Faculty and Staff Commitment to Public Service

Below is a summary of public interest accomplishments of UNC Law Faculty and Staff.

Tamar Birckhead, Assistant Professor of Law

Public interest experience: Center for Constitutional Rights in NYC, summer 1990; Berkeley Community Law Center in Berkeley, CA, represented clients w/HIV and AIDS in Social Security Disability claims, summer 1991; Jamaica Plain Legal Services center (clinical placement), represented indigent disabled clients w/SS Disability claims, 1990-1992; Clerk for Judge Edith Fine of the Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1992-93; Staff attorney in the trial and appellate units for state public defender in Middlesex County, MA, 1993-1999; Assistant federal public defender in Boston, MA, for the Federal Defender's Office, 1999-2003; Visiting faculty supervisor for criminal clinic at Suffolk University Law School in Boston, MA, 2004-05. Pro bono/Public service: Pro Bono Attorney, Durham County Juvenile Court, assists 16 and 17-year-olds in filing for emancipation and represents them at evidentiary hearings, since 2006
Areas of advice: Indigent Public Defense; Criminal Defense; Juvenile Defense

Jack Boger, Dean and Wade Edwards Distinguished Professor of Law

Public interest experience: Assistant Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, Inc.,1978-1990; Capital Punishment Post-Conviction Work, 1978-1986; Anti-Poverty & Race Work in K-12 Education, Public & Subsidized Housing, and Health Care Disparities, 1986-1990; Deputy Director, UNC Center for Civil Rights, 2001-2006.
Pro bono/Public service: Board Chair, Poverty & Race Research Action Council, Washington, DC, 1989- Present; Board Member, National Low-Income Housing Coalition, 1988-1991; Board Member, Common Sense Foundation, 1999-2004; Chair, 2002-2004; Board Member, Fair Trial Initiative, 2001-2004; Board Member, Center for Death Penalty Litigation, 2003-present; Board Member, North Carolina Child Advocacy Institut e
Pro bono litigation: Leandro v. State, Co-counsel for amici curiae 1999-2006, Counsel of Record (briefed and argued): McCleskey v. Zant, 499 U.S. 467 (1991); Moore v. Zant, 489 U.S. 836 (1990) (per curiam); McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 (1987); Zant v. Stephens, 462 U.S. 862 (1983); Zant v. Stephens, 456 U.S. 410 (1982)(per curiam), Co-Counsel (briefed): Lockhart v. McCree, 476 U.S. 162 (1986); Francis v. Franklin, 471 U.S. 307 (1985); Barclay v. Florida, 463 U.S. 939 (1983); Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782 (1982); Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104 (1982); Estelle v. Smith, 451 U.S. 454 (1981), Counsel for Amicus Curiae: Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003); Kadrmas v. Dickinson Public Schools, 487 U.S. 450 (1988); Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U.S. 880 (1983); Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38 (1980)
Areas of advice: Capital Punishment; Civil Rights Litigation; Educational Advocacy

Bobbi Jo Boyd, Clinical Professor of Law and Deputy Director of the Writing and Learning Resources Center

Public interest experience: Office of the Appellate Defender Pro bono/Public service: NCBA Professionalism Committee: Chair of Communications Subcommittee and editor of "The Better Lawyer," a NCBA e-newsletter on professionalism.
Areas of advice: Public service (as a full-time job or as a part of the lawyering profession through pro-bono work or volunteer work, such as on committees).

Kenneth Broun, Henry P. Brandis Professor of Law

Public interest experience: Served as Mayor of Chapel Hill; Death Penalty Litigation; Serves on Board of The Center for Death Penalty Litigation; contacts in Public Defender offices and Immediate Past President; Legal Services
Areas of advice: General Public Interest

Holly Bryan, Career Counselor, CSO

Public interest experience: Staff attorney for a nonprofit representing NC inmates (NC Prisoner Legal Services); court attorney for the NY State Court system for 7 years; public service work in the court system; worked for the judges of NYC's Housing Court (worked in courtroom providing legal support for the judge, conducting settlement conferences and providing legal information to pro se litigants); position in the Chief Court Attorney's Office which operated in many ways as an in-house counsel position to the Administrative Judge of the NYC Criminal Court; also worked at the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn, NY while employed with the Criminal Court providing bench support for the judge and helping the court get its new housing court up and running. Public interest experience: Summers at The Women's Center in CH; nonprofit membership association, NC Academy of Trial Lawyers
Pro bono/Public service: Board of NC Assoc of Women Attorneys
Areas of advice: Nonprofits; Membership Associations; Women's Issues; Board Service

Michael Corrado, Arch T. Allen Distinguished Professor of Law

Areas of advice: Information and contacts for jobs abroad (for example, interning with international courts). Also knowledgeable about Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International

Charles Daye, Henry Brandis Professor of Law and Deputy Director of the Center for Civil Rights

Public interest experience: Deputy Director UNC Center for Civil Rights; Co-Principal Investigator on the Educational Diversity Project conducting an empirical assessment of the effects of race and other factors on educational diversity; worked on several pro bono matters of public interest involving housing and civil rights as an associate with the Covington and Burling law firm.
Pro bono/Public service: Board member of several public interest organizations, such as Triangle Housing Development Corporation (nonprofit owner/operator of rural subsidized housing for NC elderly) and Center for Community Self Help. Areas of advice: Civil rights, housing

Maxine Eichner, Professor of Law

Public interest experience: Public interest fellowship after law school through Georgetown, called the Women's Law and Public Policy Fellowship, through which I was placed at the Women's Legal Defense Fund (now called the Partnership for Women and Families); plaintiff-side employment and civil rights law at Patterson, Harkavy, and Lawrence.
Pro bono/Public service: Heading the Judicial Endorsements Committee of the North Carolina Women's Attorney Association and being on the board of the Central North Carolina Planned Parenthood.
Areas of advice: Women's rights and general public interest work.

