Professor Jason Parkin, Pace Law School's newest professor

Professor Jason Parkin, the newest member of the Pace Law School faculty, has a lot to show for his first semester on campus. Prof. Parkin co-teaches the Immigration Justice Clinic, a yearlong clinic in which students represent low-income immigrants in a range of legal matters.

“We are essentially running our own law office with the students,” he said, adding, “It has been a real treat to work with students who are so passionate about immigrants’ rights and so focused on learning how to be effective lawyers.”

The fall semester was a busy one in the IJC. Students represented refugees fleeing persecution, long-time residents fighting deportation, teenagers trying to remain in the United States with their families, among others. In all of the clinic’s cases, the students are the lawyers: working under the supervision of Prof. Parkin and Professor Vanessa Merton, clinic students interview clients and witnesses, research the facts and the law, draft legal documents, appear in court, and perform whatever other lawyering tasks the cases may require.

Prior to joining the Pace faculty, Prof. Parkin was a Robert M. Cover Fellow at Yale Law School and a public interest lawyer in New York City. Prof. Parkin is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia Law School. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Julio M. Fuentes, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and Judge Robert P. Patterson, Jr., U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.