Assistant Professor of Law
Director, Immigrant Justice Clinic
Director, Immigrant Rights Clinic
410.837.5754
John and Frances Angelos Law Center, Room 513
Administrative Assistant:
Terry Berk
410.837.5762
John and Frances Angelos Law Center, Room 200
Education
J.D., cum laude, University of Tennessee, 2013
B.B.A., magna cum laude, Belmont University, 2008
Areas of Expertise
Immigration and Naturalization Law
Refugee and Asylum Law
Gomez joined the law faculty in 2022 and directs the Immigrant Rights Clinic. In the clinic, student attorneys, under attorney supervision, represent low-income community members in immigration-related matters, including representation in removal proceedings and in applications for immigration relief for people seeking protection from persecution abroad; survivors of human trafficking, intimate partner violence, or other crimes; and noncitizen children who have been abused, abandoned or neglected. Gomez regularly speaks on issues related to asylum and immigration law.
Her scholarship is informed by her experience as a professor, lawyer and second-generation immigrant. She focuses on immigration and asylum law and policy, including the manner in which policy implementation affects noncitizens, their families, and other stakeholders on the ground; the failed promise of due process in immigration-related proceedings, and immigrant detention.
Before joining UBalt Law, Gomez taught in the Asylum and Human Rights Clinic at the University of Connecticut School of Law and at the Immigration Clinic at the University of Tennessee College of Law. Her practice experience includes representing immigrant children in removal proceedings at Volunteer Immigrant Defense Advocates (VIDA), a nonprofit legal services organization that she co-founded in Knoxville, and practicing employment law for two years in Nashville. In recognition of her work at VIDA, the Greater Knoxville Business Journal named Gomez to its 2018 “40 Under 40” list of young leaders making a difference.
Selected Publications
“Best Practices for Writing Affidavits and Preparing Testimony,” in Asylum Medicine: A Clinician’s Guide 133 (Katherine C. McKenzie, ed., 2022) (with S. Megan Berthold).
Menstrual Justice in Immigration Detention , 41 Colum. J. Gender & L. 123 (2021) (with Marcy Lynn Karin).
Refugee Reception and Perception: U.S. Detention Camps and German Welcome Centers , 40 Fordham Int’l L.J. 523 (2017) (with Karla Mari McKanders)