Faculty Directory

Reena Parikh

Assistant Clinical Professor

Director of Civil Rights Clinic

Sung Research Award Recipient

Profile

Reena Parikh joined Boston College Law School in 2020 as an assistant clinical professor and Founding Director of the Civil Rights Clinic. Under her supervision, her clinic students advocate on behalf of low-wage workers, immigrants, prisoners, and communities of color in Massachusetts through litigation and policy advocacy. Students in her clinic explore different types of lawyering, including individual client representation, community group advocacy, and movement lawyering. She also teaches classes on incarceration law and critical perspectives in the law.

Prior to joining BC Law, Parikh was a Robert M. Cover Clinical Teaching Fellow at Yale Law School, where she co-taught in the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic. The matters she co-supervised included civil rights and habeas corpus litigation in U.S. District Courts, and the representation of grassroots community organizations on legislative advocacy campaigns. She also taught an introductory legal analysis and writing course.

Parikh began her legal career as Associate Counsel in the Office of the Chief Counsel for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, where she spent five years. During her tenure in the federal government, she completed a detail as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York. She also clerked for the Honorable Margaret B. Seymour of the U.S. District Court, District of South Carolina.

Parikh earned her J.D., summa cum laude, from American University, where she was a Public Interest/Public Service Scholar. She received her B.A., cum laude, from Boston College, where she was a Gabelli Presidential Scholar.
 

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