Clinic Director

Professor Wolfman re-joined the Georgetown Law faculty in 2016 as the Director of the new full-time, semester-long Appellate Courts Immersion Clinic. He was previously a Professor of the Practice of Law and Co-Director of Stanford Law School’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic. Before that, from 2009 to 2014, Professor Wolfman served as Director of the Civil Rights section of Georgetown Law’s Institute for Public Representation, a student clinic that handles complex trial court and appellate litigation focused on civil rights and other public-interest litigation. While at Georgetown, he also taught the standard doctrinal course on Federal Courts and the Federal System and a course on appellate courts. Before Georgetown, he spent nearly 20 years at the national public interest law firm Public Citizen Litigation Group, serving the last five years as the Group’s Director. Earlier in his career, he conducted trial and appellate litigation as a staff lawyer at a rural poverty law program in Arkansas. Professor Wolfman has handled a broad range of litigation, including cases involving health and safety regulation, class action governance, court-access issues, federal preemption, consumer law, public-benefits law, and government transparency. He has argued six cases before the Supreme Court (winning five), and he has litigated hundreds of cases before federal and state appellate and trial courts around the country. He directed Public Citizen’s Supreme Court Assistance Project, which helps “underdog” public-interest clients litigate before the U.S. Supreme Court. He has testified before Congress and federal rules committees on a range of issues, and he was an Advisor to the American Law Institute’s Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation. Since 2004, he has taught an intensive Appellate Courts Workshop during the January Term at Harvard Law School. Professor Wolfman has authored articles on a variety of subjects, often on the intersection of state tort law and federal preemption doctrine and on class actions. You can find Professor Wolfman’s resume here.

Deputy Director

Madeline Meth graduated from Georgetown Law in 2017 where she participated in the Appellate Courts Immersion Clinic’s inaugural semester.  Her focus is public-interest litigation, particularly anti-poverty work.  Before returning to ACIC as a fellow, she worked at AARP’s Legal Counsel for the Elderly, providing legal services to low-income seniors living in the District of Columbia; she also clerked for the Honorable George J. Hazel on the U.S. District Court in Maryland and for the Honorable Jane B. Stranch on the Sixth Circuit.  She reads a lot of fiction (find her on Goodreads!), enjoys city walks, crossword puzzles, and returning to New England to spend time with family.

Graduate Fellow

Esthena Barlow is originally from Middlebury, Vermont. She studied mathematics in college and worked as a data scientist for four years before attending Stanford Law School. Her favorite thing about Stanford was participating in a public interest clinic, and that experience motivated her to come to Georgetown as a fellow with ACIC. After graduating from Stanford in 2020, Esthena clerked for the Honorable David J. Barron of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the Honorable Jeffrey S. Sutton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She loves running and cross-country skiing, especially if she can bring her dog Moose along. If she has to be inside, she’d like to be trying out a new recipe or attending trivia night, preferably with geography questions.

Clinic Manager

Niko Perazich is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the clinic. Prior to Georgetown Niko worked at various DC-area law firms as a paralegal. Niko is a graduate of Middlebury College and is married with two young children.