C. Mario Russell

C. Mario Russell, Senior Attorney, Catholic Charities, Refugee and Immigration Legal Services; Adjunct Professor, St. John’s School of Law, Refugee and Immigrant Rights Clinic.

Mr. Russell supervises clinical students in federal administrative and U.S. Court of Appeals litigation in asylum and immigration law matters. He has served as consultant for the UNHCR in Hungary and Poland, has advised the National Commission on Migration in Thailand, and has taught comparative asylum law and international human rights in Rome.  He conducts trainings on law throughout the New York area and advises on lawyering in the public interest as Wasserstein Fellow at Harvard Law School. In conjunction with the NYSCC Public Policy Committee and the New York Immigration Coalition, Mr. Russell also conducts legislative advocacy on issues such as comprehensive immigration reform and other refugee protection issues. Previously, he served as Regional Director for CLINIC, where he provided technical and litigation support to diocesan programs throughout the United States, he worked as a litigation associate at Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin and Kahn, and he served for two years as judicial law clerk on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.