Clinical Faculty

JANET HEPPARD, Clinic Director, received a B.S. in Geology from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio and worked as a geophysicist for eight years at BP/Amoco before returning to school at the UH 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 clinical professor and the director of the Judicial Internship/ Externship Program. She oversees the students' field placements, and also teaches the Public Interest Workplace and Judicial Processes courses which are required program components. Professor Bonadero acquired her undergraduate degree from Texas State University (cum laude), and her J. D. from the UH Law Center where she was an editor on the Houston Law Review. During her final semester, she worked as a judicial intern for The Honorable Judge Edith R. Jones of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Upon graduation, Professor Bonadero worked at Andrews & Kurth, L.L.P, in civil litigation. After taking some time away from the practice to raise her sons, she served as an Assistant Harris County Attorney in the Children's Protective Division, and taught courses at the Center for Advanced Legal Studies.

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.

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. 

DIANA VELARDO is the Crime Victims’ Coordinator at the Immigration Clinic and also serves as a supervising attorney. Diana graduated high school with honors in Stuttgart, Germany and came as an international student to the USA in 1994 to pursue her dream of becoming an attorney. She received her AA. from North Harris Community College summa cum laude, her B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Sociology at the University of Houston with honors and her J.D. at the University of Houston Law Center. She speaks several languages and has studied law in several countries around the world. This background makes immigration law a natural fit for her. Diana fulfilled her dream of working with her mentor and beloved Professor Joseph A. Vail when she was hired in the immigration clinic in the summer of 2002. She has also been the President of the Lovebridge Foundation which serves victims of domestic violence, refugees and the homeless. Diana is passionate about issues of domestic violence, human trafficking, asylum, human rights and women’s and children’s issues. She was a co-founder and has served as the chair of the Houston Coalition Against Human Trafficking (CAHT). Diana was recently appointed to the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee (UPL) by the Texas Supreme Court. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Artemis Justice Center, a nonprofit organization she founded to help victims of domestic violence, human trafficking and victims of crimes. Diana is the proud mom of two girls, Artemis and Aphrodite.