Bibeane Metsch-Garcia, Ciresi Conlin LLP

Bibeane “Bibi” Metsch-Garcia has lived several professional lives already in less than a decade of legal practice.

At the University of Michigan Law School, Metsch-Garcia served as articles editor for the Michigan Law Review and Chair of the Henry M. Campbell Moot Court Board. After graduating, she moved back home to New York and joined Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton as a litigation associate, clerked for a federal judge in the Southern District of New York, and then returned to private practice as a litigation associate with Boies Schiller Flexner in Washington, D.C.

Metsch-Garcia returned to government service in 2019 as an Assistant United States Attorney in the busy Eastern District of Virginia. There, she served as lead attorney for the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. She brought dozens of investigations — ranging from a bank fraud spree by a repeat offender to multiple cases involving fentanyl overdose deaths — to a successful close.

“Those ‘death-resulting cases,’ as we called them, were always challenging because they were very sad,” Metsch-Garcia said. “But it meant a lot to me to help [families] get some measure of closure and justice … and hopefully they had a deterrent effect for the people [in the drug trade].”

Though Metsch-Garcia no longer prosecutes drug traffickers as a member of Ciresi Conlin’s medical malpractice team, her work remains aligned with the deeply held values that got her into the law in the first place. As a first-generation American with roots in Venezuela and Curacao, Metsch-Garcia appreciates the danger of a legal system where justice exists in name only.

“I saw what my parents went through — that’s why I went to law school,” she said.

Metsch-Garcia wants lawyers coming up behind her to have the same opportunity. She’s in her second year as an active member of the Minnesota Hispanic Bar Association, a tight-knit organization she credits with easing her transition to an unfamiliar milieu.

“When I first came to Minnesota, I didn’t know many folks in the legal community, and they were very welcoming,” she said. “They’ve been awesome.”