Kayla Toomer (she/her)
NJ State Bar Foundation Law Fellow
Kayla is a New Jersey State Bar Foundation Law Fellow. During her fellowship, Kayla will further VLJ’s efforts in the New Jersey Human Trafficking Survivors Legal Assistance Program and ReLeSe (Reentry Legal Services) Program while advocating against gender-based violence. Her work will include education and outreach, development of community partnerships, direct representation of clients, and policy work to expand the legal relief available to survivors of human trafficking and gender-based violence.
Kayla is a graduate of Seton Hall University and Seton Hall Law where she pursued a Juris Doctor and a Masters in Diplomacy and International Relations as a dual degree weekend student.
While pursuing her education, Kayla worked full time at international law firms in New York City and part time at her law school. She held various leadership roles with the Student Bar Association, Non-Traditional Law Student Association, and Black Law Student Association; she also interned in the public interest areas of housing, juvenile justice, and access to justice in foreign legal systems.
Kayla is a firm proponent of servant leadership because she believes in empowering the underrepresented, underprivileged, and disenfranchised by being of service. This core belief propels her motivation to fight for human rights, especially within human trafficking and mass incarceration. She strives to be, as stated by Charles Hamilton, a lawyer that is a “social engineer. . . highly skilled, perceptive sensitive lawyer” using the Constitution “to explore its uses in solving of problems of local communities and in bettering conditions of underprivileged citizens.” Because—regardless of the issue, the obstacle, or the person—Kayla believes everyone deserves a helping hand and to have their voice be heard.
Kayla’s fellowship is made possible thanks to a generous grant award from the New Jersey State Bar Foundation.
““I am committed to advocating for human and civil rights and look forward to using my legal research, writing and analysis skills through this fellowship. I am eager to work as part of the VLJ team on behalf of some of the most vulnerable members of the community. “”