Maria Jose Batres

Maria Batres is an associate attorney with two years of immigration experience, and six years prior experience in criminal prosecution.  She handles cases in all areas of Immigration law, with a focus on removal defense and family-based petitions. Prior to joining Kuck Baxter, Maria served the Greater Atlanta area for six years prosecutor, most recently with the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office. Maria received her Juris Doctor degree from Georgia State University College of Law, graduating cum laude, in 2011. During law school, she worked as a legal intern at the Latin American Association and the Prosecuting Attorney’s Council of Georgia. She served as the president of the Hispanic Student Bar Association and was also actively involved in the Student Trial Lawyers Association.

Maria served as a panelist for the National Latino/Latina Law Student's National Conference, speaking on the issues of Criminal Justice Reform and ‘Crimigration’. She was also invited to be a panelist at NLLSA's 1st Annual Southeastern Region Conference at Ole Miss Law School, in April 2019. Maria is an active member of the Georgia Hispanic Bar Association, serving 2 terms as president, and is now on the GHBA Board of Directors. She is a member of AILA, the Hispanic National Bar Association, Atlanta’s Multi Bar Leadership Council, and she has been a mentor for law students involved with the Georgia Latino Law Foundation. Maria also serves on the Georgia State University College of Law Alumni Council, currently participating as the LAC Admissions Committee Co-Chair. Because of her various involvements with giving back to the legal community, Maria was featured in the GSU Law Alumni Magazine Women in Leadership issue in the summer of 2018.

In 2017, Maria was appointed to the Georgia State Commission on Interpreters, the policy-making body appointed by the Georgia Supreme Court to oversee the development of a statewide plan for the use of interpreters in Georgia courts. She was the recipient of a Trailblazer Award at the 2018 Advocacy for Action Empowerment Summit, and in January of 2019 Maria was named to Atlanta Magazine's Top 500 Most Influential Leaders in infrastructure and government.

Maria is a native of Little Rock, Arkansas, born to Guatemalan parents, and is also fluent in Spanish. Prior to becoming an attorney, Maria earned a bachelor’s degree in History and a master’s degree in Teaching, both from Trinity University in Texas, then spent over a decade teaching middle and high school Social Studies in Atlanta.