Paula Marie Schwartzbauer

Paula Schwartzbauer has been practicing immigration law since she graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1996.  After law school, Ms. Schwartzbauer practiced immigration law with Julie M. Zimmer & Associates until 1999, when she was recruited by Centro Legal, Inc. – a non-profit law office serving low-income Latinos – to supervise its immigration unit.  In 2002, Paula was asked by Hamline University School of Law to create and teach an immigration law clinic as an adjunct professor.  Paula practiced immigration law at the Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis (Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid), another non-profit law office serving low-income people, from 2007 until 2013.  She also continued her work as adjunct professor at Hamline University School of Law by co-teaching its immigration law clinic.  In March 2013, Ms. Schwartzbauer opened up her own private law office, Paula Schwartzbauer Law, LLC. 

In 1995, Ms. Schwartzbauer interned with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and interviewed Iraqis to determine if they met the requirements for international refugee protection.  Paula has taught many continuing legal education courses on immigration law and has served as a mentor for volunteer attorneys taking asylum cases through The Advocates for Human Rights.  She has also volunteered with the Advocates for Human Rights to give presentations to the general public on refugees and immigrants.  Paula is fluent in Spanish and speaks some Farsi.  She holds U.S. and Iranian citizenship.  Ms. Schwartzbauer is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and previously served on AILA’s liaison committee with the local office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (now Citizenship and Immigration Services).

Paula also has an interest in international human rights law.  In 1994, Ms. Schwartzbauer interned with the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), a human rights non-governmental organization located in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and helped prepare and present a submission to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva.  Ms. Schwartzbauer also served as CAJ’s Researcher on Policing from 2003 until 2004.  Paula has also participated in two human rights missions with The Advocates for Human Rights.  The first was to observe the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Process and the second was to Ghana, where she interviewed Liberian refugees on behalf of the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  Paula was an annual guest lecturer in the international human rights law course taught at the University of Minnesota Law School from 1996 until 2002 and worked at the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center from 1993 until 1996.