Esperanza Franco

Espy is a Spanish & American lawyer who integrates emotional intelligence in the practice of law. She is an advocate for law students' mental health, as well as the founder of ‘Esperanza is Hope’, a platform where she educates law students on self-awareness, self-care and growth mindsets. Espy also provides mindfulness training to law firms and has served as a speaker for the Spanish Mental Health Institute for the Legal Profession.

Espy has worked defending detained immigrants in Arizona prisons and has educated hundreds of trauma survivors about their asylum rights. She is a native of the Canary Islands, from where she continues to write U.S. appeals and motions in defense of immigrants’ rights, supporting attorneys who are furthering the collective fight against racial inequalities, LGBTQ persecution and women’s oppression.

She obtained her LL.B. from Universidad Pontificia Comillas (ICADE), her LL.M. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and her J.D. from the University of Arizona, writing her law review note on the psychological impact of law school education and receiving the Dean’s Achievement Award for community engagement.

As a recovering perfectionist and trauma survivor, Espy finds healing and well-being through meditation, yoga, nature, and visual arts. Her coaching style is rooted in the power of vulnerability, nurturing empathy, and authenticity.