Lauren Gilbert

Lauren Gilbert

Professor of Law

Email: lgilbert@stu.edu

Phone: 305.623.2386

Mail:

St. Thomas University College of Law
Faculty Suite (209)
16401 NW 37th Ave
Miami Gardens, FL 33054


Education:

B.A., Harvard University, magna cum laude
J.D., University of Michigan, cum laude


Expertise:

Constitutional Law
Family Law

Lauren Gilbert

Professor Lauren Gilbert was an associate with the law firm of Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C. from 1988-1991, a Fulbright Lecturer in Law in Costa Rica in 1991, an attorney-investigator for the United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador from 1992-1993, the Director of the Women and International Law Program at American University’s Washington College of Law from 1994-1998, and a legal services attorney from 1998 until 2002, before joining the faculty at St. Thomas in May 2002.

Her law review articles while at St. Thomas include:

  • When Democracy Dies Behind Closed Doors: The First Amendment and ‘Special Interest’ Hearings, 55 Rutgers L. Rev. 741 (Spring 2003)
  • Mocking George: Political Satire as True Threat in the Age of Global Terrorism, 58 U. Miami L. Rev. 843 (April 2004)
  • Fields of Hope, Fields of Despair: Legisprudential and Historic Perspectives on the AgJobs Bill of 2003, 42 Harv. J. on Legis. (Summer 2005)
  • Facing Justice: Ethical Choices in Representing Immigrant Clients, 20 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 219 (Spring 2007);
  • National Identity and Immigration Policy in the U.S. and the European Union, 14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 99 (Winter 2007/2008)
  • Citizenship, Civic Virtue, and Immigrant Integration: The Enduring Power of Community-Based Norms, 27 Yale L. & Pol’y Rev. 335 (Spring 2009)
  • The 26th Mile: Empathy and the Immigration Decisions of Justice Sotomayor, 13 Harv. Latino L. Rev. 1 (Spring 2010)
  • Immigrant Laws, Obstacle Preemption & the Lost Legacy of McCulloch, 33 Berkeley J. Emp. & Lab. L. 147 (Spring 2012)
  • Obama’s Ruby Slippers: Enforcement Discretion in the Absence of Immigration Reform, 116 W. Va. L. Rev. 255 (2013).

She served as an election monitor in Santiago, Chile in 1989 for the International Human Rights Law Group and for the Florida Democratic Committee in 2004 and 2008.

Most recently, her research has zoomed in to focus on immigrant integration issues at the local level, including field research on the Somali refugees who resettled in Lewiston, Maine, and on efforts to expand the suffrage in New York City to include noncitizen voters, while zooming out to examine immigration enforcement issues through the lenses of separation of powers and federalism.

At St. Thomas University College of Law, Professor Gilbert teaches Constitutional Law, Immigration Law and Family Law.

Scholarship & Research

Scholarship

View professor’s page at SSRN

Book Chapters:

Lauren Gilbert, Gender Violence, State Action, and Power and Control in the Northern Triangle, in From Extraction to Emancipation: Development Reimagined (American Bar Association and Carolina Academic Press, 2018).

Lauren Gilbert, Deportation Cases and Legislation, in Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in Politics, Law and Social Movements (2012, Oxford University Press).

Lauren Gilbert, SB 1070 Politics of, in Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in Politics, Law and Social Movements (2012, Oxford University Press).

Lauren Gilbert, McKinney v. Saviego, in Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in Politics, Law and Social Movements (2012, Oxford University Press).

Articles:

Lauren, Gilbert, Reconceiving Citizenship: Noncitizen Voting in New York City Municipal Elections as a Case Study in Immigrant Integration and Local Governance, 2 J. on Migration and Hum. Security 223 (2014).

Lauren Gilbert, Obama’s Ruby Slippers: Enforcement Discretion in the Absence of Immigration Reform, 116 W. Va. L. Rev. (2013).

