Lena Afary
USC Gould School of Law

Lena Afary teaches the fundamentals of objective legal writing and analysis to international Master of Laws (LLM) students at USC’s Gould School of Law. This course is an exercise in cross-cultural communication and writing techniques, using both on-site and on-line resources.

Since 2018, Afary has served as a temporary judge with the Los Angeles Superior Court, presiding and adjudicating over hundreds of cases as a pro tem traffic court judge in arraignment and trial traffic courts. She currently works as the in-house counsel and property manager for a local commercial real estate shopping center.

Afary emigrated to the United States with her family as a child at the start of the Iranian Revolution. Her background as a member of a religious minority in Iran, inspired her to pursue social and gender justice issues, first as a documentary filmmaker and journalist, and later as an attorney in California. Throughout the years, she volunteered with different community service organizations, such as a battered women’s shelter and the ACLU, and expanded her awareness of her community of origin through extensive travels in the Middle East, including Egypt, Turkey and the Republic of Azerbaijan.

After graduating from Lake Forest College with a degree in philosophy and women’s studies, Afary worked for various local and national news agencies such as Reuters, NBC and PBS, where she focused on youth and gender issues and while completing her MFA in film, with an emphasis in documentary production. As an associate producer of the Emmy Award-winning reality television series American High, she and colleagues spent a year documenting life in a suburban American high school in Illinois, focusing on challenges that young, minority, disadvantaged and LBGTQ students faced.

Afary attended the University of Minnesota Law School, where she was the managing editor of the Journal of Law and Inequality and the student clinic director of the Civil Practice Clinic which handled family law, housing and social security cases for impoverished community members. She externed with the Hon. Janet N. Poston in the Hennepin County District Courts, working on family and criminal law matters, and was also a student clinic member of the Minnesota Immigration Clinic, working on asylum matters of African refugees.

After moving to Los Angeles, she worked as a law clerk for the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office. She then worked as Deputy Attorney General at the California Department of Justice for seven years, focusing on civil rights and disability issues as counsel for the State of California.

Afary returned to her social justice work by externing with the Hon. Suzanne Bruguera of the Los Angeles Superior Court. She later became social services staff attorney at Pars Equality Center, a legal aid organization in Los Angeles dedicated to assisting low-income clients from Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Afghanistan and Turkey. Afary has been an active member of the State Bar of California since 2005.  

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

The Conversation
September 20, 2022
Re: Jean Lantz Reisz

Jean Reisz wrote an op-ed explaining why Ron DeSantis dropping migrants off on Martha’s Vineyard may be illegal. "Certain factors – like DeSantis’ intent and knowledge of the migrants’ immigration status – could create potential civil and criminal liability," she wrote.

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP

Felipe Jiménez
August, 2022

"Legal Positivism for Legal Officials," Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence.

Robin Craig
August, 2022

"Tribal Water Rights and Tribal Health: The Klamath Tribes and the Navajo Nation During the COVID-19 Pandemic," St. Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy (Forthcoming 2023).

Robin Craig
August, 2022

"Remembering the Ocean in Water Law," chapter for A Research Agenda for Water Law.