Jessica Rofé
Expertise:
Clinical Teaching and Pedagogy, Deportation and Detention, Immigrant Rights, Immigration and Criminal Justice, Racial Justice
Background:
Professor Jessica L. Rofé’s research and teaching interests sit at the intersection of criminal law and immigration law and primarily focus on deportation defense and detention issues. She joins UCI Law’s visiting faculty in Spring 2024 from New York University School of Law where she is the Toni Rembe and Arthur Rock Immigrant Defense Fellow and Supervising Attorney at the law school’s Immigrant Rights Clinic. Prof. Rofé will be working with Prof. Annie Lai at UCI Law’s Immigrant Rights Clinic.
In her supervisory role at NYU Law’s Immigrant Rights Clinic, Prof. Rofé oversees both an individual client docket and a campaign docket through which the clinic collaborates with organizations and coalitions in their advocacy efforts to advance immigrant rights both locally and nationally.
Prof. Rofé previously worked as an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in its New York office where she focused on M&A transactions and capital markets matters in the firm’s Latin America practice group. She also performed substantial pro bono work on immigration-related issues, representing clients facing deportation and in affirmative filings before immigration agencies. Prior to that, she was an Immigrant Justice Corp. Fellow and staff attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services, and a New York City public school teacher for nearly five years.
Prof. Rofé received a J.D. from New York University School of Law, an M.S.T. at Fordham University and a B.A. at New York University.
- New York State Youth Leadership Council and New York University School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic, Undocu-Grad School Guide: Undocu-friendly Guide to Pursuing, Financing, and Navigating Graduate School (2021) (supervising attorney)
- Make the Road New York and New York University School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic, Immigrant Protest: A Guide for Attorneys Advising Noncitizen Activists in New York City (2020) (supervising attorney)
- New York State Youth Leadership Council and New York University School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic, Got DACA, Now What? (2014) (co-author)
- New York State Youth Leadership Council and New York University School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic,
The New York DREAM Act: Creating Economic Opportunities for New York State (2013) (co-author)
- Crimes and Immigration Seminar, Speaker, “Future of Crim-Imm Litigation in the Federal Courts,” 2020
- New York Legal Services Providers, “Habeas Litigation Training,” Presenter, 2020
- Association of American Law Schools Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Panelist, “What if it’s Always Been a Time of Polarization?” San Francisco, California, 2019
- Princeton University, The Ties That Divide Us, Panelist, “[Un]documented Classroom,” Princeton, New Jersey, 2019
- Commentary: Justice Ginsberg’s Query in Preap and the Best Interests of the Child (ImmigrationProf Blog, 2018) (co-author)Page 4 of 4
- Association of American Law Schools Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Panelist, “Immigrant Rights Advocacy in the Age of Trump: Centering Community Organizations in the Clinical Setting,” Chicago, Illinois, 2018
- Radio Commentary: ‘Hear Together:’ How NYC Families Cope with ICE Detention (WNYC, 2018)
- New York University Immigrant Rights Project and New York University Latinx Law Students Association, “Black Voices on Immigration,” Moderator, New York, New York, 2017
Prior Courses:
(Log in to view full course descriptions in the UCI Law Course Catalog)