Ayah M. Zaki

Ayah M. Zaki is a client-centered attorney with The Law Office of Rajeh A. Saadeh, L.L.C., who represents individuals and entities throughout New Jersey in divorce, family law, alimony, child custody, visitation, child support, criminal defense, municipal court, immigration, civil rights, discrimination, and student discipline matters. In the immigration context, Ayah has experience in asylum and deportation proceedings and helps people obtain or change status, and she has assisted people in the immigration and criminal law intersection at bail and bond hearings. In civil disputes, Ayah has helped victims of discrimination, including in the university, labor, and employment settings. Even more in the university and higher education realms, Ayah has represented students protect and assert their free speech rights under the First Amendment and civil rights under Title VI. Ayah prides herself in advocating passionately for clients at their most vulnerable times and leads her representation with empathy and compassion. She believes that the most favorable legal results are obtained when the voices of the impacted parties are amplified throughout the case Prior to practicing law, Ayah was a student attorney at the CLEAR (Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility) Project at the City University of New York where she represented Muslims and other impacted communities facing abuse by law enforcement in the aftermath of 9/11. She also represented individuals in federal court who were detained during the "war on terror," including a prisoner detained at Guantánamo Bay while a student in CUNY Law's Immigrant and Non-Citizens Rights Clinic. After law school, Ayah served on the Deportation Defense Initiative Team at the American Friends Service Committee. She represented clients in removal proceedings, most of whom were held in immigration detention facilities. In addition to her law degree from CUNY, Ayah earned her Bachelors of Art in Urban Planning from Barnard College of Columbia University.