Blake Nordahl

Professor Blake Nordahl is a California Certified Law Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law. He is the past chair of the California State Bar's Advisory Law Commission for Immigration and Nationality Law. He has also served as the liaison between the Sacramento U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) field office and the Board of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). He also served on the legal advisory board during the formation of the City of Sacramento's network to defend immigrants, now known as the FUEL network. He is often asked to serve as a panelist at various local and national events and conferences as an expert in immigration issues.

A former attorney advisor with the Immigration Court in San Diego, Professor Nordahl began supervising the McGeorge Immigration Law Clinic in 2009 where he has continued the clinic's strong history of representing disadvantaged immigrant clients. Under Professor Nordahl's leadership, law students have a hands-on opportunity to provide informed and compassionate representation to clients pro bono. He mentors, oversees and guides students as they interview and counsel clients, and prepare legal applications to secure immigration benefits such as naturalization, asylum, special immigrant juvenile status, as well as Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) petitions and "U" visas for victims of serious crimes. Clinic students have the opportunity to represent their clients in the Immigration Court, as well as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, and in Superior Court. Each year, Professor Nordahl is a key organizer of the well-known and much anticipated annual McGeorge Immigration Fair where the law school comes together to assist community members with legal assistance for naturalization and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

After receiving his undergraduate degree in International Development at UC Berkeley, Professor Nordahl attended law school at UC Davis School of Law. While at King Hall, he was a member of the UC Davis Law Review editorial board, participated in the law school's Immigration Law Clinic and received a Certificate in Public Interest Law.

After law school, Professor Nordahl was accepted into the U.S. Attorney General's Honors Program where he was a judicial law clerk and attorney advisor for a year with the Executive Office for Immigration Review (Immigration Court) in San Diego. There, he worked directly with federal Immigration Judges hearing asylum and deportation cases. After completing his clerkship, Professor Nordahl entered private practice with a focus on immigration law.