Alumni WHERE ARE THEY NOW? MAKING A POSITIVE IMPACT Sandy Pineda is a 2014 graduate of Ave Maria Law. Sandy
is currently in-house counsel for King Jesus Ministries, one of the largest conservative evangelical churches in the country. Sandy has done a great deal of good work with the church after her law school graduation, as well as with a prominent Miami immigration law firm. How did your experience at Ave Maria Law help shape the person you are now and the attorney you’ve become over the years since graduation? My experience at Ave Maria Law helped shape the person I am now through the morals and principles and high-level education. Ave Maria Law helped form my critical thinking skills and with its wide verse of classes and internships, helped me grow as a legal professional every day. I was confident that after graduating Ave Maria Law that I was prepared to embark on the purpose of my life to be an attorney. Professors such as Ligia de Jesus and Ulysses Jaen really pushed me as a student to believe in myself and were pillars to my success in law school and beyond when I left Ave Maria Law to obtain an LL.M. at American University Washington College of Law. Can you share a snapshot of your current job as in-house counsel at King Jesus? What do you enjoy most about your job? King Jesus International Ministry is an international fully bilingual ministry which is a conservative Evangelical church, founded by Apostle Guillermo Maldonado in 1996, a Honduran native. He is the CEO of King Jesus and serves on the Evangelical Coalition for Trump in his personal capacity as a spiritual advisor. Apostle Maldonado has served as a spiritual advisor and has been invited to the White House multiple times and prayed in the House of Representatives. His work is known throughout the nations and we have a network of about 350 + churches. King Jesus also does work for religious freedom and social service. For religious freedom, we help and donate to a church in Pakistan who was attacked and imprisoned for practicing their Christian religion. Our monies helped the local pastor obtain local attorneys to free the Christians who were being persecuted by their government for practicing and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have two orphanages in Honduras which has a total of 65 children who we maintain, clothe and offer education to. We
62 avemarialaw.edu
SANDY PINEDA, CLASS OF 2014
also have a food pantry that has served over 4,000 families and distributed just this month of July 743,600 pounds of food and served 9,295 families. The legal department is essential to these activities taking place since we have to buy insurance and have waivers signed, logistics, volunteers, etc. Due to COVID-19, I have worked closely with management to re-open the church, and I was able to extend an invitation to the Miami-Dade Mayor Gimenez to come to our premises to approve our re-opening plan and guidelines. Mayor Gimenez approved our plan and stated that we have thought of everything to protect our congregants. This was critical prior to our re-opening because we wanted to provide a haven. In Miami-Dade County, there has been a large surge of COVID-19 cases so we had to limit the amount of people who attend the services at 25% capacity. I have helped our ministry build relationships with the local community government leaders through my legal efforts to help us move forward. It is crucial that we help the community and we do so by providing them counseling, teaching and community support. My current job is very diverse. One day, I am reviewing multimillion dollar contracts, the next I am reviewing and preparing a trademark application, or drafting internal policies. I plan the Board Meeting agenda, request that certain leaders of departments bring financial reports, or their department reports so we can see the state of the current and past affairs. As a board member, I have certain responsibilities and duties to the Board and the Corporation. I review every pending legal case or demand letter, and respond accordingly. I advise the CEO, COO, HR Director, Finance Director, Media Director and everyone in management
