Meet the PI/PS Office Team

Erica Smock (she/her) has been the dean for the Office of Public Interest/Public Service Law and Careers at Columbia Law School since 2017. In that capacity, she leads efforts to build career pathways, public interest/advocacy initiatives, programming, community and support for justice-oriented students and alumni. She oversees key programs and works closely with faculty, practitioners, students and other stakeholders on social justice issues.

Prior to joining Columbia, Dean Smock had a distinguished public interest career focused primarily on gender justice and reproductive rights advocacy. Most recently, she served as the senior director for judicial strategy at the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York City, where she led strategic campaigns and amicus brief strategy around the center’s domestic litigation, including the successful U.S. Supreme Court abortion case Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt (2016).

After graduating from Columbia Law School in 1995, Dean Smock clerked for the Hon. Anita B. Brody, U.S. District Court, E.D. PA, and Hon. Leonard I. Garth, U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit. After spending one year as an associate at O’Melveny & Myers (where she engaged in pro bono work on domestic violence advocacy), she worked as a staff attorney at Legal Aid Services of Oregon and as a regional staff attorney at the Northwest Women's Law Center (now Legal Voice) in Seattle. Dean Smock then became legislative counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, where she directed the national state legislative program and engaged in advocacy on reproductive rights issues. After working at the PI/PS Office for a number of years, she returned to the Center for Reproductive Rights in 2014 to its newly formed judicial strategy team.

In addition, Dean Smock has spent time as a short-term volunteer attorney focusing on human rights and gender justice in Kenya and South Africa and with the Pascua Yaqui people in Arizona. She has served as a consultant to the Arnold Ventures Foundation on access to justice issues, as a vice chair of the American Bar Association's Rights of Women Committee in the Social Justice Section, and as a member of the Center for Reproductive Rights Lawyers Network Advisory Committee. Presently, Dean Smock is a member of the Social Justice Legal Foundation's Advisory Board. She also serves on the Columbia Law School Anti-Racist Coordinating Committee. In 2024, the United Nations Committee of the New York City Bar recognized Dean Smock for her exceptional commitment to bettering society and improving the lives of women and children through the law. 

Dean Smock graduated from Brown University with a bachelor's degree with honors in political science.

Prior to joining the PI/PS Office in 2024, Nicolle Salazar (she/her) served as program administrator of TRIALS, the Training and Recruitment Initiative for Admission to Leading Law Schools. TRIALS is a partnership between the AT Foundation, Harvard Law School, and the NYU School of Law. In this role, Nicolle worked to support the personal, academic, and professional growth of pre-law students of underrepresented backgrounds and modest means.

Nicolle graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in anthropology modified with Latin American and Caribbean studies. She also completed a double minor in Spanish and Italian. Nicolle pursued her passion for sociolinguistic study throughout college, gaining fluency in Italian and competency in Brazilian Portuguese. She then went on to pursue an M.A. in anthropology and education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her areas of research include decolonization, transnational identity politics, and educational and legal self-determination, particularly in the geographical context of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Office Location: William and June Warren 807.1

Area of counseling expertise: Berger Fellows Program

Jean Fischman (she/her) is the associate director of the Max Berger ’71 Public Interest/Public Service Fellows Program. Before joining the PI/PS office, Jean worked at Bronx Legal Services, where she supervised attorneys and paralegals fighting to preserve affordable housing in the Bronx. As supervising attorney, Jean worked closely with organizing partners to litigate discrimination and harassment cases against corporate bad-actor landlords. Jean began her legal career as a fellow at Legal Services Corporation in the Office of General Counsel, where she drafted advisory opinions, assisted in notice and comment rulemaking, and reviewed the corporation’s contracts. Prior to entering law school, Jean served as chief of staff for a New York State Assembly member, where she managed the assembly member’s Albany and district offices. 

Jean received a J.D. from CUNY Law School in 2015 and B.A. from Hunter College, where she served as a Public Service Scholar. She is admitted to practice in New York. 

Office Location: William and June Warren 804

Molly Griffard (they/she) is a civil rights litigator, movement defender, and former campaign strategist whose work with advocacy groups spans issues of police accountability, criminal legal reform and abolition, LGBTQ+ equality, climate justice, and other global solidarity struggles. 

