Rate My Professor Jon Bauer

Jon Bauer is a Clinical Professor of Law and Richard D. Tulisano ’69 Scholar in Human Rights at the University of Connecticut School of Law. He earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1984, receiving the C. LaRue Munson Prize for excellence in a clinical program, and his B.A. from Cornell University in 1981. Before joining the UConn faculty in 1988, Bauer worked as a staff attorney at the Legal Action Center, a public interest law firm in New York City, from 1984 to 1988, handling litigation in federal and state courts and administrative agencies on issues including employment discrimination, rights of recovering substance abusers, persons with HIV, ex-offenders, polygraph and drug testing, and confidentiality of treatment records. At UConn Law, he has taught courses in Employment Discrimination Law, Refugee Law, Immigration and Workplace Rights, Evidence, and a seminar on Wal-Mart, as well as clinics in Asylum and Human Rights, Immigration Detention and DACA, Civil Rights, Poverty Law, and Mediation. Since 2002, he has directed the Asylum and Human Rights Clinic, where supervised students have secured asylum or related relief for more than 168 clients and their families. He also serves as Acting Director of the UConn Law School Legal Clinic since 2022 and was Director of Civil Clinical Programs from 1994 to 2004.

Bauer’s research specializations include asylum and refugee law, immigration law, employment and housing discrimination, and legal ethics. Key publications feature “Obscured by ‘Willful Blindness’: States’ Preventive Obligations and the Meaning of Acquiescence Under the Convention Against Torture” in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review (2021), “Asylum Seekers in a Time of Record Forced Global Displacement: The Role of Physicians” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine (2019), “Multiple Nationality and Refugees” in the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law (2014), “Buying Witness Silence: Evidence-Suppressing Settlements and Lawyers’ Ethics” in the Oregon Law Review (2008), and “The Character of the Questions and the Fitness of the Process: Mental Health, Bar Admissions and the Americans With Disabilities Act” in the UCLA Law Review (2001). He co-authored an article on clinical pedagogy with Professor James H. Stark, included in the Clinical Legal Education Association’s basic reading bibliography. Bauer has received major awards such as the Tapping Reeve Legal Educator Award from the Connecticut Bar Association (2015), Constance Baker Motley Award from the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (2016), U.S. Attorney’s Office Affirmative Enforcement and Civil Rights Unit Award (2019), and Distinguished Service Award from the UConn Law School Alumni Association (2018). His public service includes past presidency of the Connecticut Fair Housing Center (2015–2019), board service with Connecticut Legal Services and other organizations, and faculty roles on university committees including the Gladstein Committee of the Human Rights Institute.