Interim Dean Natalie Gomez-VelezNatalie Gomez-Velez, Interim Dean and Professor of Law, brings a wealth of experience as a lawyer, teacher, scholar, and leader. Her professional background spans the public, non-profit, and private sectors, legal academia, public service, and legal commentary. Throughout her career, she has dedicated herself to constitutional law, civil rights and liberties, equity, public law and public education, and law for the common good.

She has held several high-level legal positions in New York State and New York City, including Assistant Deputy Attorney General for Public Advocacy with the New York State Attorney General’s Office, Special Counsel to the New York State Chief Administrative Judge, and General Counsel and Agency Chief Contracting Officer for the New York City Department of Youth Services.

Her legal practice includes work with the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, and in private law firm practice. Committed to public service, she previously served as the Bronx representative to the NYC Panel for Educational Policy and as Regent for the Twelfth Judicial District with the New York State Board of Regents. She has also served on numerous civic boards and committees, including the New York Statewide Judicial Screening Committee and the City Parks Foundation. She currently sits on the Latino Judges Association Foundation board, and the New York State Attorney Emeritus Program Advisory Council and serves on the Association of American Law Schools Education Section and several bar association committees.

Dean Gomez-Velez joined CUNY School of Law in 2004 and served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2007-2010. In 2010, she received the Academic Leadership Award from the Hispanic National Bar Foundation. She directed the Center for Latinx Rights and Equality from 2013 to 2021. In 2024, the New York State Education Department tapped her to produce a literature review and report on Mayoral Control of New York City Public Schools for the New York State Legislature.

Her scholarship focuses on public education, public law and governance, the constitutional condition of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Territories, and judicial diversity. She also provides legal commentary, including television appearances regarding Presidential impeachment, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the constitutional implications of various presidential actions.

A native New Yorker, Dean Gomez-Velez is a summa cum laude graduate of CUNY’s Hunter College and an inductee to its Hall of Fame. She earned her law degree from NYU School of Law, where she was an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Fellow.

Publications and Press

Including the U.S. Territories in the Constitutional Law Course: Imperatives and Challenges, Stetson Law Review (March 2025)

Project Director/Drafter for Literature Review and Synthesis, New York State Education Department Report, Mayoral Control of New York City Public Schools. (April 9, 2024).

De Jure Separate and Unequal Treatment of the People of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Territories Fordham L. Rev. (April 2023)

Opinion: Don’t judge LaSalle before giving him a state Senate confirmation hearing, City and State (Jan. 4, 2023)

Contributor, Resolution and report of the New York State Bar Association Task Force on the U.S. Territories – First Task Force Report (November 2022)

What U.S. v. Vaello-Madero and the Insular Cases Can Teach About Anti-Critical Race Theory Campaigns (NYSBA Journal Feb. 14, 2022)

Commentary, SCOTUS Skepticism and the Texas Abortion Law, Jurist (Nov. 2021)

Reimagining Public Education Equity after COVID-19: Will Public Voices from New York’s Epicenter Be Heard over the Siren Song of Billionaires?, 48 Fordham Urb. L.J. 313 (2021)

Why Matter of DeVera Matters: Universal Pre-K, Quality, Oversight, and the Need to Restore Public Values in Statutory Interpretation, 23 CUNY Law Review 238 (2020)

Judicial Selection: Diversity, Discretion, Inclusion and the “Idea of Justice,” 48 Capital University Law Review 285 (2020)

Socioeconomic Pedgagogy and Administrative Law: Including Issues of Race, Ethnicity, and Class in the Administrative Law Course, Yale Journal on Regulation, Notice & Comment Blog (2020)

Commentary with Professor Janet Calvo, The Supreme Court’s DACA Decision Keeps Dreamers Safe…For Now, Jurist (2020)

Book Chapter, Universal Pre-Kindergarten: Supporting High Quality and Broad Access at a Time of Federal Disengagement and “School Choice” OXFORD HANDBOOK OF EDUCATION LAW, K. Bowman, Ed. (2019)

Common Core State Standards and Philanthrocapitalism:  Can Public Law Norms Manage Private Wealth’s Influence on Public Education Policymaking?  2016 Mich. St. L. Rev. 161

Book Chapter, CUNY Law School’s Community Based and Community Empowering Clinics in BEYOND ELITE LAW: ACCESS TO CIVIL JUSTICE IN AMERICA, (Samuel Estreicher & Joy Radice Eds. Cambridge University Press 2015)

Can Universal Pre-K Overcome Extreme Race and Income Segregation to Reach New York’s Neediest Children?  The Importance of Legal Infrastructure and the Limits of the Law, 63 Clev. St. L. Rev. 319 (2015)

Contributor, OUR SCHOOLS, OUR VOICES: THE FUTURE OF MAYORAL CONTROL IN NEW YORK CITY, Report of the New York City Public Advocate (2015)

Urban Public Education Reform: Governance, Accountability, Outsourcing, 45 Urb. Lawyer 51 (2013)

Structured Discrete Task Representation to Bridge the Justice Gap: CUNY Law School’s Launchpad for Justice in Partnership with Courts and Communities, 16 CUNY Law Review 21 (2012)

Public School Governance and Democracy:  Does Public Participation Matter? 53 Villanova L. Rev. 297 (2008) (funded by grant from the Research Foundation CUNY)

Proactive Procurement:  Using New York City’s Procurement Rules to Foster Positive Human Services Policies, 9 New York City Law Review 331 (2006)

Internet Access to Court Records:  Balancing Public Access and Privacy, 51 Loyola Law Review 365 (2005)

Book Chapter, Culturing the Pearls of Wisdom:  Considering the Role of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in Educational Experience in NURTURING SUCCESS: SUCCESSFUL WOMEN OF COLOR AND THEIR DAUGHTERS, Praeger Publishers (2000)

SSRN Author Page – Natalie M. Gomez-Velez