About

Natalie Gomez-Velez is a Professor of Law at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law, where she served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2007- 2010. She is a graduate of New York University School of Law where she was an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Fellow. Following three years of private law firm practice in New York City, Professor Gomez-Velez became General Counsel/Agency Chief Contracting Officer at the New York City Department of Youth Services. She has served as a staff attorney at the national ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project and at NYU School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice. Professor Gomez-Velez has served as Assistant Deputy Attorney General for Public Advocacy in the New York State Attorney General’s Office, and as Special Counsel to the Chief Administrative Judge of the New York State Unified Court System. She also has taught at NYU School of Law.

Professor Gomez-Velez has served on the New York State Board of Regents as the Regent representing the Twelfth Judicial District. She also has served as the Bronx Representative on the New York City Panel for Educational Policy. She currently serves on New York’s Statewide Judicial Screening Committee and on the Committee on Non-Lawyers and the Justice Gap appointed by New York Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman. She also serves as a Trustee of the City Parks Foundation and as Chair of its Education Committee.

Professor Gomez-Velez received the Academic Leadership Award from the Hispanic National Bar Foundation in 2010. A summa cum laude graduate of Hunter College/CUNY, where she was a Public Service Scholar, Professor Gomez-Velez was inducted into the Hunter College Hall of Fame in 2005. She also was named an Outstanding Latina of 2003 by El Diario/La Prensa.

Publications

Law Review Articles

Can Universal Pre-K Overcome Extreme Race and Income Segregation to Reach New York’s Neediest Children? The Importance of Legal Infrastructure and the Limits of the Law, Cleveland State Law Review (forthcoming 2015).

Urban Public Education Reform: Governance, Accountability, Outsourcing, 45 Urb. Lawyer 51 (2013).

Launch Pad for Justice: Public Interest Legal Apprenticeship Serving Urgent Legal Needs, 16 CUNY Law Review 21 (2012).

Public School Governance and Democracy: Does Public Participation Matter? 53 Villanova L. Rev. 297 (2008) (funded by a grant from the Research Foundation CUNY).

Proactive Procurement: Using New York City’s Procurement Rules to Foster Positive Human Services Policies, 9 New York City Law Review 331 (2006).

Internet Access to Court Records: Balancing Public Access and Privacy, 51 Loyola Law Review 365 (2005).