Daniel Nagin, a tireless advocate for low-income communities, will join the Harvard Law School faculty as a Clinical Professor of Law this summer. He will direct community-based lawyering at HLS’s WilmerHale Legal Services Center.
Nagin is an Associate Professor on the General Faculty at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he founded and directs the Family Resource Clinic. He also regularly teaches a seminar on poverty law. His teaching and research interests include clinical education, social welfare law and policy, and asset accumulation for low-wealth communities.
Said Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow: “We are wonderfully fortunate that Daniel Nagin will bring to Harvard Law School his deep experience and commitment as an advocate and outstanding talents as a clinical teacher to our community. In these challenging economic times, the legal assistance provided by our clinical program and our WilmerHale Legal Services Center is needed now more than ever. Dan Nagin’s inspired work will guide students while enlarging our capacity to provide critical help to serve low-income clients.”
“I am thrilled to be joining Harvard’s clinical law program,” Nagin said. “It will be an honor to work side-by-side with the talented advocates at the WilmerHale Legal Services Center. The Center’s twin commitment to outstanding clinical teaching and community-based legal services is a wonderful model. I look forward to contributing to this vital enterprise.”
Nagin, who joined the University of Virginia faculty in 2006 as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2009, previously served as a Lecturer in Law at Washington University in St. Louis, where he taught in the Civil Justice Clinic. A frequent continuing legal education presenter on topics related to public benefits law, he has received a Virginia Statewide Legal Aid Conference’s Goldberg v. Kelly Lives Award for achievement in the area of public benefits advocacy, and a Washington University’s Access to Equal Justice Award for public interest advocacy work in the St. Louis community.
He has extensive litigation experience, having acted as lead counsel, co-counsel, or clinical supervisor in a number of cases advocating for the rights of the homeless and domestic abuse survivors; for individuals’ access to Medicaid, welfare, unemployment insurance and nutrition assistance services; and for financial assistance for individuals adopting foster care children with special needs.
He has also been an active member of the Charlottesville community, serving, among other things, as Chair of the Board of Directors of Piedmont Court Appointed Special Advocates, and as co-founder and a member of the Board of Directors of the Coalition for Economic Opportunity.
Prior to entering teaching, Nagin worked for nonprofit and legal aid organizations, where his advocacy work focused on the legal needs of homeless persons and persons living with HIV/AIDS.
Nagin holds a B.A. in History and Government, Phi Beta Kappa and with distinction in all subjects, from Cornell University, an M.A. in Education from Stanford University, and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. At the University of Chicago, Nagin graduated with honors, received the Edwin F. Mandel Award for outstanding contributions to the clinical law program, and served as a member of the Chicago Law Foundation’s Board of Directors.