Julia Vazquez

Professor Julia Vázquez is a Clinical Professor of Law and Founding Director of Southwestern Law School’s Community Lawyering Clinic. Her teaching, scholarship, and practice are rooted in Community and Rebellious Lawyering. She artfully designs her curriculum based on her expertise in immigrant rights, legal empowerment of underrepresented communities, and impacted lawyer resilience. In addition to her core clinical course, she also teaches Critical Race Theory, Spanish for Lawyers, Public Interest Law Survey as well as Access to Justice from a Global Perspective as part of the Southwestern London Summer Program.  Additionally, she provides guiding leadership as Faculty Director of the Public Interest Law Concentration, reflecting her dedication to cultivating the next generation of public interest lawyers.

Professor Vázquez endeavors to bridge the gap between teaching, scholarship, and activism. A recognized expert in immigration and immigrant rights, she has provided testimony before California lawmakers in support of legislation aimed at curbing fraudulent “immigrant consultants” in the state. Her expertise has been featured in national and international media, such as the Los Angeles Times, Univision, National Public Radio, Telemundo, and LAist, where she has addressed issues of immigration and access to justice.

Professor Vázquez co-founded Southwestern Law School’s former Removal Defense Program, which recruited, mentored, and trained immigration attorneys to provide pro bono removal defense as part of the Los Angeles Justice Fund. Her most recent outreach project, Pathways to Justice, partners with public schools in South Central and East Los Angeles to diversify the legal profession and inspire first generation and students of color to consider a career in the law. As a member of the National Lawyers Guild–Los Angeles Immigration Steering Committee, she works to advance immigration attorney resilience, with emphasis on impacted attorneys close to the immigration experience. She designed a pilot virtual immigration clinic and authored an attorney training guide to support asylum seekers impacted by the draconian “Remain in Mexico” policy. In recognition of her dedication to immigrant rights and training the next generation of activist attorneys, the National Lawyers Guild honored her with its annual award as “Professor of the Year.”

By integrating practice and theory—rooted in Rebellious Lawyering and Critical Race Theory—Professor Vázquez designs her courses to challenge students to cultivate a lifelong practice of critical praxis. Her commitment to decolonizing legal knowledge and empowering both students and clients is well established. Known for her pedagogical expertise and innovative curriculum design, she applies the tenets of critical pedagogy to advance transformative legal education. She was recruited by her alma mater, UCLA School of Law, to create and teach Spanish for Lawyers, a course that blends theory, practice, and critical pedagogy through the lens of impacted communities.

Prior to earning her J.D. from UCLA School of Law—with specializations in Critical Race Studies and Public Interest Law & Policy—Professor Vázquez received her Master of Education, with an emphasis in Critical Pedagogy, and her Bilingual Teaching Credential from UCLA. A trained educator, she has served as a proud unionized Dual Language Teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District and as a Parent Education Specialist for the State of California, supporting Spanish-speaking parents of children with developmental disabilities. Professor Vázquez maintains deep roots in the immigrant community, and her life experience as a member of a working-class Mexican immigrant family continues to shape her personal and professional commitment to creating access to justice and transformative legal education.

Matadors United Award, CSUN Associated Students President and Vice President for the Community Lawyering Clinic