Attorney Vali Buland retired from her decades-long career with the City of Cambridge in July 2018. After graduating from Northeastern University School of Law in 1981, Vali worked for eight years as a housing attorney in two legal services programs: in the Merrimack Valley, serving the cities of Lowell and Lawrence, and later in Cambridge and Somerville. In 1990, Vali accepted a position as General Counsel of the Cambridge Rent Control Board and held that position until a referendum narrowly passed by voters, ended rent control in Massachusetts. Vali was the last remaining Rent Control Board employee, assisting low-income tenants during the two-year phase-out period that ended in 1996.
Following the end of rent control, Vali became Assistant City Solicitor in the City of Cambridge Law Department where she worked on affordable housing initiatives including the City’s first Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance. Later as First Assistant City Solicitor she handled all manner of litigation and non-litigation matters and supervised newer attorneys. In addition to her duties in the Law Department, Vali twice served as Acting Executive Director of the Cambridge Human Rights Commission. She has served on the Planning Committee of the City’s annual Holocaust Commemoration since 1997. Vali continues to work for Cambridge part-time advising primarily in the areas of affordable housing and zoning, and on the City’s Human Rights and Fair Housing Ordinances.
Vali was a board member and chair of the Public Policy Committee of the Cambridge YWCA. She was a founding member and served on the Board of the Cambridge-Yerevan Sister City Association and travelled to the former USSR as part of Cambridge’s official delegation in 1988 to inaugurate the sister city relationship.
Vali has had a life-long interest in the plight of refugees. Her mother, father, grandparents, and other family members fled Nazi Germany while many in their extended family were unable to gain entry to the United States or other countries, and perished at the hands of the Nazis.
A few months after her retirement, in order to become familiar with immigration law, Vali attended PAIR trainings and began volunteering for the Greater Boston Legal Services Immigration Unit. The Immigration Unit provides legal representation and advocates on behalf of low-income immigrants, prioritizing cases of immigrants seeking permanent refuge and individuals subject to domestic violence and unaccompanied minors. As an Access to Justice Fellow, Vali will volunteer for the Immigration Unit’s pro se clinic, assisting with intakes, asylum applications, work authorizations, DACA and TPS renewals, and other matters.