Emilia Sicilia

Attorney

Emilia Sicilia is the Director of Disability Benefits Advocacy at the Urban Justice Center’s Mental Health Project.  She represents individuals with mental illness in appealing the denial of disability benefits in their individual administrative and federal court claims, and in impact litigation against the Social Security Administration, including the lawsuit Amin v. Berryhill, challenging SSA’s failure to process non-disability appeals, the class action Martinez v. Astrue, which challenged SSA’s policy of suspending and denying benefits based on an outstanding warrant, and Padro v. Astrue, which charged the denial of due process and anti-claimant bias by five administrative law judges in SSA’s Queens hearing office.  Prior to joining the Urban Justice Center, Ms. Sicilia worked at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.  She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School and Wesleyan University.