law in San Antonio. She is a member of the School Law Section of
the State Bar of Texas.
