Risa E. Kaufman is the executive director of
the Human Rights Institute and a Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School.At HRI, Risa works to advance international
human rights norms and strategies in the United States by developing legal
theories and advocacy strategies using international human rights standards and
mechanisms to address economic justice in the United States; directing the Institute’s
treaty implementation initiative; coordinating the Bringing Human Rights Home
Lawyers’ Network; developing human rights training programs for practicing
attorneys; and overseeing the day-to-day operations of the Institute. She also serves on the steering committee of
the Campaign for a New Domestic Human Rights Agenda, which seeks to
build a stronger federal and local infrastructure for human rights monitoring
and enforcement in the United
States.
Risa Kaufman has extensive experience in
public interest litigation, advocacy and legal education with a special focus
on women’s rights, poverty law, and access to justice. Prior to joining HRI,
she engaged in impact litigation, policy initiatives, direct services, and
public education focusing on welfare, housing rights, racial profiling, domestic
violence, access to legal services, rights of incarcerated persons, and voting
rights. She served as associate counsel for the Community Service Society of
New York, as a Gibbons Fellow in Public Interest and Constitutional Law at the
law firm of Gibbons, P.C., and as a Skadden Fellow at NOW Legal Defense and
Education Fund (now Legal Momentum).Risa
has taught at Fordham Law School, Seton Hall Law School and New York University
School of Law, where, immediately prior to joining Columbia, she was an acting
assistant professor in the Lawyering Program.
Kaufman
holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law, where she was a
Root-Tilden-Snow Scholar, and clerked for Judge Ira DeMent in the U.S. District
Court in Montgomery, Alabama. She holds a B.A. from Tulane University. She has
published articles on access to justice and poverty, including Access to the
Courts as a Privilege or Immunity of National Citizenship, 40 CONN. L.
REV.1477 (2008); Bridging the Federalism Gap: Procedural Due Process and
Race Discrimination in a Devolved Welfare System, 3 HASTINGS RACE &
POVERTY L. J. 1 (2005); Preserving Aliens’ and Migrant Workers’ Access to
Civil Legal Services: Constitutional and Policy Considerations, 5 U. PA. J.
OF CONST. L. 491 (2003) (with Laura K. Abel); State ERAs in the New Era:
Securing Poor Women’s Equality by Eliminating Reproductive-Based
Discrimination, 24 HARV. WOMEN’S L.J. 190 (2001); Seeking Redress for
Gender-Based Bias Crimes: Charting New Ground in Familiar Legal Territory,
6 MICH. JOURNAL OF RACE & LAW 265 (2001) (with Julie Goldscheid).
