Clinical Faculty

PETER HOFFMAN is the Director of the Blakely Advocacy Institute and the Clinical Legal Education Programs. He received his J.D. degree from the University of Michigan School of Law in 1971 (cum laude) and his B.S. from Michigan State University in 1968 (high honors). Following graduation, he practiced in Chicago before entering law teaching full time in 1974. Professor Hoffman's area of teaching and writing is lawyering skills, particularly litigation and advocacy skills. He has taught in over 150 CLE litigation related courses in 28 states and 9 foreign countries. In his distant past, Professor Hoffman also served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the Republic of Palau.

THOMAS C. NEWHOUSE is a professor of law and has been teaching the Mediation Clinic since 1996. He received his J.D. from Tulsa University and a LL.M. from New York University. Prior to coming to the UH Law Center in 1966, Professor Newhouse had been in private practice and a public defender in Tulsa. In addition to teaching the Mediation Clinic, Professor Newhouse teaches courses in Mediation, Alternative Dispute Resolution and Labor Law. He has previously served as an Associate Dean and Co-Director of the Civil Clinic. He is also the director of the A.A. White Dispute Resolution Institute and donates many pro bono hours of mediation services, particularly in the area of family law.

JOSEPH A. VAIL is an associate clinic professor of the Immigration Clinic. Professor Vail is a 1979 graduate of Widener School of Law. Upon graduating from law school, he served with VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) where he entered the field of immigration law. He also served as an accredited representative and staff attorney with Gulf Coast Legal Foundation, as managing attorney at AYUDA, Inc. in Washington, D.C., and was in private practice in Houston. In 1995, Joseph Vail was appointed as an immigration judge with the United States Department of Justice, where he served for more than four years. He has been a member of the Board of Directors with the YMCA International Services Program, the Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN), and the Texas Center for Immigrant Legal Assistance. He is currently a member of American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). Professor Vail was distinguished with the 1994 Texas State Bar award for pro bono legal services, the Frank J. Scurlock Award.

JANET HEPPARD, an associate clinical professor in the Civil Clinic, 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.

DON TOMLINSON is Clinical Professor of Law and Director, Transactional Law Clinic. He received his J.D. from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law in 1977 and his LL.M. (intellectual property) from the University of Houston Law Center in 1996. In addition to Transactional Law, he also teaches Entertainment Law at the Law Center. He has been practicing transactional law for 25 years. He has authored or co-authored a dozen law review articles, many on transactional law topics. He is a mediator, having mediated more than 500 lawsuits, and he is an arbitrator, having arbitrated about a dozen disputes. He is on the neutrals panels of the World Intellectual Property Organization, the National Arbitration Forum, and the National Association of Securities Dealers. His transactional law specialty is negotiating and drafting complex agreements of all types, including internationally.

ANNE CHANDLER is a 1998 cum laude graduate of the University of Houston Law Center where she served on the Houston Law Review, received a Distinguished Service Award, won the Joan Glantz Garfinkel Scholarship for civil liberties research, and served as President of the Public Interest Law Organization, focusing on provision of services to aliens detained in Harlingen, Texas. She received her bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in 1994 from Colorado State University where she majored in political science, receiving a certificate in Latin American studies and writing her thesis on U.S.-Mexico labor relations. Prior to joining the Law Center in 2003, where her practice focuses on immigration issues such as political asylum and related claims, she served as the Immigration Attorney for the YMCA International of Houston and as a bilingual teacher (Spanish) in the Alief School District. She serves as a Mentor Attorney for the American Immigration Law Association in the area of asylum law. Anne loves soccer and other sports, gardening, and raising her three children.

DIANA VELARDO a supervising attorney in the Immigration Clinic received her B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Sociology at the University of Houston 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. She is also the President of the Lovebridge Foundation which serves victims of domestic violence, refugees and the homeless.

JENNY CORDOVA MOYA, a supervising attorney in the Immigration Clinic, received her BS in Anthropology with a minor in Chemistry from the University of Houston in 1991. She completed an MA in Anthropology in 1998 at the University of Houston, after conducting original field research in the area of Medical Anthropology in Copan, Honduras. Jenny speaks fluent Spanish and worked for four years as a professional Spanish translator before deciding to study law in 1998. She graduated from the University of Houston Law Center in 2001 and, prior to joining the Immigration Clinic in 2003, Jenny worked in several small firms and was a solo practitioner. Her work in the Immigration Clinic currently focuses on assisting immigrants who are victims of domestic violence, human trafficking and violent crimes. Jenny is a member of the American Immigration Lawyer’s Association and she has three children.