Faculty

C. Mario Russell
Adjunct Professor of Law
Senior Attorney, Catholic Charities, Immigration Legal Services

Professor Russell is a Senior Attorney with Catholic Charities, Immigration Legal Services, and principally conducts federal administrative and U.S. Court of Appeals litigation in asylum and immigration law matters. In addition to supervising the Refugee and Immigrants Rights Clinic, he co-teaches a survey course on general immigration law at the Law School. Internationally, Professor Russell teaches a course on Comparative Protection and Human Rights at St. John’s Rome campus. He has also served as consultant for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Hungary and Poland and has advised the National Commission on Migration in Thailand. Professor Russell lectures and trains extensively on asylum law and human rights throughout the United States and advises on lawyering in the public interest as a Wasserstein Fellow at Harvard Law School. He has served on the New York City Bar Association, the Board of Directors of the New York Immigration Coalition, and the Federal Litigation Section of the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association. In conjunction with the NYSCC Public Policy Committee and other regional and national organizations, Professor Russell also conducts legislative advocacy on issues such as comprehensive immigration reform and 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.

Mark R. von Sternberg
Adjunct Professor of Law
Senior Attorney, Catholic Charities Community Services/Archdiocese of New York

Professor von Sternberg is a Senior Attorney with Catholic Charities Community Services/Archdiocese of New York, where he concentrates on litigation before the Immigration Courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals. In addition to supervising the Refugee and Immigrant Rights Litigation Clinic, Professor von Sternberg co-teaches a survey course on general immigration law at the Law School. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Pace University School of Law, where he teaches general immigration and comparative refugee law. Professor von Sternberg has lectured at law schools and professional associations regarding asylum issues and has written extensively, particularly in the areas of refugee law, international humanitarian law, and human rights. He is the author of a recently published treatise on the refugee definition as applied in the United States and Canada. In 2002, Professor von Sternberg received the American Immigration Lawyers Association Pro Bono Award. He is a former co-chair of the Immigration and Naturalization Committee of the American Bar Association’s International Law Division and the current chair of the Immigration and Nationality Law Committee of the Bar Association of the City of New York. Professor von Sternberg received a J.D. degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law and an LL.M. in International Legal Studies from New York University School of Law.