Fowler Law Professor Julie Marzouk Publishes “Ethical and Effective Representation of Unaccompanied Immigrant Minors in Domestic Violence-Based Asylum Cases”

Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law Professor Julie Marzouk’s article “
Ethical and Effective Representation of Unaccompanied Immigrant Minors in Domestic Violence-Based Asylum Cases
” was recently published in the
Clinical Law Review
(Volume 22, Number 2).

From the abstract:

In the last two years more than 100,000 immigrant minors have flooded the southern border of the United States. Many of the children seeking refuge are domestic violence survivors whose governments cannot or will not protect them from familial assault, rape, and torture. Responding to the critical need for lawyers, the Family Protection Clinic at Chapman University Fowler School of Law represented four unaccompanied minors facing deportation. The children, siblings ranging in ages from thirteen to eighteen, fled Central America to escape extreme sexual and physical abuse at the hands of their father. This article focuses on specific opportunities and challenges encountered during the Clinic’s representation of the minors to shed light on the pedagogical possibilities presented by the legal and humanitarian crisis of child migration. The article seeks to engage clinicians and law students in the representation of immigrant children and attempts to articulate best practices for enhancing student learning. The purposeful lawyering of unaccompanied minors in domestic violence-based asylum cases is a meaningful vehicle to teach practical lawyering skills, professional ethics, and critical analysis of the current legal paradigm. In selecting these cases, clinicians will be afforded the opportunity to teach the law of asylum, respond to a refugee disaster, and train the next generation of effective social justice advocates.

Read the full article
.

Professor Marzouk
teaches the
Bette and Wylie Aitken Family Protection Clinic
Immigration seminar. She recently received the
2016 California Lawyer’s CLAY Attorney of the Year Award
for immigration. Prior to joining the Chapman faculty, Professor Marzouk was the Supervising Attorney at Orange County’s Public Law Center (PLC). While at PLC, she provided direct legal services to low-income immigrant clients and directed county-wide legal initiatives serving immigrant victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. She managed the legal services portion of the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force, oversaw PLC’s partnership in the Orange County Immigration Detention Collaborative, and developed the Orange County Naturalization Initiative Collaboration. Professor Marzouk has worked as an Immigration Staff Attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, and as a private practice immigration attorney, representing individuals in removal and deportation proceedings. She began law practice as an associate at Bingham McCutchen LLP in San Francisco, California.  Professor Marzouk graduated
magna cum laude
and Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University. She received her JD from Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley School of Law.