Professor Aliza Organick Named in 1st Annual "50 Under 50 List"
May 22, 2013
UNM School of Law professor Aliza Organick (C’96) has been named in the 1st Annual "50 Under 50 List", as seen in Lawyers of Color and their recent Law School Diversity Special Issue.
The "50 Under 50 List" recognizes the 50 most influential minority law professors 50 years of age or younger and was created, according to CEO and Publisher Yolanda Young, as a tool to assist prospective law students. In it, she urges future law students to consider faculty diversity and law school costs when determining which law school they will attend.
Professor Organick earned her J.D. from the University of New Mexico in 1996. A citizen of the Diné Nation, born to the Tsenijikini Clan (Cliff Dweller Clan), Prof. Organick joined the UNMSchool of Law in 2012 and currently teaches in the clinical law program. Prior to joining the faculty at UNM, Professor Organick taught at Washburn University School of Law from 2004 to 2012. While at Washburn, Professor Organick created the Tribal and State Court Practice clinic section with its focus on representing Native clients in Kansas tribal courts.
Professor Organick is the co-founder and co-organizer of the Indian Law Clinics and Externship Symposium which takes place annually in Indian Country. The goal of this symposium is to create a pedagogy and methodology for training law students to practice law among Native people in Indigenous communities. She has organized and presented at numerous conferences and continuing legal education programs, including those that focus on developing expertise in the practice of law in tribal court settings. Professor Organick was an invited presenter on the Indigenous Stream at the Society of Legal Scholars Annual conference at De Montfort University in Leicester, United Kingdom in 2009 and in 2011 she was a plenary speaker at the Transforming Legal Education Annual Conference, hosted by the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia where she spoke on the challenges of introducing legal theory into clinical practice.
Professor Organick is a past Chair of the American Association of Law School’s section on Indian Nations and Indigenous Peoples. She currently serves on the Board of the National Native American Bar Association. She is admitted to practice in New Mexico, the Federal District Court for the District of New Mexico, and the Prairie Band Potawatomi District Court, Kickapoo Tribal Court, and Iowa Nation Tribal Court.
