Faculty & Staff
Aderson Francois is a Professor of Law and the Director of the Civil Rights clinic, and the Voting Rights Institute. Prior to joining the Georgetown faculty, Professor Francois directed the Civil Rights Clinic at Howard University School of Law, where he also taught Constitutional Law, Federal Civil Rights, and Supreme Court Jurisprudence. His scholarly interests include voting rights, education law, and the history of slavery and Reconstruction. His practice experience encompasses federal trial and appellate litigation concerning equal protection in education, employment discrimination, voting rights, marriage equality, and the right to a fair criminal trial. Professor Francois received his J.D. from New York University School and clerked for the late Honorable A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In 2008, the Transition Team of President Barack Obama appointed Professor Francois Lead Agency Reviewer for the United States Commission on Civil Rights. He has provided pro bono death penalty representation to inmates before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, served as a Special Assistant in with the United States Commission on Civil Rights in Washington, D.C., and practiced commercial litigation in the New York Offices of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton &Garrison. He has testified before Congress on civil rights issues and drafted numerous briefs to the United States Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of California, the Supreme Court of Iowa, and Maryland’s highest court. Before joining Howard’s faculty, Professor François was the Assistant Director of the Lawyering Program at New York University School of Law.
Allison Black is a supervising attorney and clinical teaching fellow in the Civil Rights Clinic. Before joining the Clinic, Allison clerked for two years at the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska. There, she advised the Chief Judge on civil and criminal matters, including in federal civil rights cases and federal jury trials. Allison is a former student of the Civil Rights Clinic, where she advocated for the rights of transgender students, incarcerated individuals, students with disabilities, and victims of government surveillance.
After graduating with her B.A. summa cum laude from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, Allison went on to teach English in Slovakia as a Fulbright Awardee. She then attended Georgetown Law, where she received her J.D. with honors. While a student at Georgetown, Allison served as a law fellow in the Legal Practice & Writing curriculum and completed hundreds of hours of pro bono legal work assisting with cases related to privacy, freedom of speech, and international law.
Allison is originally from Lincoln, Nebraska, and is an avid supporter of Husker Volleyball. She enjoys running, tennis, baking, movies, and spending time with her cats.
Kacie Candela is a supervising attorney and clinical teaching fellow in the Civil Rights Clinic. Before joining the Clinic, Kacie was an associate at New York boutique employment law firm Berke-Weiss Law, where she represented and counseled employees facing sexual harassment, pregnancy/parental leave discrimination, failure to accommodate disabilities, and wrongful termination. Prior to working at Berke-Weiss, Kacie was a Trial Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division’s Employment Litigation Section, where she investigated and litigated against state and local government employers for discriminating against their employees in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and served as her section’s FOIA Officer processing public records requests. The DOJ’s national training center also certified her as an Instructor, and she designed, developed, and delivered trainings on skills and substantive law for lawyers and support staff. Kacie has also taught Employment Law and legal writing at the University of Baltimore School of Law and guest judged and mooted mock trial competition teams at Fordham University School of Law, her alma mater, as well as at American University Washington College of Law.
Kacie holds a B.A. summa cum laude, in cursa honorum from Fordham College at Rose Hill and a J.D. magna cum laude from Fordham University School of Law. While at Fordham Law, she served as Managing Editor of the Brendan Moore Trial Advocacy team and won Best Opening Statement at the Florida National Trial Advocacy Tournament. Kacie also interned for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s New York District Office and the Office of Chair Charlotte Burrows.
Before becoming a lawyer, Kacie was a radio and print journalist who covered New York City and State politics and elections and the United Nations for NPR-affiliate WFUV 90.7 FM and the non-profit news site PassBlue. In 2019, she co-produced and co-hosted a podcast series on the history of sexual harassment by elected officials in Albany, which won an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award. Kacie is originally from Long Island, New York.