Who We Are

Faculty Director

Deborah N. Archer

Deborah N. Archer is Margaret B. Hoppin Professor of Law and faculty director of the Community Equity Initiative at NYU School of Law. Deborah is also the president of the American Civil Liberties Union and a leading expert in civil rights, civil liberties, and racial justice. She is an award-winning teacher and legal scholar whose articles have appeared in leading law reviews. Deborah has also offered commentary for numerous media outlets, including MSNBC, National Public Radio, CBS, Monocle, The Atlantic, and The New York Times.

Deborah is a graduate of Yale Law School, where she was awarded the Charles G. Albom Prize, and Smith College. She previously worked as an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., where she litigated in the areas of voting rights, employment discrimination, and school desegregation. Deborah is also a former chair of the American Association of Law School's Section on Civil Rights and the Section on Minority Groups. She previously served as Chair of the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, the nation’s oldest and largest police oversight agency.

Deborah has been honored by numerous community organizations and legal institutions, including Yale Law School, Columbia Law School, Boston University School of Law, New York University, Smith College, New York Law School, the American Association of Law Schools, and the Law and Society Association. In 2021, the Law and Society Association awarded her the John Hope Franklin Prize, Honorable Mention for her article "'White Men's Roads Through Black Men's Homes': Advancing Racial Equity Through Highway Reconstruction" which appeared in the Vanderbilt Law Review. Deborah also received a 2021 Podell Distinguished Teaching Award, the 2020-2021 Jacob K. Javits Professorship from New York University, the 2021 Stephen Ellmann Memorial Clinical Scholarship Award from the American Association of Law Schools, the Otto L. Walter Distinguished Writing Award from New York Law School, and the Haywood Burns/Shanara Guilbert Award from the Northeast People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference.

Senior Affiliated Research Scholars

David Chen

David Chen is a clinical teaching fellow at NYU School of Law. He co-teaches the Civil Rights and Racial Justice Clinic and the Civil Rights in the Criminal Legal System Clinic.

Previously, David was the Special Assistant to the New Jersey Solicitor General where he litigated civil rights issues. David was also a Justice Catalyst Fellow at the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project where he challenged numerous federal executive actions restricting the right to asylum, including the Trump Administration's Title 42 Policy shutting the border to asylum seekers, and the Trump Administration's separation of asylum-seeking families. David clerked for Judge Marsha S. Berzon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Goodwin H. Liu of the California Supreme Court. He earned his JD from Yale Law School, where he was a member of the school's Worker and Immigrants Rights Advocacy Clinic, and his BA from Princeton University.

Alex Rose

Alex Rose has spent the past several years litigating data-driven civil rights class actions at Fairmark Partners, LLP, a progressive law and policy office focused on improving community equity outcomes and corporate accountability. He has, as part of this work, developed substantive workstreams pertaining AI and algorithmic bias discrimination, reproductive justice and access, carceral industries exploitation, and infrastructure reform. 

Prior to joining the firm, Alex served as Special Advisor to the New York Governor’s Counsel. In that role, he worked with several agencies on a host of legal disputes, advised on policy strategy, co-drafted regulations and administrative code, and served as Counsel’s speechwriter. Alex also served on the Council on Community Reentry and Reintegration: a public-private body tasked with removing legal and societal barriers faced by individuals with criminal records. In that role, he also was on the team reviewing clemency petitions, wherein he made recommendations for pardons and commutations.

Prior to government service, Alex worked for campaigns, think tanks, and multiple publications, including the Moscow Times, where he was a reporter on the crime and news beats, and the New Yorker Magazine, where he was briefly at the Cartoons Desk.

Alex got his JD from NYU Law and his AB from Harvard College. He is licensed to practice law in New York. A dual-citizen, Alex is originally from Montreal, Canada, but has roots in Boston as well.