Lauren Gilbert, Immigrant Laws, Obstacle Preemption, and the Lost Legacy of McCulloch, 33(1) Berkeley J. Emp. & Lab. L. 153 (2012). SSRN HeinOnline

Lauren Gilbert, The 26th Mile: Empathy and the Immigration Decisions of Justice Sotomayor, 13 Harv. Latino L. Rev. 1 (2010). SSRN HeinOnline

Lauren Gilbert, Citizenship, Civic Virtue and Immigrant Integration: The Enduring Power of Community-Based Norms, 27 Yale L. & Pol’y Rev. 335 (2009). SSRN HeinOnline

Lauren Gilbert, National Identity and Immigration Policy in the U.S. and the European Union, 14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 99 (2008). SSRN HeinOnline

Lauren Gilbert, Facing Justice: Ethical Choices in Representing Immigrant Clients, 20 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 219 (2007). SSRN HeinOnline

Lauren Gilbert, Fields of Hope, Fields of Despair: Legisprudential and Historic Perspectives on the AgJobs Bill of 2003, 42 Harv. J. on Legis. 417 (2005). SSRN HeinOnline

Lauren Gilbert, Mocking George: Political Satire as ‘True Threat’ in the Age of Global Terrorism, 58 U. Miami L. Rev. 843 (2004). SSRN HeinOnline

Lauren Gilbert, When Democracy Dies Behind Closed Doors: The First Amendment and ‘Special Interest’ Hearings, 55 Rutgers L. Rev. 741 (2003). SSRN HeinOnline

Lauren Gilbert, Family Violence and U.S. Immigration Law: New Developments, Immigr. Briefings, Vol. 1, No. 3, March 2001, at 1.

Lauren Gilbert, Family Violence and the Immigration and Nationality Act, Immigr. Briefings, 98-3, Mar. 1998, at 1.

Lauren Gilbert et al., Preface, Conference on the International Protection of Reproductive Rights, 44 Am. U. L. Rev. 963 (1995). HeinOnline

Lauren Gilbert, Rights, Refugee Women & Reproductive Health, 44 Am. U. L. Rev. 1213 (1995). SSRN HeinOnline

Book Reviews:

Lauren Gilbert, Mothers Without Citizenship: Asian Immigrant Families and the Consequences of Welfare Reform by Lynn Fujiwara, 43 Law & Soc’y Rev. 709 (2009) (book review). HeinOnline

Courses
Constitutional Law
Family Law
Immigration Law
News & Activities

STU Law News

St. Thomas Immigration Law Students Aid Asylum Seekers in Georgia
Professor Lauren Gilbert and a team of student volunteers from St. Thomas Law’s Immigration Law Student Association (ILSA) traveled to Lumpkin, Georgia and spent the week working alongside lawyers and staff from the Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative.
Law Students Experience a Life-Changing Week at the Karnes Family Detention Center in Texas
A team of fifteen first, second and third-year St. Thomas Law students, under the guidance of Professor Lauren Gilbert, spent a week volunteering at the Karnes Family Detention Center, in Karnes, Texas, securing the release of (mostly) Central American mothers and children who had been detained by Homeland Security after seeking refugee status in the United States.
Summer of Selflessness – Immigration Law Students Aid Immigrant Families at Karnes Detention Center in Texas
This past summer, a scouting mission led by Professor Lauren Gilbert and three St. Thomas Law students – Cristina Hernandez, Rebecca Tabares, Hiriana Tuch – volunteered at the Karnes Family Detention Center in Texas. The goal of the mission was to assist detained Central American women and children with their asylum claims.
Women’s History Month Highlight: Professor Lauren Gilbert Giving Voice to Voiceless Women
In the spring of 2015, Professor Gilbert and her immigration law students began volunteering with Catholic Legal Services (CLS), participating in a series of trainings, intake clinics and pro se clinics to assist Central American women and children with their asylum applications.
St. Thomas Law and Catholic Legal Services Host Pro Se Asylum Clinic
On Friday December 18, St. Thomas Law co-hosted a Pro Se Asylum Clinic with Catholic Legal Services. The clinic and event, spearheaded by St. Thomas Law professor Lauren Gilbert, helped 16 Central American young women and men, most of them still teenagers, with their asylum applications.
Professors Gilbert and Narine Present at Workshop on Guatemalan Development
On December 4, 2015, St. Thomas Law professors Marcia Narine and Lauren Gilbert spoke at the one-day Workshop, From Extraction to Emancipation: Re-imagining Development for Guatemala.

Highlights

Professor Lauren Gilbert’s, article entitled “Trump doesn’t need a wall – he has Jeff Sessions,” was published in The Hill.Professor Gilbert is an opinion contributor for The Hill. Anyone interested in reading her article can find it here: Trump doesn’t need a wall – he has Jeff Sessions