Professional Profile

Sinnai Avila

Associate Attorney

Sinnai joined Hobbs Straus as an associate attorney in June 2026. She is Maya Q’anjob’al and Chicana.

Sinnai received her J.D. from the University of Arizona College of Law, where she obtained certificates in Environmental Law and Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy. During law school, she clerked for California Tribal Families Coalition, focusing on Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) issues; Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, working on water rights and cultural repatriation issues; Earthjustice, working with the Community Partnerships Program; and two private law firms, focusing on Native rights and environmental work. She also participated in her school’s international human rights clinics, working with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and with the Rio Yaqui in Sonora, Mexico, during friendly settlement negotiation proceedings under the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She was also a managing editor for the Arizona Journal on Environmental Law & Policy (AJELP), where she published an article that received Best Note recognition.

Prior to joining the firm, Sinnai clerked at the Oregon Court of Appeals, drafting opinions on various issues including ICWA. She previously worked as a congressional staffer in Los Angeles and paralegal at Immigrant Defenders Law Center, assisting Indigenous migrants and adults with mental disabilities.

In her spare time, Sinnai enjoys connecting with the nature, reading, dancing, traveling with loved ones, and taking long walks with her Shiba Inu, Koda.

Education

University of California, San Diego, B.A., 2017
University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, 2024

Bar Admissions

California

Selected Publications

Sinnai Avila, Indigenous Peoples’ Spiritual Rights to Medicinal Plants, 14 Ariz. J. Envtl. L. & Pol'y 1 (2024).