Sonora Taffa 

Sonora Taffa (Quechan/Laguna Pueblo) is a Clinical Teaching Fellow at NYU School of Law, where she co-teaches the Indian Law Lab and the Civil Rights & Community Equity Lab. Previously, she was an associate at WilmerHale, where she worked on complex civil litigation matters and was a member of the firm's Native American Law Practice Group.

Prior to law school, Sonora began her professional career at Democracy Forward Foundation, a public interest legal organization dedicated to defending democracy, protecting civil rights, and advancing social progress through litigation, policy research, regulatory engagement, and public education.

Sonora earned her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was a member of the Veterans Legal Services Clinic and a researcher for the NYU-Yale American Indian Sovereignty Project. She also holds a Master of Environmental Management from the Yale School of the Environment and a B.A. from Yale College.

Student Fellows

Esete Amare

Esete Amare is a second-year law student at New York University School of Law focused on civil rights, access to justice and human rights. Esete graduated Summa Cum Laude from Barrett the Honors College at Arizona State University, where she pursued a degree in Justice Studies and English Literature. Her honors thesis titled “Women’s Power and Influence Index: Ranking Gender Inequity in Corporate Workspaces” evaluated gender-equity policies and practices across companies to promote accountability and incentivize stronger performance through a public ranking system. Prior to law school, Esete worked at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP supporting impact litigation involving issues such as voting rights, religious freedom, and government accountability. At NYU Law, Esete is a staff editor for NYU Law Review and pursuing clinical work with the Legal Empowerment and Judicial Independence clinic focused on promoting access to justice, the rule of law and judicial independence both domestically and internationally. She also spent this past summer as a legal intern for the Southern Africa Litigation Centre in Johannesburg where she worked on matters ranging from criminal appeals to research involving free speech and association policies across Southern Africa. Her work is grounded in a commitment to understanding how the law and policy can be used to address structural inequality and expanding access to justice both in the United States and globally.

Sara Campbell 

Sara Campbell (she/her) is a second-year law student and Root-Tilden-Kern D’Agostino Scholar at New York University School of Law. She is pursuing a career in civil rights impact litigation focused on racial, economic, and disability justice issues, especially in the criminal legal system. She graduated with distinction from Yale College with a B.A. in Ethics, Politics, and Economics with a concentration in Restorative Justice Practices and Theories of the Law. Outside of her undergraduate coursework, Sara contributed to several research, litigation, and advocacy projects related to criminal law reform, voter accessibility, and COVID decarceration with the Criminal Justice Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County. Prior to law school, Sara was a legal assistant and paralegal with the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program, where she supported litigation focused on challenging algorithmic bias, fighting disability discrimination, and enhancing educational equity for communities of color. At NYU Law, she is a Staff Editor for the Review of Law and Social Change, Public Interest Co-Chair of the Black Law Students Association, Teaching Assistant for Professor Cynthia Estlund, a member of the Parole Advocacy Project, and a Student Advocate with the Civil Rights in the Criminal Legal System Clinic. Sara spent her 1L summer with Brooklyn Defender Services’ Civil Justice Practice, where she worked on education access and employment discrimination matters on behalf of clients who have had contact with the criminal legal, family policing, or immigration systems. 

Quentin Dupouy

Quentin Dupouy '28 is committed to advancing economic justice and equitable social policy. Before law school, he worked for two progressive Members of Congress on issues including housing, tax, public benefits, education, and health care. Most recently, as Senior Policy Advisor to Rep. Jared Huffman, he advanced legislation to increase affordable housing, improve access to education, and enhance consumer protections. In previous roles, he crafted legislation to advance President Biden’s Billionaire Minimum Income Tax, protect disability rights, and expand access to food and health care for low-income communities. Before working on Capitol Hill, he received a Fulbright Grant to live and work in Benin. At NYU Law, he is a Furman Public Policy Scholar, Staff Editor for the Review of Law and Social Change, and Board Member for the Law and Political Economy Association. He spent his 1L Summer at Build Up Justice NYC, working to both prevent foreclosures and represent low-income taxpayers in tax disputes. Quentin graduated from the University of Chicago. He is a lifelong New Yorker.