CHICAGO, IL – July 30, 2026 – Rossi Paola Vargas Daly, a former New Mexico attorney and former Assistant District Attorney, has built a legal career connected to public health research, criminal prosecution and institutional service. Her professional record includes work with the New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney’s Office, a clerkship at the New Mexico Supreme Court and more than six years carrying out, conducting and leading health equity research at the Lupus Foundation of America.
R. Paola Vargas Daly served as an Assistant District Attorney in New Mexico’s First Judicial District Attorney’s Office from February 2024 through November 2025. In Santa Fe County, she managed a felony intake docket of approximately 120 cases in Magistrate Court. She later managed the Rio Arriba County misdemeanor docket, comprising approximately 200 cases, including domestic violence misdemeanors and first- through third-offense DWIs.
Before joining the District Attorney’s Office, Paola Vargas Daly clerked at the New Mexico Supreme Court. She earned her Juris Doctor from Loyola University Chicago School of Law in May 2023, graduating magna cum laude and first in her class through a part-time weekend program while working and parenting.
During law school, Vargas Daly practiced under Illinois Supreme Court licensure as a student attorney in Loyola’s Health Justice Project, a medical-legal partnership serving clients whose legal needs affect health outcomes.
Vargas Daly’s public health work began before law school. She holds a Master of Science in Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with a concentration in women’s perinatal and reproductive health, and a Bachelor of Arts in Public Health Studies from The Johns Hopkins University. At the Lupus Foundation of America, she co-wrote a $5 million Office of Minority Health grant focused on reducing racial disparities in lupus diagnoses among young Black and Latina women. Her peer-reviewed publications appear in journals including the Journal of Patient Reported Outcomes, Pediatric Rheumatology, Lupus and the Journal of Medical Economics.
Her record also includes institutional advocacy. As co-leader of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the Loyola Law Journal, Vargas Daly helped develop and administer a survey on barriers affecting first-generation students and caregivers. The findings contributed to bylaw amendments involving bylaw amendments addressing access and equity issues among underrepresented students and caregivers.
About R. Paola Vargas Daly
R. Paola Vargas Daly Lawyer is a Chicago attorney and former Assistant District Attorney with the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office. She graduated magna cum laude and first in her class from Loyola University Chicago School of Law and holds a Master of Science in Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her background includes public health research, judicial clerkship experience, prosecution and medical-legal advocacy.
More information is available through R. Paola Vargas Daly’s professional profile.
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