Michael Peña

Michael Peña is a Litigation Fellow at the Institution for Justice in its Austin office. Before coming to IJ, Michael served as a law clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas and then spent a year in Dallas at a big law firm.

Michael is a San Antonio native and received his undergraduate degree in philosophy at the University of the Incarnate Word. He went on to graduate from the University of Virginia School of Law as a Karsh-Dillard Scholar. During law school, Michael was on the editorial board of the Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law and was Vice President of the St. Thomas More Society. He also spent a summer as a law clerk at the Special Litigation Unit for the Texas Office of the Attorney General.

Michael is also a former team leader and combat veteran of the U.S. Army. He deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and earned several merit-based awards. His company received the Valorous Unit Award for extraordinary heroism in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.