Tom Hazen, Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor of Law

Public interest experience: Former Director of the North Carolina Medical Foundation, Current Chair of the Board of Visitors of the North Carolina Childrens Hospital, and various other non-profit boards

Heather Hunt, Assistant Director, Center on Poverty

Public interest experience: Center for Civil Rights Fellow

Thomas A. Kelly, III, Associate Professor of Law

Public interest experience: Directed community programs at Duke's Center for Documentary Studies; Peace Corps volunteer in the Republic of Niger; pro bono work in political asylum cases

Joseph Kennedy, Associate Professor of Law

Public interest experience: Advocate at drop-in center for homeless in Los Angeles; Worked 3 years as a public defender in San Francisco; PROBAR in Harlingen, Texas doing political asylum cases; full time externship in law school with National Center for Immigrants Rights, Inc.
Areas of Advice: Work with Homeless, Immigrants Rights, Criminal Defense.

Maria Mangano, Director of Career Services

Public interest experience: Staff attorney for NC Court of Appeals ("Central Staff"); long-time involvement with NC Assn of Women Attorneys, including past president; currently on NC Bar Association Minorities in the Profession Committee; currently on board of NC Gay Advocacy Legal Alliance; currently on board of NC LEAF
Pro bono/Public service: one case against the KKK, another in upholding a DA's removal from office (In re Spivey, which I briefed, only NC appellate case on DA removal)

William P. Marshall, William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor of Law

Public interest experience: Deputy White House Counsel and Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States during Clinton administration, Ohio Solicitor General
Areas of advice: Constitutional Law and Media Law

Eric Muller, George R. Ward Professor of Law

Public interest experience: Assistant U.S. Attorney in Criminal Appeals Division of United States Attorney's Office (Newark, NJ).
Areas of advice: criminal justice and constitutional issues

Sylvia Novinsky, Assistant Dean for Public Service Programs

Public interest experience: U.S. House Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights; Staff Attorney, Peninsula Legal Aid, Virginia, migrant farmworker law and general poverty law; Legal Director, Center for Immigrants Rights, NYC, immigration and employment law.
Areas of advice: Poverty law, immigration law.

Alice Ratliff, Clinical Professor of Law

Public interest experience: 1976-1986, Legal Aid of Durham, handled all sorts of cases, landlord/tenant and housing specialist; 1987-2006, supervisor in the civil clinic handling legal aid cases.
Pro bono/Public service: advisory member of State Bar Ethics Committee, Community Advisory Board member for AIDS clinic at Duke Medical Center
Areas of advice: Legal Aid practice and general knowledge of the Durham community, legal and otherwise (political, etc.)

Richard Rosen, Professor of Law

Public interest experience: Public Defender Services, Washington, D.C.; pro bono death penalty work.
Areas of advice: Criminal Practice

Melissa Saunders, Professor of Law

Public interest experience: Service as Special Counsel to the NC Attorney General; appellate work on congressional redistricting case.

Maria Savasta-Kennedy, Clinical Professor of Law and Director of Externship Program

Public interest experience: Litigated environmental cases in San Francisco with Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund (now "Earth Justice"); litigated civil rights cases in San Francisco and New York City with small public interest law firms.

Judith Wegner, Burton Craige Professor of Law

Public interest experience: Attorney in the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Education (under President Carter, so have few contacts at this time since most have moved on; can still advise on seeking federal employment); clerked for a federal district judge in Los Angeles (Warren Ferguson, now retired).
Pro bono/Public service: Focused pro bono work on local government and state government issues; often provided counsel on legislation that is pending; served on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen (elected); currently serve on Orange County Planning Board; given advice to members of the State AG's staff on appellate litigation.
Areas of advice: State and Local Government

Deborah Weissman, Professor of Law and Director of Clinical Programs

Public interest experience: Legal Services; Civil Rights Firm
Pro bono/Public service: Women in the Legal Profession; NC Domestic Violence Initiative, Chair; NC Commission on Domestic Violence
Areas of advice: Any

Melissa Wood-Saltzman, Program Assistant, Externship Program

Public interest experience: Worked for a DA in South Carolina for 12 years prior to moving to NC.
Areas of advice: Externship program

Janine Zanin, Adjunct Professor of Law and Faculty Supervisor for the Externship Program

Public interest experience: Staff attorney for a nonprofit representing NC inmates (NC Prisoner Legal Services); court attorney for the NY State Court system for 7 years; public service work in the court system; worked for the judges of NYC's Housing Court (worked in courtroom providing legal support for the judge, conducting settlement conferences and providing legal information to pro se litigants); position in the Chief Court Attorney's Office which operated in many ways as an in-house counsel position to the Administrative Judge of the NYC Criminal Court; also worked at the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn, NY while employed with the Criminal Court providing bench support for the judge and helping the court get its new housing court up and running.
Areas of advice: Public Service; Externship Program