Molly began their legal career litigating police misconduct cases and supporting movement groups on police accountability advocacy as an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the Legal Aid Society's Criminal Defense Practice. As a staff attorney in Legal Aid's Law Reform and Special Litigation Unit, they litigated a class action challenging the NYPD's use of "digital stop and frisk" (Belle v. City of New York, 19-cv-2673 (S.D.N.Y.)),  a case challenging the NYPD's practice of using excessive force, including the continued use of banned chokeholds and taser abuse (Medina v. City of New York, 19-cv-9412 (S.D.N.Y.)), and a case challenging the Port Authority Police Department's practice of targeting men perceived to be gay or gender-nonconforming for false public lewdness arrests (Holden v. Port Auth. of NY & NJ, 17-cv-2192 (S.D.N.Y.)). Molly also served as plaintiffs' counsel in the Davis v. City of New York remedial process, which is under the direction of a federal monitor, to reform the NYPD's stop-and-frisk practices along with the discriminatory policing of Black and Latinx people in public housing. 

Prior to law school, Molly worked as a campaign strategist on several state LGBTQ+ advocacy campaigns and nationally at the ACLU's Out for Freedom campaign to win marriage equality, nondiscrimination protections for gay and transgender people, and fight back against anti-transgender state legislation across the country.

Currently, Molly teaches Lawyering at NYU School of Law and volunteers with a group of movement lawyers who counsel social justice activists and organizers.

Molly received a B.A. with honors from Macalester College and a J.D. from NYU School of Law, where they were a Root Tilden Kern Public Interest Scholar, a founding member of NYU's Identity Documents Project, and Editor-in-Chief of the Review of Law and Social Change. Molly is admitted to practice in New York.

Area of counseling expertise: public defense

Emily Harris (she/her) is a former public defender who joined the PI/PS Office in the summer of 2023. Prior to joining the PI/PS Office, Emily defended young people and adults in Bergen County Criminal Courts with the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender and represented clients in housing court with the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem's housing defense team. 

Emily was a Root-Tilden-Kern Public Interest Scholar at New York University Law School and graduated cum laude in 2019. In law school, she was co-president of the Washington Square Legal Services Bail Fund and a staff editor of the Review of Law and Social Change. Through her clinical experiences and summer internships, Emily has represented adults and young people in criminal, housing, family, and immigration court.  

Prior to law school, Emily worked with community groups seeking to end gun violence as a paralegal in the Community Justice Unit of the Legal Aid Society of New York. She has also served as a policy analyst for the Council of State Governments Justice Center, where she worked with courts and judges to improve mental health courts and pretrial policies nationwide. Harris also worked to advance holistic defense with public defender offices across the country through the Community-Oriented Defender Network at the Brennan Center for Justice and with the National Legal Aid and Defender Association. 

She holds an undergraduate degree from New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, focused on welfare state politics. Emily is admitted to practice in New York.

William and June Warren 805

Area of counseling expertise: government

Before joining the PI/PS Office, Alex Hogan (he/him) worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, practicing civil litigation focused on both affirmative and defensive matters, including investigating government fraud, affirmative civil rights enforcement, and defending Freedom of Information Act suits. In that role, Alex developed comprehensive litigation skills by independently managing a docket from case inception through appeal.  

Prior to his position at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Alex clerked for the Hon. Nina Gershon in the Eastern District of New York and the Hon. James L. Cott in the Southern District of New York. Prior to being a clerk, Alex was a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where he worked on a diverse array of civil litigation and pro bono matters. While at Paul, Weiss, Alex drafted amicus briefs submitted to both the U.S. Supreme Court and the New York Court of Appeals. Additionally, Alex engaged in direct representation of pro bono clients, including individuals seeking asylum in the United States. During the 2018 election, Alex, along with other Paul, Weiss associates, volunteered to do voter protection work in Native American communities in Montana.  

Alex received his B.A. from New York University and his J.D. from Columbia Law School. He is admitted to practice in New York.

Office Location: William and June Warren 807

Area of counseling expertise: human rights and public international law

Kerry McLean (she/her) is an international human rights lawyer and social justice activist. Over the past 17 years, Kerry has lived in Africa, Europe, and Asia, working with local and international organizations on human rights and international development.  

