Lopez, Maria P. (mpl2145)

Maria P. Lopez

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Office Location:

212A Zankel

María Mercedes Pabón is an expert in immigrants’ rights, immigration law, and diversity/multicultural matters in the legal profession. She also focuses her research on issues concerning immigrants, Latinos, families,  and the status of women lawyers. Her co-authored book Persistent Inequality studies undocumented students in the U.S. In her scholarship, she has studied many other topics that affect the lives of women and immigrants in the U.S. and abroad. 

María served as Dean of Loyola University New Orleans College of Law for four years and is currently a professor there. She was the first woman law dean in Louisiana and the first Puerto Rican to serve as dean of a law school in the mainland United States. She is an American Law Institute member and the President of the Association of Latinx Princeton Alumni, an international Princeton graduates’ organization with over 2000 members.

Maria attended Princeton University, earning her A.B. in Religion in 1985. While at Princeton, María was active in Acción Puertorriqueña y Amigos, the Aquinas Institute, and Theatre Intime. She also participated in the Teacher Preparation Program as well.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, Pabón currently serves as president of the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Louisiana and is an Access to Justice Fellow of the Louisiana State Bar, working on pro bono immigration cases for Catholic Charities. While in law school, Maria was a Legal Writing Instructor and on the University Pennsylvania Law Review. A former Assistant U.S. Attorney in San Juan, she handled federal criminal cases in P.R., including immigration crimes.

Since 2021, Maria has been part of the inaugural cohort of the University of New Orleans’ interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Justice Studies. She is currently pursuing Ph.D. in the Social Justice track.  She has also mentored students of color (from Princeton through PUMP and from Dillard University) as well emerging women leaders at Loyola and junior law professors.  She is married to her high school sweetheart and the proud mother of two daughters Marina, a Ph.D. student, and Lucia, a college senior.

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