Heather Scavone

Heather Scavone is an Assistant Professor of Law at Elon University School of Law, where she teaches Constitutional Law and Professional Responsibility at Elon Law’s Charlotte campus. Her teaching and scholarly interests include constitutional law, administrative law, immigration law, legislation and regulation, and the intersection of government institutions, individual rights, and administrative power.

Scavone returns to Elon Law after seven years with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, where she served as Associate Counsel in the Office of the Chief Counsel. During her federal service, she served as a legal and policy advisor to the Director of USCIS and the General Counsel of the Department of Homeland Security on matters involving humanitarian protection, administrative law, national security, statutory interpretation, and federal immigration policy. Her work included advising headquarters and field components on the legal sufficiency of proposed agency actions; drafting federal regulatory text and preambles; providing comprehensive litigation support to the U.S. Department of Justice in class actions, individual and programmatic challenges under the Administrative Procedure Act, and FOIA litigation; representing the agency in federal district court settlement conferences; drafting certiorari recommendations to the U.S. Office of the Solicitor General; and briefing members of Congress, presidential appointees, and senior agency officials on areas of subject-matter expertise.

As government counsel, Scavone was a subject-matter expert on U.S. laws governing humanitarian protection and international treaty obligations. Her portfolio included asylum and refugee law, Temporary Protected Status, humanitarian parole, DACA, VAWA, T and U visas, Special Immigrant Juvenile classification, intercountry adoption, and protection under the Convention Against Torture.

Scavone previously served on the Elon Law faculty from 2010 to 2018, first as a Clinical Practitioner in Residence and later as Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Humanitarian Immigration Law Clinic. Working with founding faculty member Helen Grant, she helped establish the clinic and developed an integrated model of doctrinal instruction, experiential learning, and reflective supervision. Under her leadership, the clinic became a high-volume legal services and academic program serving more than 400 clients annually while providing students with intensive experience in legal research and writing, evidentiary development, case strategy, professional responsibility, and representation before federal immigration agencies and administrative tribunals. She also directed the clinic’s fiscal and strategic operations, supervised attorneys, accredited representatives, and administrative staff, and developed partnerships with government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and community institutions.

In 2015, Scavone received Elon University’s Periclean Award for Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility. She has also been recognized with Guilford College’s Young Alumni Achievement Award and was named North Carolina’s “Tar Heel of the Week” by the Raleigh News & Observer for her work on behalf of refugees and immigrants.

Scavone has presented extensively to academic, professional, governmental, and international audiences. In 2018, she served as a panelist at the United Nations Together Summit at U.N. Headquarters in New York on “Using Diplomacy to Rise to New Global Challenges.” Her international presentations have also included “Civil Detention in the United States: Constitutionally Sound or Uncivilized?” at Kenyatta University School of Law in Nairobi, Kenya, and “Innovations in Clinical Legal Education” at Strathmore Law School in Nairobi. In the United States, she has presented at national conferences of the Association of American Law Schools, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Federal Bar Association, the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, and other academic and professional organizations.