{"id":10816,"date":"2015-09-02T10:29:13","date_gmt":"2015-09-02T14:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/profile\/julie-a-dahlstrom\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T15:15:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T19:15:04","slug":"julie-a-dahlstrom","status":"publish","type":"profile","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/profile\/julie-a-dahlstrom\/","title":{"rendered":"Julie A. Dahlstrom"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Julie Dahlstrom<\/strong> is a Clinical Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law, where she has spent more than a decade training the next generation of lawyers. She served as Associate Dean for Clinical and Experiential Education from 2023 to 2026, bringing to that role the same commitment to hands-on, student-centered legal education that has defined her teaching and scholarship throughout her career.<\/p>\n

Dahlstrom launched her clinical teaching career by founding and directing the Human Trafficking Clinic, recognized by preLaw<\/i>\u00a0magazine in 2014 as one of the most innovative law clinics in the country. In 2017, she became Director of the Immigrants’ Rights and Human Trafficking Program, where student attorneys represent indigent clients and tackle the systemic forces that perpetuate injustice. That work earned her Boston University’s highest teaching honor, the Metcalf Cup and Prize<\/a>, in 2026. She has also been a tireless advocate for public interest students at BU Law, chairing the Public Service Committee, spearheading the development of the public interest concentration, and overseeing the creation of the public interest retreat. Her contributions to the school community have been recognized with the Dean’s Scholarship Award, the Dean’s Service Award, and the Faculty Pro Bono Faculty Award.<\/p>\n

Dahlstrom is a nationally recognized expert on gender-based violence, human trafficking, immigrants’ rights, and public interest law. Her most recent scholarship examines the intersection of technology and forced labor. Her work has appeared in the California Law Review<\/i>, UC Davis Law Review<\/i>, UC Irvine Law Review<\/i>, Boston College Law Review<\/i>, and Florida Law Review<\/i>, and she is frequently called upon as an expert commentator, with contributions to the L.A. Times<\/i>, The Hill<\/i>, WBUR Cognoscenti<\/i>, and BU Today<\/i>, as well as numerous national outlets.<\/p>\n

Dahlstrom has been a leading voice for victims’ rights at both the state and national levels. In 2026, she was appointed to the Governor’s Council to Address Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence<\/a>. She received the Access to Justice Award from the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance in 2022 and the Case Award from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2015 for her legal representation of a survivor of labor trafficking. She has served on the U.S. Attorney’s Office Civil Rights Task Force, was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick to the Massachusetts Interagency Human Trafficking Task Force and currently serves on the Commonwealth Anti-Trafficking Task Force. She has also testified before the Massachusetts legislature in support of criminal legal reform and legislation to expand immigrants’ rights in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n

A leader in clinical legal education nationally, Dahlstrom served as Co-Chair of the AALS Clinical Section in 2025 and received the Clinical Legal Education Association’s Outstanding Advocate for Clinical Teachers Award in 2026,\u00a0an honor recognizing those who have advanced experiential legal education and championed the professional standing of clinical faculty. She served on the Planning Committee for the 2025 AALS Clinical Conference and presents regularly at regional and national clinical education conferences.<\/p>\n

Dahlstrom joined the BU Law clinical faculty as a clinical fellow in 2012. Before entering academia, she served as a senior staff attorney at Casa Myrna Vazquez, representing survivors of labor and sex trafficking, and as managing attorney of the Immigration Legal Assistance Program at Ascentria Care Alliance, where she handled a wide range of humanitarian immigration matters. She founded the U and T Visa Working Group of the Immigration Coalition, serves on the Human Trafficking Subcommittee of the Delivery of Legal Services Committee, and has been an advisory committee member of the Civil Legal Aid to Victims of Crime (CLAVC) Advisory Committee.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4833,"template":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/10816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profile"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4833"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/10816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125996,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/10816\/revisions\/125996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}