Blake Nordahl

Blake Nordahl

Clinical Professor of Law
Supervising Attorney, Immigration Clinic
Sacramento
Email Address
Phone Number

Professor Blake Nordahl is a California Certified Law Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law. He is the past chair of the California State Bar's Advisory Law Commission for Immigration and Nationality Law. He has also served as the liaison between the Sacramento U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) field office and the Board of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). He also served on the legal advisory board during the formation of the City of Sacramento's network to defend immigrants, now known as the FUEL network. He is often asked to serve as a panelist at various local and national events and conferences as an expert in immigration issues.

A former attorney advisor with the Immigration Court in San Diego, Professor Nordahl began supervising the McGeorge Immigration Law Clinic in 2009 where he has continued the clinic's strong history of representing disadvantaged immigrant clients. Under Professor Nordahl's leadership, law students have a hands-on opportunity to provide informed and compassionate representation to clients pro bono. He mentors, oversees and guides students as they interview and counsel clients, and prepare legal applications to secure immigration benefits such as naturalization, asylum, special immigrant juvenile status, as well as Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) petitions and "U" visas for victims of serious crimes. Clinic students have the opportunity to represent their clients in the Immigration Court, as well as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, and in Superior Court. Each year, Professor Nordahl is a key organizer of the well-known and much anticipated annual McGeorge Immigration Fair where the law school comes together to assist community members with legal assistance for naturalization and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

After receiving his undergraduate degree in International Development at UC Berkeley, Professor Nordahl attended law school at UC Davis School of Law. While at King Hall, he was a member of the UC Davis Law Review editorial board, participated in the law school's Immigration Law Clinic and received a Certificate in Public Interest Law.

After law school, Professor Nordahl was accepted into the U.S. Attorney General's Honors Program where he was a judicial law clerk and attorney advisor for a year with the Executive Office for Immigration Review (Immigration Court) in San Diego. There, he worked directly with federal Immigration Judges hearing asylum and deportation cases. After completing his clerkship, Professor Nordahl entered private practice with a focus on immigration law.

Education

BA, University of California, Berkeley
JD, University of California, Davis

Curriculum Vitae
blakeNordahlCV.pdf (106.61 KB)
Research Focus

Representative Scholarship and Activities

Publications

A Migration Story from the Sugar Fields of Southwest Guatemala: A Case for Treating Corporations as Persecutors under Asylum and Refugee Law in From Extraction to Emancipation, Development Reimagined (Raquel Aldana and Steve Bender eds.) (American Bar Association 2018).

Service

California State Bar Advisory Commission on Legal Specialization for Immigration and Nationality Law, 2013-2018 (served as Chair, 2017-2018).

Volunteer Legal Advisor, Sacramento FUEL Network, 2017 (City of Sacramento taskforce to defend immigrants in Sacramento).

AILA NorCal Liaison with USCIS Sacramento District Office, 2013-2015.

Selected Presentations

Panelist, Immigration: Calming the Community and Facilitating a Dialogue, 6th Annual Sacramento Court/Clergy Conference, October 17, 2019

Moderator, Local Advocates Confront the Immigration Policy Crisis, ABAS Law Foundation, Feb. 12, 2019.

Presenter, Legal Options for Immigrants Who Are Victims of Crime, Center for Violence Free Relationships, Placerville CA, Jan. 24, 2019.

Panelist, FUEL Network Community Teach In, (discussion of current legal strategy for undocumented immigrants), Organized by the City of Sacramento and CRLAF, Feb. 21, 2018.

Presenter, From Extraction to Emancipation: Development Reimagined, Law and Society conference, June 21, 2017, Mexico City

Panelist, Executive Training on Immigration Rights and Resources: Federal, State and Local, McGeorge Law School, Feb. 3, 2017