Lucas Guttentag

Lucas Guttentag is Robina Foundation Distinguished Senior Fellow in Residence, Senior Research Scholar and Lecturer in Law. He began teaching at Yale Law School in 2009 and is in residence each fall semester. His courses include immigration law, constitutional litigation and advanced topics on migration policy. He is the founder and former national director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, which he led for more than twenty-five years, litigating complex civil rights, class action and constitutional cases in courts throughout the United States, including successful arguments in the Supreme Court. Under his leadership, the Immigrants’ Rights Project became the largest litigation program in the country enforcing the civil and constitutional rights of non-citizens. He has testified before Congress, often appeared in national media, named a human rights “hero” by the ABA Human Rights journal and received many awards for his litigation and leadership. He is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and is receiving an honorary degree from CUNY Law School in 2013. He serves as senior counsel to the Immigrants’ Rights Project and teaches at Stanford Law School each winter and spring. He clerked for United States district judge William Wayne Justice in Texas and joined the ACLU in 1985 after practicing civil rights law in Los Angeles and teaching at Columbia Law School. He received his BA with honors from UC Berkeley and his JD cum laude from Harvard Law School.

Education
J.D., Harvard, 1978
A.B., University of California at Berkeley, 1973

Courses Taught
Immigrants’ Rights: Current Constitutional & Civil Rights Issues.
Constitutional Impact and Law Reform Litigation
Advanced Seminar on Immigration Law and Policy