Photo: Carol M. Suzuki

Carol M. Suzuki

Professor of Law

  • Dickason Professorship

Education

  • J.D. 1991, Columbia University School of Law
  • A.B. 1986, Stanford University
  • Member of the California, District of Columbia, and New York Bars

Contact Information

 Ph.: 505-277-1073
 Office: 2530
 

Profile

Carol Suzuki joined the UNM law faculty in 2003, bringing a strong background in clinical law.

After graduating from Columbia University School of Law, she joined the Legal Aid Society in New York City. As part of her workload in the civil division, she represented clients with HIV/AIDS who came into the office. After four years, she joined the HIV Law Project in New York City. As senior staff attorney, she represented women of color and their families. Recognizing the need for additional expertise to most effectively represent her clients, she often would collaborate with social workers to help resolve client problems. By the time she left in 1999, she was Deputy Director.

While at the HIV Law Project, Professor Suzuki taught an annual class on professional responsibility to third-year students at Columbia University School of Law. In 1999, she became a visiting professor at the David A. Clarke School of Law at the University of the District of Columbia, working in the HIV/AIDS Legal Clinic. She then moved to Yale Law School as a Robert M. Cover Clinical Teaching Fellow. Professor Suzuki worked mostly in the immigration clinic, and she also supervised student outreach in the HIV/AIDS community and worked with clinic students to improve prison conditions for incarcerated women.

At the UNM School of Law, her courses include the Community Lawyering Clinic, AIDS and the Law, Bioethics, Refugee Law, and Torts. She has served as the Faculty Advisor to the New Mexico Law Review.

Professor Suzuki co-authors the annual supplement to the family law chapter of Aspen Publisher's “AIDS and the Law.” She has served as Chair of the Association of American Law Schools’ Section on Clinical Legal Education. Professor Suzuki is a founding member of Voices of Women of Color Against HIV/AIDS.

In the News

Courses

AIDS and the Law

This course will examine laws which impact the rights of people living with AIDS. How do we build a system that enables people living with HIV to live high-quality, productive lives? What laws can be created to help prevent the spread of HIV and increase access to care? We will look at the medical aspects of HIV, self-determination in regard to treatment decisions, access to treatment, participation in drug treatment trials and experimental treatments. We will discuss the effect of a parent's HIV status on the fundamental right to parent and laws created to enable a parent affected by HIV to plan for the children's future. We will explore the impact of HIV status in the areas of confidentiality, insurance, public accommodations, employment, housing, tort law, public benefit programs, immigration law, criminal liability and penalties. We will discuss the government's reaction and international legal efforts to respond to the AIDS epidemic.

Publications

Books & Book Chapters

Issues of Diversity and Inclusion in Torts Cases, Integrating Doctrine and Diversity: Inclusion and Equity in the Law School Classroom (2021) (edited by Nicole P. Dyszlewsk et al.).  
Available at: UNM-DR

Tort Law and Practice (6th ed. 2020) (co-authored with Levine, Gassama, Vogel and Vetri). 
Available at: UNM-DR

Issues in Family Law for People with HIV, Aids and the Law (5th ed. 2016) (co-authored with Scott Skinner Thompson).
Available at: Libraries

Family Court Proceedings, HIV & AIDS Benchbook (2nd ed. 2012) (co-authored with Toni Holness and Carolyn McAllaster).
Available at: UNM-DR

Articles

The Pursuit of Dignified Death for Competent Terminally Ill Persons in the United States, 7 J. CLINICAL ETHICS (Japan Association for Clinical Ethics) (2019).

How Law Schools in the United States Are Responding to Decreasing Applications and Job Prospects, 47 COMP. L. REV. 123 (2014) (translated by Yoshitaka Nakamura).
Available at: UNM-DR

Death with Dignity and Advance Directives in the United States, 1 JACE NEWSLETTER 1 (Japan Association for Clinical Ethics) (Sept. 2013).

Potentials of Japanese Law School Clinics to Aid the Victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Nuclear Accident, 4 LAW. & CLINICAL EDUC. 90 (2011) (translated by Kyoko Ishida).

When Something Is Not Quite Right: Considerations for Advising a Client to Seek Mental Health Treatment, 6 HASTINGS RACE & POVERTY L.J. 209 (2009).
Available at: UNM-DR

Unpacking Pandora’s Box: Innovative Techniques for Effectively Counseling Asylum Applicants Suffering From Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, 4 HASTINGS RACE & POVERTY L.J. 235 (2007).
Available at: UNM-DR

Briefs

Brief for The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities at al. as Amicus Curiae, Bobby James Moore v. Texas; Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas (2016) (No. 15-797) (co-counsel with James Ellis, Ann M. Delpha, Steven K. Homer, David J. Stout & April Land).
Available at: UNM-DR

Brief for The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities et al. as Amicus Curiae, Freddie Lee Hall v. State of Florida; The Supreme Court of Florida. (2012) (No. 12-10882) (co-counsel with April Land, Ann Delpha, James Ellis & Steven Homer).
Available at: UNM-DR

Brief for The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry et al. as Amici Curiae, Abdul-Kabir v. Quarterman; The Supreme Court of United States (2007) (No. 05-11284 & NO. 05-11287) (co-counsel with James Ellis, Norman C. Bay, Steven K. Homer & April Land).

Brief for The American Association on Mental Retardation et al. as Amicus Curiae, Clark v. Arizona; Supreme Court of The United States (2006) (No. 05-5966)  (co-counsel with Norman C. Bay, Michael B. Browde, Steven K. Homer & James Ellis). 

Brief for The American Association on Mental Retardation et al. as Amicus Curiae, United States v. Georgia; Supreme Court of The United States (2006) (Nos. 04-1203 & 04-1236)  (co-counsel with Michael B. Browde, April Land, Steven K. Homer & James Ellis).

Brief for American Association on Mental Retardation et al. as Amicus Curiae, Stripling v. Head;Supreme Court of The United States (Oct. 14, 2003) (No. 03-1392)  (certiorari granted) (co-counsel with James Ellis, Norman Bay & Christian G. Fritz).
Available at: UNM-DR

Awards

Dickason Professor

Law School News