Courses and administrative duties

Professor Scharf teaches Torts, Constitutional and Criminal Law, and directs the Immigration Law Clinic. She also serves as the Director of Clinical Programs and Experiential Learning. 

Professional background

Professor Scharf engaged in private practice for several years and then was counsel to administrative agencies at the local and state levels, including the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission. She has served as a Special Assistant Attorney General (Commonwealth of Massachusetts Tobacco Litigation) and is a trained mediator in domestic relations, as well as an arbitrator for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Professor Scharf has taught at the State University of New York, the University of Puget Sound School of Law (now Seattle University), Boston University Law School, Northeastern Law School, and the Institute on International and Comparative Law of the University of San Diego Law School. She is a member of the Massachusetts and New York bars.

Publications

Professor Scharf is co-author of a comprehensive 3-volume work, which is part of the Washington Practice Series. Her most recent publication is a law review article entitled The Exclusionary Rule in Immigration Proceedings: Where it Was, Where it Is, Where it May be Going, 12 San Diego Int’l L.J. 53 (2010).

Among her other publications are:

• Nourishing Justice and the Continuum: Implementing a Blended Model in an Immigration Law Clinic, 12 Clinical L. Rev. 346 (2005)
• Kosovo’s War Victims: Civil Compensation or Criminal Prosecution For Victims of Identity Elimination?, 14 Emory Int’l L. Rev. 1415 (2000)
• Tired of Your Masses: A History of and Judicial Responses to Early 20th Century Anti-Immigrant Legislation, 21 Hawaii L. Rev. 131 (1999)
• Commentary on United States v. Balbas, 3:17 Bender’s Immigration Bulletin 886 (Sept. 1998)
• Commentary on Anderson v. Conboy, 3:21 Bender’s Immigration Bulletin 1102 (Nov. 1998)
• Breathe Deeply: The Tort of Smokers’ Battery, 32 Hous. L. Rev. 615 (1995) (an abbreviated version of which appeared in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly in 1996)
• Preemption by Fiat: The Department of Labor’s Usurpation of Power over Noncitizen Workers’ Right to Unemployment Benefits, 56 Alb. L. Rev. 561 (1993)
• What Process is Due? Unaccompanied Minors’ Rights to Deportation Hearings, 1988 Duke L.J. 114 (1988) (co-author)

Professor Scharf was recently re-appointed to a second term on the Board of Publication of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the national organization for immigration attorneys, and is the editor-in-chief of The Waivers Book: Advanced Issues in Immigration Practice, published by the association.

She has also recently completed a short book on immigration law (A People's Guide to U.S. Immigration Law) and has written articles in the local press (lay and legal) on both cross-cultural learning and consumer financial protection. She has led workshops at various professional conferences, served as a conference moderator, and is currently an active member and blog author in a nationwide movement of law professors who are encouraging use of “Best Practices” in legal education.

To view Professor Scharf's most recent blog entry on Best Practices in Legal Education, Infusing Best Practices Into an Immigration Law Clinic, or Rubrics and Competencies Needn’t be Feared, visit http://bestpracticeslegaled.albanylawblogs.org.