Kathleen C. Kim

Kathleen C. Kim, Professor of Law

• Torts
• Immigration Law
• Human Trafficking Seminar

Links

• CV

Education

• BA, with high distinction, University of Michigan
• JD, Stanford Law School

Background

Professor Kathleen Kim is a nationally recognized expert on immigrants’ rights and human trafficking.  Her scholarship examines the Thirteenth Amendment and its relationship to immigration, workplace rights, and civil rights through the intersectional lens of race and gender.  Her articles have appeared in the UCLA Law Review, Iowa Law Review, and University of Chicago Law Forum, among others.  She is co-author of Human Trafficking Law & Policy, the leading casebook on human trafficking in the country.  Professor Kim is also faculty advisor to the Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic (LIJC) which she helped to co-found with her students.  LIJC has become the primary pro bono immigration service provider for indigent noncitizens residing on the Eastside of Los Angeles.  Before joining the Loyola faculty in 2007, Kim was awarded a Skadden Fellowship in 2002 to launch the first legal services project in the nation dedicated to representing the civil rights of trafficked workers at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights.  She co-authored Civil Litigation on Behalf of Victims of Human Trafficking, the principal technical assistance guide for attorneys representing trafficked plaintiffs in civil litigation.  In 2005, she became the inaugural Immigrants’ Rights Teaching Fellow at Stanford Law School where she taught and supervised law students in cases involving deportation defense and humanitarian immigration relief.  A co-author of California’s anti-trafficking law, Kim served as a gubernatorial appointee to the first California Department of Justice Alliance to Combat Trafficking and Slavery.  From 2013-2016, Professor Kim was a Los Angeles Police Commissioner where she helped to reform departmental policies and practices to expand protections for immigrants and also worked on policies to restrict officer use of force.  In 2014, Los Angeles Magazine named her one of Los Angeles' ten most inspiring women. In 2016, The National Jurist selected her as one of twenty law professor "Leaders in Diversity." 

Professor Kim serves on the Advisory Board of Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking.  She continues to provide technical assistance and expert testimony on human trafficking cases and policy guidance to governmental and non-governmental groups.

Professor Kim received her JD from Stanford Law School in 2002 where she was a Judge Takasugi Public Interest Fellow and an editor for the Stanford Law Review.  She received her BA in Philosophy with highest honors from the University of Michigan in 1998.

Selected Scholarship

• The Thirteenth Amendment and Human Trafficking: Lessons and Limitations, 36 Georgia State Law Review 1005 (2020).
• Beyond Coercion, 62 UCLA Law Review 1558 (2015).
• The Coercion of Trafficked Workers, 96 Iowa Law Review 409 (2011) (lead article).  
• The Trafficked Worker as Private Attorney General: A Model for Enforcing the Civil Rights of Undocumented Workers, 2009 University of Chicago Legal Forum 247 (2009).
• Reconceptualizing Approaches to Human Trafficking: New Directions and Perspectives from the Field(s), 3 Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties 317 (2007) (co-author). 
• Psychological Coercion in the Context of Modern-Day Involuntary Labor: Revisiting U.S. v. Kozminski and Understanding Human Trafficking, 38 University of Toledo Law Review 941 (2007).
• Human Trafficking Private Right of Action: Civil Rights for Trafficked Persons in the United States, 16 Hastings Women’s Law Journal 1 (2004) (co-author).

Other Publications

• Advice & Consent: A Play in One Act (Los Angeles Review of Books, 2019) (co-author). 
• Symposium, Immigration Politics: Shifting Norms, Policies & Practices, 52 Loyola LA Law Review 371 (2019) (moderator).
• Human Trafficking Law & Policy (LexisNexis) (2014).
• Introduction: Perspectives on Immigration Reform, 44 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 1323 (2011).
• Civil Litigation on Behalf of Victims of Human Trafficking, Third Edition, (2008) (co-author).
• Conversations with Two Anti-Trafficking Advocates, 1 Los Angeles Public Interest Law Journal 31 (2009) (co-author).

Representative Academic Presentations

• Speaker, “Labor Trafficking in California,” Little Hoover Commission, San Diego, CA (November 21, 2020)
• Speaker, “Thirteenth Amendment and Racial Justice,” Chicago Kent School of Law, Chicago, IL (Nov. 9, 2019)
• Keynote Speaker, Annual Neil Gotanda Critical Race Theory Lecture, University of California Berkeley School of Law, Berkeley, CA (Nov. 6, 2019)
• Plenary Panelist, “Human Trafficking Evidence-Based Research,” Freedom Network Annual Conference, Washington DC (March 20, 2019)
• Keynote Speaker, “The Thirteenth Amendment, Human Trafficking and Migration,” Social Justice Initiative Annual Symposium, University of Utah School of Law, Salt Lake City, UT (Feb. 1, 2019)
• Speaker, "Human Trafficking & Immigrants’ Rights," Stanford Law School, Palo Alto, CA (May 1, 2018)
• Panelist, Human Trafficking Symposium, Journal of International Law & Foreign Affairs, UCLA School of Law, Los Angeles, CA (February 23, 2018)
• Panelist, Human Trafficking, Commission on the Status of Women, Los Angeles, CA (Dec. 1, 2016)
• Speaker, “Human Trafficking: The Globe’s Fastest Growing Crime,” First Lady Amy Elaine Wakefield with InHer Circle, Los Angeles, CA  (April 19, 2016)
• Plenary Panelist, “Race and Resistance: Against Police Violence,” Critical Race Studies Symposium, UCLA School of Law, Los Angeles, CA (October 16, 2015)
• Speaker, “White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable: Civil Legal Aid Research Workshop,” Washington DC (May 20, 2015)
• Plenary Panelist, “Examining the Roots of Human Trafficking and Exploitation,” UCLA Law Review Symposium, Los Angeles, CA (January 29, 2015)
• Panelist, “Comparing Rights Access of Laborers and Trafficking Victims,” New York University School of Law Journal of International Law and Policy, New York City, New York (November 6, 2014)
• Keynote Speaker, 34^th Annual Installation and Scholarship Awards Dinner, Korean American Bar Association, Los Angeles, CA (May 8, 2014)

In the News

• Don’t Undermine Victims’ Rights in Fighting Sex Trafficking, Pacific Standard (October 18, 2012) (co-author).

Public Service

• Board Member, Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners (2013-2016)
• Board Member, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Los Angeles (2013-2019)
• Board Member, Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners (2013-present).
• Board Member, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Los Angeles (2013-present)
• Advisory Board Member, Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (2012-present)
• Policy Advisor, Polaris Project (2010-present)
• Executive Advisory Council Member, Asian Pacific American Legal Center (2008-2013)
• Board Member, Korean American Bar Association of Southern California (2008-2010)
• Member, California Alliance to Combat Trafficking and Slavery Task Force (2007-2008)