Clinical Faculty

JANET HEPPARD is Clinic Director, received a B.S. in Geology from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio and worked as a geophysicist for eight years at British Petroleum /Amoco before returning to school at the University of Houston to attain a J.D./ MBA degree.

As a law student, Professor Heppard was a recipient of the Simon Frank Scholarship and received honors in legal writing.

After working both for a solo practitioner and as a volunteer attorney in the Civil Clinic, Professor Heppard was hired as a supervising attorney in the Civil Clinic in 1995. Professor Heppard also teaches a course on domestic violence

JANET B. BECK has been Board Certified in Immigration and Nationality law since 1995 and has been practicing immigration law since 1987.  She is currently a Supervising Attorney at the University of Houston Law Center Immigration Clinic part-time and she also has her own law practice.  Ms. Beck is also an adjunct professor at the Law Center.  She received a B.A. from New York University, an M.S.W. from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from the University of Houston. She is the author of an article on immigration issues soon to be published in The Houston Lawyer.  She has spoken at American Immigration Lawyer Association (AILA) chapter and national conferences, University of Texas immigration conferences, as well as to members of the Houston Bar Association and the Association of Women Attorneys.  She has served on the Boards of the Association of Women Attorneys, the University of Chicago Alumni Association and the Gulf Coast Council of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers.  She has been an AILA Section Chair and Vice-President of the Texas Chapter. She was an adjunct professor at Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University and has given class lectures at the University of Houston Law Center and the University of Houston Graduate School of Social Work.  Ms. Beck served as a Peace Corps volunteer for 3 years in Colombia, South America and is fluent in Spanish.

ERMA BONADERO is an Associate Research Professor and the Director of the Judicial Internship/Externship Program.  In this capacity, she oversees her upper-level students’ field placements which occur in judicial chambers, as well as in government agencies and nonprofit organizations.  In her courses, Prof. Bonadero guides students through their workplace experience via classroom discussion, reflective writings, presentations, field trips, and with featured guest speakers from the local legal community.
Professor Bonadero acquired her undergraduate degree from Texas State University (cum laude), and her J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center, where she was a research editor of the Houston Law Review.  During her final semester she served as a judicial intern for The Honorable Judge Edith R. Jones of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which she considers the highlight of her law school career.
Upon law school graduation, Prof. Bonadero worked as a civil litigator in the Houston office of an international law firm.  She later served as an Assistant Harris County Attorney in the Children’s Protective Division, handling cases of alleged child abuse and neglect.  Through the UHLC’s A.A. White Dispute Resolution Center, Prof. Bonadero became a trained mediator and earned her certificate in Advanced Arbitration Skills.
Recently, Prof. Bonadero was chosen as a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation – the largest charitably-funded bar foundation in the country – an honor shared by just one-third of one percent of attorneys in the state.  She was thrilled to have been nominated for inclusion in this premier organization by one of her externship students’ field placement supervisor.  Prof. Bonadero serves as a director-at-large for the Texas State University Alumni Association Board of Directors, is on the Law Advisory Board of Children at Risk, and is a supporter of the STAR Drug Court Program of Harris County, Texas.   

GEOFFREY A. HOFFMAN, Clinical Associate Professor and Faculty Supervisor of the UH Immigration Clinic (A.B. Columbia University, J.D. Tulane Law School, LL.M. Harvard Law School).     Professor Hoffman specializes in immigration-related federal court    litigation and deportation defense before the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), asylum cases, adjustments, and appeals before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).

Prior to joining the Clinic, he practiced immigration law in Miami,    Florida at Kurzban Kurzban Weinger & Tetzeli, P.A. Previously, Professor Hoffman was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of      Illinois, held the Forrester Fellowship at Tulane Law School where he  taught for one year and was a Lecturer at the University of Miami for two years. In addition to his practice and teaching experience, Professor Hoffman was a federal judicial law clerk for the Honorable Paul V. Gadola, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan for a two-year term 1998-2000.

Professor Hoffman has published several articles, including the recent October 2009 article in the Florida Bar Journal, entitled “Immigration Form I-864 (Affidavit of Support) and Efforts to Collect Damages as Support Obligations Against Divorced Spouses—What Practitioners Need to Know.”  He has also published articles on international law, international human rights, and racial profiling in the Nova Law Review and Dalhousie Law Review  as well as in the Loyola Journal of International and Comparative Law and the New York Law Journal. Professor Hoffman is a member of AILA, a member of the Michigan and Florida bars and is admitted to practice in various federal courts of appeals and federal district courts.

PETER LINZER A former editor of the Columbia Law Review, Professor Linzer joined the Law Center faculty in 1984. Before going into teaching, he practiced law both as a Wall Street lawyer and as an Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of New York. Professor Linzer is a member of the American Law Institute. A noted scholar on contract law, he has published two editions of his A Contracts Anthology, with a third edition planned for publication by Lexis-Nexis for the Fall, 2009 market. He served as the Editorial Reviser of the “Restatement (Second) of Contracts.” Professor Linzer has served as the Chair of the Contracts Section of the Association of American Law Schools and is a Board Certified civil appellate specialist. He served for nearly a decade on the Pattern Jury Charge Committee of the State Bar of Texas. His principal academic subjects include Contracts; Constitutional Law; Equal Protection; First Amendment; International Contracting; Transactional Clinic; Contract Negotiation and Drafting; Introduction to American Law (for foreign LL. M. candidates); and Torts. Working with experienced practitioners, he pioneered a transactional course in international contracting that sees students negotiate and draft documents in simulated international deals.

