For over thirty years, the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic (HIRC), in partnership with Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS), has sought to advance immigrants’ rights. Law students take the lead in representing low-income immigrants who are fighting deportation and seeking asylum and other forms of humanitarian protection in the United States. Students utilize a range of legal tools on behalf of their clients, including direct representation, impact litigation, policy advocacy, and community outreach. The Clinic’s team is interdisciplinary. Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Liala Buoniconti and social work interns work closely with clinical students, staff, faculty, and clients to ensure the Clinic’s approach is holistic and trauma-sensitive. Students are either placed at HLS or at GBLS, Boston’s oldest legal services organization.
How to Register
The Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic is offered in the Fall and Spring semesters. You can learn about the required clinical course component, clinical credits and the clinical registration process by reading the course catalog description and exploring the links in this section.
Meet the Instructors
Sabi Ardalan
Director; Clinical Professor of Law
Wasserstein Hall, 3rd Floor
6 Everett Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Sabi Ardalan is the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program’s Director, as well as a Clinical Professor of Law at HLS. Sabi supervises and trains law students working on applications for asylum and other humanitarian protections, as well as appellate litigation and policy advocacy. She has authored amicus briefs submitted to the Board of Immigration Appeals, as well as to the federal district courts and circuit courts of appeal on cutting edge issues in U.S. asylum law. She teaches courses on immigration and refugee law and advocacy and on trauma, refugees, and the law. Sabi previously clerked for the Honorable Michael A. Chagares of Third Circuit Court of Appeals and the Honorable Raymond J. Dearie, Chief District Judge for the Eastern District of New York. She also worked as the Equal Justice America Fellow at The Opportunity Agenda and as a litigation associate at Dewey Ballantine LLP. She holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in History and International Studies from Yale College.
Eleni Bakst
Clinical Instructor
Eleni Bakst is a Clinical Instructor in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program. She supervises and trains students in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic and in the Crimmigration Clinic on appellate and affirmative litigation, as well as direct representation matters. She also serves as the supervising attorney for the HLS Immigration Project (HIP), a student-practice organization focused on immigration-related community engagement efforts and advocacy. She was previously a Managing Attorney at the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition, where she managed the Maryland universal representation team and provided direct representation for detained immigrants at the immigration courts, Board of Immigration Appeals, and federal circuit courts. Prior to this, she was an Assistant Clinical Professor at Seton Hall Law School’s Immigrants’ Rights/International Human Rights Clinic and an Equal Justice Works Fellow at Human Rights First. She holds a J.D. from Duke University School of Law and a B.A. in International Studies from American University.
Nancy Kelly
Assistant Director of HIRC at GBLS; Senior Clinical Instructor
Nancy Kelly is the Assistant Director of HIRC at Greater Boston Legal Services and a Senior Clinical Instructor at Harvard Law School. She previously worked as a Harvard Law School Human Rights Program fellow and also as an adjunct professor of immigration and asylum law at Northeastern University School of Law. At the Human Rights Program, Ms. Kelly initiated the nationally and internationally prominent Women Refugees Project, a centerpiece of the Clinic’s work. Among other honors, Ms. Kelly received the 2000 John G. Brooks Award of the Boston Bar Association for her work with refugee women and children, and for her teaching at the Clinic.
John Willshire Carrera
Assistant Director of HIRC at GBLS; Senior Clinical Instructor
John Willshire Carrera is the Assistant Director of HIRC at Greater Boston Legal Services, as well as a Senior Clinical Instructor at HLS. He is a nationally known researcher and practitioner with numerous high-profile immigration and asylum litigation victories to his credit. In 1987, he directed the Ford Foundation national research and organizing project on the implementation of Plyler v. Doe, the Supreme Court decision that established the right of all immigrant students to a public education in the United States. He has received the Dow-Gardner-Landrum Award for outstanding commitment to legal services to the poor and the annual legal services attorney award from the Massachusetts Bar Association, among others.
Cindy Zapata
Assistant Director of HIRCP; Senior Clinical Instructor; Lecturer on Law
Wasserstein Hall, 3rd Floor
6 Everett Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Cindy Zapata is a Clinical Instructor and Assistant Director in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, and a Lecturer on Law. She supervises and trains students in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic and in the Crimmigration Clinic. She coordinates various community outreach efforts, including Know-Your-Rights presentations and Advice and Counsel sessions in the greater Boston area. As the supervising attorney for the HLS Immigration Project, a student-practice organization at HLS focused on immigration-related efforts and advocacy, she supervises students on various projects including removal defense, community outreach, and immigration applications. She was previously a litigation associate at Hughes Hubbard and Reed LLP. She holds a J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law, and a B.A. in Political Science from Queens College – CUNY.
Staff Members
Liala Buoniconti | Licensed Clinical Social Worker | lbuoniconti@law.harvard.edu |
Anna Weick | Program Manager | aweick@law.harvard.edu |
Shayenne Washington | Administrative Assistant | swashington@law.harvard.edu |
Claudia Chen | Legal and Communications Assistant | clchen@law.harvard.edu |
In the News
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Summer 2025 Law Student Internship
The Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program (HIRCP) at Harvard Law School is now accepting applications for its 2025 Summer […]
December 3, 2024
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Staff Updates
We are excited to share an update about our most recent staff hire, Claudia Chen, and the wonderful intern team […]
December 2, 2024
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HIRCP is hiring a Clinical Teaching Fellow
The Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program (HIRCP) is inviting applications for the full-time position of Clinical Teaching Fellow. HIRCP […]
October 8, 2024
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Breaking: Ongoing Investigation into Plymouth County Correctional Facility
On August 8, 2024, the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program and other advocacy groups renewed our demand for an […]
August 7, 2024