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Sarah Paoletti

Sarah Paoletti

Practice Professor of Law; Director, Transnational Legal Clinic

Sarah Paoletti founded and directs the Transnational Legal Clinic, the law school’s international human rights and immigration clinic.

Students enrolled in the clinic grapple with international and comparative legal norms, working across borders, legal systems, cultures, and languages, representing individuals in immigration proceedings, and advocating on behalf of and in collaboration with organizations and individuals before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the UN, and other fora.

Paoletti’s research focuses on the intersection of human rights, migration, labor law, and access to justice. In addition to authoring numerous amicus briefs addressing international law in federal court litigation, she was the lead author of an in depth report, “Migrant Workers’ Access to Justice at Home: Nepal” (June 2014), and co-author of “Migrant Workers’ Access to Justice at Home: Indonesia” (October 2013), both published as part of the Open Society Foundations’ Migrant Workers’ Access to Justice Series. Other recent scholarship includes: “Finding the Pearls When the World Is Your Oyster: Case and Project Selection in Clinic Design,” (Drexel Law Review, 2013); “Redefining Human Rights Lawyering Through the Lens of Critical Theory: Lessons for Pedagogy and Practice,” (Georgetown Journal of Poverty Law & Policy, 2011) (co-author).