Anita Maddali
Director of Clinics & Assistant Professor of Law

B.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison
J.D., Northwestern University School of Law

Email:  amaddali@niu.edu
Phone:  (815) 753-0207
Room:  197A

Biography

Professor Maddali joined the NIU law faculty in 2011. Her primary research and teaching interests are in immigration law, clinical legal education, and juvenile justice.

Prior to coming to NIU, Professor Maddali was a Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor at DePaul University College of Law where she developed a new poverty law clinic. As part of this clinic, students, under her supervision, represented clients living in public housing who were involved in eviction proceedings.

Previously, Professor Maddali litigated education, employment, and immigration cases in federal and state court for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Notably, Professor Maddali drafted an amicus brief to the Missouri Supreme Court in a high profile termination of parental rights case involving an undocumented mother.

Following law school, Professor Maddali was awarded an Equal Justice Works Fellowship, which she carried out at the Children and Family Justice Center of Northwestern University School of Law’s Bluhm Legal Clinic. As a fellow, she represented women and children who were victims of torture and who were seeking protection under U.S. immigration laws. After her two year fellowship, she became a clinical professor at Northwestern, teaching a clinical course in asylum law. As part of the course, students, under Professor Maddali’s supervision, represented unaccompanied immigrant minors seeking asylum and other forms of immigration relief. Professor Maddali also developed a clinical course focused on the representation of immigrant children with delinquency issues, combining immigration and criminal law practice. She regularly delivered presentations to public defenders and other groups on the immigration consequences of criminal activity.

In 2010, Professor Maddali was the recipient of the Northwestern University School of Law’s “Young Alumni Award,” given annually by the Student Funded Public Interest Fellowship (“SFPIF”) group to alums for their commitment to public interest law.

Professor Maddali currently serves on the Advisory Board for the Law Project of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and regularly volunteers with the Immigrant Child Advocacy Project at the University of Chicago Law School to make best interest determinations regarding unaccompanied immigrant minors detained in the Chicago area. Previously, she served on the Young Professionals Board of the Cabrini Green Legal Aid Clinic, as well as the fundraising committee for Equip for Equality.

Professor Maddali is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Law where she was a member of two public interest law student organizations, as well as a student for three semesters in the Bluhm Legal Clinic. She received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison with distinction.

Recent Activities

• Panelist, "Conflict through Care: Clashes between Global Youth, Families and the Law," American Ethnological Society & Association for Political and Legal Anthropology Spring Meeting, Chicago, Illinois,  April 13, 2013
• Panelist, National Latina/o Law Student Association, "Advocacy: Immigration Law and the Constitutional Rights of Immigrants after Padilla and Arizona," 16th Annual National Latina/o Law Student Association Conference, UCLA School of Law, October 6, 2012.  
• Panelist, National Latina/o Law Student Association, "2012 Central Region Encuentro Focus on Immigration," Chicago-Kent College of Law, March 3, 2012.
• Cited, "Padilla v. Kentucky: A New Chapter in Supreme Court Jurisprudence on Whether Deportation Constitutes Punishment for Lawful Permanent Residents?", State v. Frensel Gaitan & State v. Rohan Goulbourne, New Jersey Supreme Court, Argued November 9, 2011 -- Decided February 28, 2012.
• Panelist, Society of American Law Teachers, The John Marshall Law School and Northern Illinois University College of Law's "Breaking In: How to Become a Law Professor or Law School Administrator" Program, September 16, 2011.

Articles

• "Identity and Belonging: The Termination of Parental Rights of Undocumented Immigrants," 89 Ind. L.J. __ (forthcoming).
• “Padilla v. Kentucky: A New Chapter in Supreme Court Jurisprudence on Whether Deportation Constitutes Punishment for Lawful Permanent Residents?,” 61 Am. U. L. Rev. 1 (2011).
• “Sophia’s Choice: Problems Faced By Female Asylum Seekers and Their U.S.-Citizen Children, Journal of Feminist Studies (Oct. 2008).

Areas of Expertise

Immigration Law, Clinical Legal Education, Juvenile Justice