She has engaged in significant U.N. advocacy, including litigation with treaty-monitoring bodies, writing shadow reports concerning compliance with CERD, CEDAW, and CAT, Human Rights Council advocacy, coordinating civil society organizations for UPR reports, and working with U.N. Special Procedures mandate holders. Kerry has worked on litigation at the European Court of Human Rights and has done advocacy at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She has provided training and delivered lectures on international human rights in the United States and other parts of the world. 

Kerry has served as an election observer in Cambodia, Honduras, Venezuela, El Salvador, and Abkhazia. She has also served as a trial observer in Turkey for trials involving persecuted lawyers and human rights defenders, and she organizes solidarity activities for Turkey with multiple organizations. She is a member of the Geneva Support Group for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights in Western Sahara, an international advocacy coalition that supports the fight of the Saharawi people for independence and self-determination.

Kerry serves as the vice chair for rule of law for the ABA SIL International Human Rights Committee, Women's Interest Network, and Africa Committee. She is a former national board member of the National Lawyers Guild and currently chairs its Africa Subcommittee. She is the recipient of the guild's 2021 Debra Evenson Venceremos International Award for her work "extending justice beyond borders."

Kerry is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, where she received the Jenny Runkles Award for devotion to public interest and was a two-time recipient of the Bates Fellowship for overseas work. She is admitted to practice in New York.

Office Location: William and June Warren 805

Area of counseling expertise: 1Ls, 3Ls, graduates, LL.M.s, financing a public interest career, civil rights law firms, and transitioning between sectors

Tory Messina (she/her) is an attorney with over seven years of experience counseling law students and alumni on how to achieve their public interest and government career goals. Prior to joining the PI/PS Office, Tory worked at Lawyers Alliance for New York as the pro bono manager, helping to connect attorneys with opportunities to assist nonprofits with transactional pro bono legal work. Tory previously worked at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she is an alumnae, as the associate director of public interest and government counseling, helping students and alumni with a broad range of career interests including civil legal services, impact and advocacy organizations, local, state and federal government, public defenders, and alternatives to traditional practice. She also has expertise in Columbia's Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) and private civil rights law firms.

Prior to her work at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Tory coordinated New York and national pro bono and legal services projects at Pro Bono Net. Tory also has worked at a private law firm and managed a small business. She graduated from Brown University with a degree in history. She is admitted to practice in New York.

Office Location: William and June Warren 806

Estelle Mitchell (she/her) is an attorney with policy and legislative affairs expertise. Prior to joining the PI/PS office, Estelle worked at the Women’s Sports Foundation, leading their federal government affairs and amicus brief work with a particular focus on Title IX, reproductive rights and health, and LGBTQ+ advocacy. 

Before moving to New York, Estelle spent the beginning of her career in the District of Columbia, working both in the nonprofit and government sectors of public interest law. During her time at the National Women’s Law Center, she worked on child care policy and tax and economic policy through a gender justice lens, advocating through written research reports, on the Hill through various legislative efforts, and in coalition with other civil rights organizations. She also worked as a legislative counsel for a D.C. council member, focusing on criminal justice reform, election law, and other District agency matters. 

Estelle earned her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where she began her public interest career as a student advocate in the Federal Legislation Clinic and twice as a law clerk on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Estelle graduated from James Madison University with a B.A. in political science and minors in political communication, Spanish, and Latin American & Caribbean Studies. 

Office Location: William and June Warren 809

Michaela Rossettie Azemi (she/her) is currently the Interim Government Adviser in the Office of Public Interest. She previously served as the Director of Public Interest and Community Engagement at Cornell Law School, where she advised students on public interest, government and judicial career paths. Michaela also taught three courses each year at Cornell Law School as the Director of Externships and Pro Bono Scholars programs. Formerly, she was the Associate Director for Judicial Engagement and Professional Development. Prior to that, she worked as the Regional Pro Bono Coordinator for Legal Assistance of Western New York (LawNY)'s private attorney involvement and law student internship programs.

At LawNY, she was a Staff Attorney from September 2013 to August 2016, handling Family Law and Disability Advocacy cases. Michaela received her B.A. in Sociology and Women’s Studies from the University of Delaware in 2009, her J.D. from Case Western Reserve University Law School in 2012 and was admitted to practice in NY in 2013.

