Houston’s New Immigration Clinic Professor

Geoffrey A. Hoffman, Professor and Director of the University of Houston Immigration Clinic sent this in:

 
Susham Modi started at the University of Houston Law Center’s Immigration Clinic in May 2011. He is currently a supervising attorney. In this capacity, he is responsible for supervising upper-level students working on various pro bono immigration cases which include cases involving immigrants who are victims of crimes, immigration-related federal court litigation, appeals before the Board of Immigration Appeals, asylum cases, and removal defense cases before immigration courts. He received a B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Texas at Arlington and a J.D. from Penn State. As a law student at Penn State, he was active in Penn State’s Center for Immigrants’ Rights clinic and worked on complex immigration matters at Holland & Knight’s Community Services Team. He is the recipient of The D. Arthur Magaziner Human Services Award (awarded to the senior who has demonstrated good character, sound academic performance, high ethical standards, fidelity to the highest goals of the profession and commitment to selfless human service), the Miller Center Public Interest Certification, was named the Public Interest Law Fund Fellowship Chair, and assisted with coaching various mock trial and moot court competitions. Immediately prior to joining the University of Houston, he worked as an Advocate/Attorney at Harvard Law School’s Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program. At Harvard, he worked on complex asylum, CAT, withholding of removal and U visa cases, supervised law students in the creation of “know-your-rights” presentation materials for undocumented students, assisted with a Second Circuit amici curiae brief signed by approximately 70 law professors, scholars and practitioners regarding the weight the BIA is affording to State Department reports and assisted in preparing classroom materials and trainings to law students enrolled in Harvard’s seminar course of Immigration and Refugee Advocacy.

KJ