RICK MCELVANEY, is an Associate Clinical Professor, the Program Director of the Center for Consumer Law, and supervisor of the Consumer Law Clinic. He also teaches Landlord and Tenant law, Texas Procedure, and Legal Practice Strategies. He received a B.S. in Economics from The Pennsylvania State University in 1982 and a J.D from the University of Houston Law Center in 1986, where he was an associate editor of the Houston Journal of International Law. He is licensed to practice law by the Supreme Court of Texas, the U.S. District Court - Southern District of Texas, the U.S. Court of Appeal – Fifth Circuit, and the United State Supreme Court, and is board certified in Consumer and Commercial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Professor McElvaney practiced as a legal aid attorney for 20 years in the areas of housing, consumer, and bankruptcy law. Presently, he serves as the Chair of the State Bar of Texas – Consumer & Commercial Law Section.

SUSHAM MODI is currently a Supervising Attorney at the University of Houston Law Center’s Immigration Clinic.  In this capacity, he is responsible for supervising upper-level students working on various pro bono immigration cases which include cases involving immigrants who are victims of crimes, immigration-related federal court litigation, appeals before the Board of Immigration Appeals, asylum cases, and removal defense cases before immigration courts.

He received a B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Texas at Arlington and a J.D. from Penn State.  As a law student at Penn State, he was active in Penn State’s Center for Immigrants’ Rights clinic and worked on complex immigration matters at Holland & Knight’s Community Services Team.  He is the recipient of The D. Arthur Magaziner Human Services Award (awarded to the senior who has demonstrated good character, sound academic performance, high ethical standards, fidelity to the highest goals of the profession and commitment to selfless human service), the Miller Center Public Interest Certification, was named the Public Interest Law Fund Fellowship Chair, and assisted with coaching various mock trial and moot court competitions.

Immediately prior to joining the University of Houston, he worked as an Advocate/Attorney at Harvard Law School’s Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program.  At Harvard, he worked on complex asylum, CAT, withholding of removal and U visa cases, supervised law students in the creation of “know-your-rights” presentation materials for undocumented students, assisted with a Second Circuit amici curiae brief signed by approximately 70 law professors, scholars and practitioners regarding the weight the BIA is affording to State Department reports and assisted in preparing classroom materials and trainings to law students enrolled in Harvard’s seminar course of Immigration and Refugee Advocacy. 

BARBARA STALDER, is a 2000 honors graduate from the University of Houston, with a B.A. in history.  Barbara is also a 2003 alumnus of the Law Center.  During law school Barbara participated in various organizations including the Public Interest Law Organization, Moot Court Team, Tropical Storm Allison Disaster Recovery Team and Chief Prosecutor for the Honor Court. Barbara received numerous awards for her Law Center public service including the Distinguished Service Award.  Upon graduation, Barbara was a recipient of an Equal Justice Works post graduate fellowship whereby she created a nonprofit organization that focused on representing abused and neglected children.  In 2004 Barbara received the University of Houston Law Center Alumni Association Rising Star Award and in 2005 received the TYLA President’s Award of Merit for her work on the publication “What to Expect in Family Court.” Immediately prior to joining the civil practice clinic, Barbara worked as an attorney for Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse providing direct legal services to victims of domestic violence.  Barbara is married to her husband Fred, has two spoiled animal children named, Kanie and K.C. and loves professional football, especially her hometown team, the Kansas City Chiefs. 

TASHA WILLIS is Director and Visiting Assistant Professor supervises the UH Mediation Clinic (A.B. University of St. Thomas, J.D. South Texas College of Law). Professor Willis specializes in Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Prior to joining the Clinic, she served for the Honorable Frank G. Evans in the Frank Evan’s Center for Conflict Resolution at South Texas College of Law where she developed an international externship program in Guyana, Jamaica and Panama. In addition to that she served as an arbitrator for City of Houston Affirmative Action Compliance Program and hosted the American Bar Association Regional Client Counseling, Mediation and Negotiation Competitions. Previously, Professor Willis was the Executive Director for Resolution Forum, Inc. where she served as Program Coordinator for the five    Annual Institute for Responsibility Dispute Resolution.

In addition to her teaching experience, Professor Willis has been speaker and panelist for a number of conflict and dispute resolution workshops such as the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution, 3rd and 4th Caribbean Conference on Dispute Resolution and the Vera Institute for Justice. She also served as Law Clerk for the   Honorable John A. Coselli, Jr. in the 125th Civil       District Court in Houston, Texas.

Professor Willis is a member of the American Ba r Association, Houston Bar Association, Houston Bar Association Alternative Dispute Resolution Section and a member of the State Bar of Texas. For the past 3 years Professor Willis has participated in the charity auction “Pongos Helping Pongos: Paintings by Orangutans for Orangutans” that raises funds for the Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Program. As part of the South Texas College of Law, she helped organize various fundraising initiatives and auctions to benefit United Way for 5 years and the Houston Young Lawyers Association for 3 years.