In the summer of 2013, she volunteered as a Pro Bono Attorney for LawNY where she developed a model for LawNY’s pro se divorce clinic and was honored to receive the NYSBA Empire State Counsel Award in the Fall of 2013. Michaela has served on the President’s Committee on Access to Justice for the NYSBA, the Pro Bono Coordinators Network of the NYSBA, New York State Chief Judge’s Attorney Emeritus Advisory Council, and was formerly the President of both the Steuben County Bar Association and the Finger Lakes Women’s Bar Association. In May of 2024, Michaela was honored to receive the New York State Bar Association's Pro Bono Service Award.

Area of counseling expertise: direct services, immigration, housing, welfare benefits, and LGBTQ+ advocacy

From July 2017 to November 2022, Hasan Shafiqullah (he/him) was the attorney-in-charge of the Legal Aid Society’s Immigration Law Unit, one of the largest nonprofit immigration practices in the country. For the past 26 years, he has represented clients in a range of civil legal services matters, initially in a mix of housing eviction defense, family law, name changes, credit issues, wills and trusts, tax, and related matters, and since 2009 in immigration law. Hasan was part of the Legal Aid Society’s litigation teams challenging the Trump Administration’s public charge rules in Make the Road New York v. Cuccinelli, 19 Civ. 7993 (S.D.N.Y.) and Make the Road New York v. Pompeo, 19 Civ. 11633 (S.D.N.Y) (regarding the Department of Homeland Security and Department of State’s public charge rules, respectively), and challenging the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s practice of arresting noncitizens appearing in and around New York State criminal, housing, and family courts, in Doe v. ICE, 19 Civ. 8892 (S.D.N.Y.). He is a member of the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Immigration Representation and the New York City Bar Association’s Immigration and Nationality Law Committee, is past a lecturer in law at Columbia Law School, and is a past adjunct professor of immigration law at Cardozo School of Law.

Hasan is a graduate of the University of California Hastings College of the Law and of the University of Arizona and holds a certificate in French to English legal translation from New York University.

Office Location: William and June Warren 809

Area of counseling expertise: public interest, employment and housing, civil rights, nonprofit management, and mediation

Grace Shim '06 (she/her) is a specialist career adviser at Columbia Law School. She began her career litigating child abuse and neglect cases in the Bronx County Family Court at NYC's Administration for Children's Services. She subsequently served as a staff attorney, deputy director, and then executive director of the MinKwon Center for Community Action in Flushing. After that, Grace worked at the California Civil Rights Department (California CRD), where she litigated cases of employment and housing discrimination, including systemic and high impact cases. Prior to joining Columbia, Grace served as a senior attorney mediator at California CRD. She was also an adjunct professor at the University of California, Davis Law School for several years.  Currently, she teaches mediation at CUNY Law School as an adjunct professor and also serves as a volunteer mediator for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Grace received a B.A. with honors from the University of California, Berkeley and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. She is admitted to practice in New York.

Office Location: William and June Warren 804

Area of expertise: Berger Fellows Program

Corinne Badini (she/her) joined the PI/PS Office in 2021 as the coordinator for the Max Berger ’71 Public Interest/Public Service Fellows Program. Prior to joining Columbia Law School, Corinne was an admissions counselor in the Hudson Valley, working closely with undergraduate students through their college search. She has a B.A. in digital media management from SUNY New Paltz.

Office Location: William and June Warren 800

Areas of expertise: Columbia postgraduate fellowships, on-campus interview programs, and all office communications

Rebecca Hinde (she/her) joined the PI/PS Office in 2016. Prior to Columbia, she worked for the Copyright Society of the USA, the Disabilities Network of New York City, and other nonprofits. She also did development work for small arts and social justice organizations. She holds an M.F.A. in writing from Columbia University.

Office Location: William and June Warren 800

Areas of expertise: PI/PS Office events and the Columbia Public Interest Community

Prior to Columbia, Eleanor van Hest (she/her) worked at the Rockefeller Foundation in human resources and with the Harassment and Discrimination Assistance and Prevention Program at the University of California, Davis. She spends her free time enjoying the WNBA, playing piano, and volunteering as a rape crisis counselor.

Office Location: William and June Warren 800