Clare R. Norins

Clare R. Norins is an assistant clinical professor and the inaugural director of the School of Law’s First Amendment Clinic, which represents clients in federal and state court on a range of First Amendment and media law issues. Representative matters include social media blocking by government officials, retaliatory arrest and prosecution, the right to record, challenges to unconstitutional permit requirements, assertion of the journalist privilege under the Georgia Shield law, and defamation defense.

In 2021, Norins was a co-recipient of the national Clinical Legal Education Association’s award for Excellence in a Public Interest Case in recognition of collaborative advocacy on behalf of noncitizens retaliated against for speaking out about medical abuse they experienced in a Georgia detention center. And in 2022, Norins obtained a 3-year grant from The Legal Clinic Fund for Local News to expand the clinic’s support for local journalism in Georgia.

Norins’ scholarship has been published in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, the George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal, and cited in briefs to the United States Supreme Court. 

She is a board member of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation and a member of the bar in the following jurisdictions:

• Georgia State Bar
• Georgia Supreme Court
• Georgia Court of Appeals
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
• U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia
• United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
• United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
• United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

Norins joined the law school faculty with 15 years of civil rights experience in private practice, government enforcement, and higher education. At Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP, she served as class counsel on behalf of 1,200 political demonstrators, journalists and bystanders arrested during the 2004 Republican National Convention. Norins then moved to the Civil Rights Bureau of the New York State Office of the Attorney General, receiving a 2012 Louis J. Lefkowitz Award for outstanding performance. Immediately prior to launching the First Amendment Clinic, Norins was assistant director of UGA’s Equal Opportunity Office.

Norins graduated Order of the Coif from the School of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She clerked for Judge Michael H. Dolinger in the Southern District of New York.

Publications & Activities
ARTICES

Campbell v. Reisch: Dangers of the Campaign Loophole in Social Media Blocking Litigation, 25 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 146 (2023) (with M. Bailey)

Restoring Student Press Freedoms: Why Every State Needs a ‘New Voices’ Law , 32 Geo. Mason UCRLJ 63 (2021) (with T. Harmon-Walker and N. Thrani).